Industrial Technology

Tending to excel with a robot "handshake"

A collaboration between Fanuc and Sick has pioneered new safety integration for robot machine tending that points the way towards simpler, more cost-effective and adaptable solutions in future.

25th January 2020

Bleak house, but great expectations

Suffering of late with a rather nasty cough, Mrs Simms was keen to check that she wasn’t keeping me awake through the night. “It did at first,” I said, munching through my breakfast. “But I soon got used to it, like the way you do with a particularly loud clock.” The usually affable Mrs Simms looked a bit miffed at this, as she checked: “So in this scenario, I’m an annoyingly clamorous clock?”

25th January 2020

Southern Manufacturing returns to Farnborough

Southern Manufacturing & Electronics returns to Farnborough from February 11th to 13th. The show will fully occupy the 20,000m² Farnborough International Exhibition Centre and, as in previous years, the 2020 event will host an impressively broad exhibitor list spanning the complete range of engineering activity, from high-tech machine tools and automation to components and subcontract services. Firms from all over the UK will be participating, together with a significant number of off-shore exhibitors from across Europe, Asia and the Far East.

23rd January 2020

Igus initiates first recycling programme for energy chains

What happens when a plastic energy chain reaches its maximum service life? Usually, it is disposed of and incinerated with other plastic waste. With its ‘Igus green chainge recycling program’, Igus is now doing something completely new: users can send their plastic chains to igus for recycling – irrespective of the manufacturer. They can eliminate disposal costs and also receive a voucher for making purchases from Igus.

22nd January 2020

Upgrade delivers faster changeovers

Following a customer request to trial an RF wireless electronic position indicator system, machine and production line manufacturer WestRock Linkx has now adopted the system as a standard option across its range.

20th January 2020

Baumer partners with MGA Controls

Sensing and instrumentation specialist Baumer is pleased to announce the appointment of MGA Controls as a process solutions partner. As a well-established control and instrumentation specialist, Lancashire based MGA Controls is delighted to underline this commitment following the agreement with Baumer. Jon Sumner, managing director of Baumer UK said: “This closer alignment between MGA Controls and Baumer provides us with greater access to MGA customers ensuring a more targeted approach to promoting individual products and delivering the most appropriate application solutions.”

17th January 2020

Reliance Precision announces brand evolution as part of 2020 centenary celebration

Reliance Precision is launching a new brand identity in a year of celebration that will mark the company’s centenary in November 2020. In the first major review of the brand identity since its creation, the new approach centres around an evolved Reliance ‘shield’ logo, combined with an updated wordmark.

13th January 2020

Schunk gripper plays a central role in AMRC wales opening ceremony

Before Christmas, the University of Sheffield officially opened its Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) Cymru, a £20m state-of-the-art research and development facility in North Wales. As a member of the AMRC, Schunk UK played an integral role in the opening ceremony, holding the ribbon with a Schunk gripper for Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford to cut the ceremonial ribbon.

10th January 2020

Orbital chooses SKF for tidal turbine

SKF has developed a power train for the world’s most powerful tidal turbine, capable of generating 2MW, being developed by Scotland-based Orbital Marine Power. SKF has been supplying bearings and components to Orbital since 2011 but has now taken a further holistic step in its technical capacity, by developing the full power train system.

1st December 2019

The debate on democracy â€“ to the moon and back

I’ve just finished reading a novel that promised much but delivered very little. The picture on the front and blurb on the back hinted at one story; the content delivered another entirely. It promised a murder on the moon, three people caught up in the turmoil – a classic who-dunnit. The actual plot exposition in a sentence? Journey to the moon, escape from the moon, back to the moon, escape from the moon, return to the moon, escape from the moon; under arrest, escape custody, rearrested, escape custody – and so on, ad nauseum.