The British electric motor developer and manufacturer, Saietta, has entered administration after failing to find a buyer for a production line in Sunderland after a deal to manufacture electrical steering pumps there under contract fell through.
Collaborative UK projects to develop advanced motors, inverters and silicon carbide power modules are to receive Government funding as part of a £360m package of support for the UK manufacturing sector announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, in the run-up to his Spring Budget. The package includes £200m of joint industry and government in zero-carbon aircraft technologies, £92m for medicines and diagnostics products, and £73m for electric vehicle technologies, including motors and inverters.
The Chinese motor manufacturer Moons Industries has set up a UK subsidiary based in Reading, Berkshire.
Almost half of all machine-builders in the UK and Ireland have no strategy in place to embark on a digital transformation of their businesses, according to a survey conducted by Siemens. Moreover, just 17% of them are planning to implement smart and connected technologies in the coming two years, despite many of them having assets that are already IoT-ready and sensor-enabled.
A new organisation has been launched to champion the uptake of automation in UK manufacturing. Called the UK Automation Forum, it brings together industry experts, end-users, policy-makers and technology suppliers to discuss the adoption of automation technologies in the UK.
UK Research and Innovation has awarded grants totalling £3.7m to 11 late-stage robotics and automation collaborative projects aimed at improving productivity, sustainability and resilience. The 9-15-month projects, covering areas such as process control, machine vision and gripper technologies, have each secured £107,000–£535,000. The winning projects involve a total of 30 organisations.
A UK start-up has emerged from a period of stealth to announce that it has developed a patented switched reluctance motor (SRM) technology which reduces torque ripple by 50%, making it significantly smoother and quieter than other SRMs. Monumo, based in Cambridge and Coventry, recently raised a £10.5m in seed funding and says it has signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) with numerous tier one engineering companies and OEMs.
The British electric motor developer and manufacturer, Saietta, has abandoned plans to manufacture electrical steering pumps at a former ZF Automotive plant in Sunderland. It says it has been unable to reach commercial agreement on a contract to manufacture the pumps for a customer and that it has received a £600,000 offer for the production line. Following the news, Saietta’s share price fell by more than half.
An online tool that helps people assess their prospects for a career in drives, controls, power electronics and machines, has been launched by the Electric Revolution Skills (ERS) Hub – the UK Government-backed platform that provides a national skills resource to help attract people into the “electrification” sector.
Easyfairs, which describes itself as the world’s largest privately owned exhibition organiser, is buying European Trade & Exhibition Services (Etes), which organises the UK’s annual Southern Manufacturing & Electronics exhibition. The 2024 event, which takes place at the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre from 6–8 February, will be run by Etes, but Easyfairs will take over after that. The details of the transaction have not been revelaed.
British manufacturers are viewing the UK as a more competitive place to locate their activities than they did 12 months ago, with an growing number believing they are moving ahead of their European rivals. However, they remain wary of the threats posed by the US, India and China.
The Scottish engineering services provider Edwin James Group has bought Burton-on-Trent-based Automated Control Solutions Holdings and its subsidiaries Automated Control Solutions and ACS Electrical Engineering (together trading as ACS), for an undisclosed sum.
The Association of Electrical and Mechanical Trades (AEMT) is working with the British Standards Institute (BSI) and Innovate UK’s Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge, to develop an AI-powered tool to help electromechanical repairers ensure that they repair hazardous area motors to the correct standard.
The UK motors and gearboxes manufacturer, Parvalux, has officially opened a new £30m headquarters building in Poole, Dorset, which brings together operations which were previously spread across three sites. The company, which was acquired by the Swiss motor-maker maxon in 2018, is hoping to double in size by 2030.
A project which solved frequent tripping problems at a water company pumping station has been chosen as project of the year in the annual AEMT (Association of Electrical and Mechanical Trades) awards, which were presented recently at ceremony in Coventry.
