£7.5m facility

Queen’s University Belfast has opened a £7.5m advanced manufacturing technology facility, supporting its mission to enable more competitive supply chains with increased productivity.

The collaborative investment is one of the biggest in manufacturing by Queen’s, the UK Government and Northern Ireland industry partners. At the new facility there will be an open door to industry partners, currently including RLC Global Point, Moyola Precision Engineering, JW Kane Precision Engineering, Travan Precision Engineering and Retec Engineering Solutions.
For further information www.qub.ac.uk

AM specialist

Matsuura Machinery has appointed Joseph Bellis to the role of additive manufacturing sales and technical specialist.

Bellis joined Matsuura two years ago as an application engineer based primarily at the MTC in Coventry, for Matsuura’s LUMEX hybrid metal additive machine, and more recently, for the HP Multi-Jet Fusion machine. Prior to joining Matsuura, Bellis worked in the manufacturing industry as a CNC programmer/machinist and mechanical design engineer for the aerospace, defence, marine, oil, gas, automotive and medical sectors.
For further information www.matsuura.co.uk

CCM upgrade complete at steel plant

Aarti Steels Ltd and SMS Concast, a company of SMS group, have successfully commissioned the revamped continuous casting machine (CCM) for billets in Cuttack-India.

Siam Yamato Steel Co., Ltd.

With a casting radius of 9 m, the two-strand CCM is rated for a capacity of 200,000 tons per year. Before the modernisation, the CCM cast 125, 160 and 200 mm square section sizes. Together with the revamp of the technological part of the CCM, namely the hydraulic oscillation equipment, the secondary cooling system and the withdrawal and straightening unit, the bloom section sizes 240 x 280 mm and 250 x 320 mm have been introduced.
For further information www.sms-group.com

Nearly time for TDI Challenge

The MTA’s competition for schools, the Technology, Design and Innovation (TDI) Challenge, returns to Yamakazi Mazak’s European headquarters in Worcester, on 4 July for finals day.

TDI 2017, Mazak

TDI Challenge is aimed at GCSE and A-Level students; they submit their coursework projects and a panel of industry judges made up of MTA members decides the winners. Two age categories exist within the competition 14-16 and 17-19, with six finalists in each age group. There is also a group category within the 17-19 age group and three teams will be competing for that prize.
For further information www.mta.org.uk/tdi

Speakers named for manufacturing event

Notable industry leaders have been announced as part of an interesting line up for this year’s National Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expo.

The event, which takes place at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry on 26 June, promises a host of informative sessions, networking opportunities and debate from manufacturing leaders and academics. Among the topics set to be discussed include project management, supply chain optimisation, procurement, IT logistics, materials handling and robotics.
Some of the key speakers taking part this year include: Lesley Rudd, chief executive of the Sustainable Energy Association; Christopher Snelling, head of UK policy at the Freight Transport Association; Alan Harrison, group lean manager at IMI Plc, Tim Eaton, head of logistics and supply chain at Flogas; Rob Morton, supply chain operations director at The Quadrant; Ashley Naughton, head of supply chain consulting at ITG – Tata Consultancy Services; and Emma Hancock of Network Rail UK.
For further information
www.manufacturingevent.co.uk/register/