Ten countries, including the UK, have pledged to double the efficiency of their electric motor systems and those of three other technologies – air-conditioners, refrigerators and lighting – by 2030. The countries are members of an initiative called Sead (Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment) that promotes the production, purchasing and use of energy-efficient equipment worldwide. Of Sead’s 21 participating governments, fewer than half have so far committed themselves to doubling equipment efficiencies by 2030 – a target which Sead admits is “ambitious”.

Volkswagen has commissioned a standalone 5G wireless network at its main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, to test whether 5G meets the demands of vehicle production, before adopting the technology more widely in the future. One scenario being tested during the pilot phase will be to upload data wirelessly to manufactured vehicles. With increasing levels of digitisation in vehicles, large amounts of data need to be transmitted to cars during production. 5G will make it possible to perform this much faster, and at any time during production.

Fluke Process Instruments has announced its first acoustic imager – a device that can detect, locate and visualise air and gas leaks, or spot changes in sound signatures in processes and equipment in real-time, before they become costly problems. Using an array of sensors, the SV600 imager translates sounds into a visual representation, allowing users to locate and quantify problem areas quickly.

Siemens is spinning off its large drives applications (LDA) business as a separate legal entity, before possibly selling the operation or forming a partnership with another company. According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, the creation of LDA as a separate entity could be the first step towards divestiture. The operation is one of several businesses that Siemens has said it wants to improve or sell off.

Turck Banner is offering a starter kit that will help factory managers to improve OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) levels at a price and simplicity that, it says, will allow anyone to reap the benefits. The Production Performance Monitoring (PPM) kit consists of a battery-powered wireless sensor, a controller and a three-month cloud connection. It is aimed at first-time users and includes everything needed to monitor a machine and receive warnings if its throughput falls.

A German start-up has developed a 3D collision-avoidance sensor that mimics a bat’s echolocation techniques. Munich-based Toposens, founded in 2015, says that existing sensor technologies based on radar, ultrasound or cameras, can be negatively impacted by lighting conditions or moisture. By comparison, its Echo One DK generates robust, real-time 3D echo location data to guide autonomous systems in a variety of applications. The IP67-protected sensor is said to be particularly robust, tolerating dirt and not being affected by dust, smoke or mist.

Schneider Electric has announced a multi-carrier system for transporting, grouping and positioning products in industrial operations. It claims that the Lexium MC12 system will boost the performance and flexibility of automated machinery by up to 50%, cut installation and commissioning times by up to half, and reduce design times and time-to-market by up to 30%.

The Advanced Engineering UK show will return to the NEC, Birmingham on 3 and 4 November, 2021 for the first time in almost two years.

Schneider Electric has invested £300,000 in its plant in Flint, North Wales, upgrading it to become its first smart factory in the UK. The project has transformed the site from being one of the company’s least efficient UK premises, to becoming its most productive in Europe. The investment paid for itself in less than a year.

A Swedish manufacturer has developed what it claims will be the world’s most powerful rack-and-pinion drive, capable of handling loads of more than 30 tonnes. Stockholm-based Cascade Drives believes that its “pioneering” electromechanical actuator technology has many advantages over hydraulic-based systems, including better pressure stabilisation in pumping applications, reduced need for maintenance, a lower risk of contamination by hydraulic fluid leaks, and energy savings of up to 60%.

Cognex claims to have eliminated the speckle effect from laser lines, thus improving triangulation-based 3D imaging. It has incorporated its patented speckle-free technology into an embedded vision system which, it says, can achieve inspection speeds twice as fast as rival products.

Nokia has launched what it describes as industry’s first off-the-shelf, mission-critical industrial edge, designed to accelerate the journey to Industry 4.0 for asset-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, energy and transportation, helping them to digitalise their operations with high performance, reliability and security. The scalable Nokia MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) addresses a new category of I4.0 applications that require increased capabilities and performance at the network edge, and tight integration with industrial and networking systems.

UPDATED:  A UK company has developed a coil-winding machine that allows rectangular wire to be formed on its edge, and used instead of multi-turn round-wire windings. Electrified Automation, based in Bridgwater, Somerset, believes that this development will transform the way that electric motors are manufactured at scale.

A £500,000 digital testbed, aimed at creating a step change in smart manufacturing, is being built at Queen’s University Belfast to help develop new technologies and opportunities for local businesses. The project – a collaboration between Queen’s, BT and Cisco – is part of a co-investment to create a 5G-enabled digital factory.

The Italian automation developer Sfera Labs has announced the first industrial product based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller chip, which was released earlier this year. The Iono RP is a compact programmable I/O module said to combine the ease of use of the Raspberry Pi, with a choice of digital and analogue input and output interfaces. The result is a rugged, safe, reliable and easy-to-connect module in a compact DIN-rail case that can be installed in cabinets or integrated into automation systems.

Igus has developed a maintenance-free plastic material for food industry plain bearing applications, that is designed to withstand friction and high temperatures, and to dissipate electrostatic charges, thus reducing the risk of explosions and shocks to operators. In laboratory tests, bearings made from the new iglidur AX500 tribopolymer material, rotating on stainless-steel shafts, exhibited up to three times less wear and tear than bearings based on the earlier A500 material.

Novanta, the US-based industrial conglomerate whose businesses include Celera Motion and ATI Industrial Automation, has bought US-based Schneider Electric Motion for $115m in cash and renamed it Novanta IMS. It specialises in brushless motors, integrated motor drives and electronic controls.

Around 1.2 million green jobs could be created in the UK’s manufacturing and construction sectors by 2050 – but only if the Government provides the right help, such as introducing a green skills tax credit to encourage manufacturers to upskill more of their staff – according to a new report from the manufacturers’ body, Make UK, and the business management specialist, Sage.

Universal Robots (UR) has launched a leasing scheme that will allow SME manufacturers in the UK and Ireland to lease a cobot (collaborative robot) from £450 per month, with nothing to pay until 2022. The aim is to cut the costs of introducing automation for SME manufacturers by avoiding the need for an upfront capital investment.