£1m+ investment at Royal Mint

A UK-based supplier of press technology is playing a crucial role in the production of the new £1 coin.

Bruderer UK has installed a state-of-the-art machine into the Royal Mint’s Llantrisant facility, providing additional speed, capacity and flexibility. Capable of up to 825 strokes per minute, the BSTA 1600-117B2 is responsible for creating the hard cut blanks that form one of the first processes in the manufacture of the pound coin.
The machine has been specified with an 1170 mm press bed length and is capable of feeding material up to 500 mm wide by 12 mm thick – suitable for tooling relative to different types of currency production now and in the future. Bruderer’s BSTA 1600-117B2 also comes equipped with the latest B2 control system, meaning everything can be controlled from the HMI, including the setting of feeds and speeds, together with monitoring the stamping operation.
Mervyn Evans, engineering manager at the Royal Mint, says: “We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Bruderer and I am delighted with the performance of the latest machine so far. It is delivering the speed and accuracy we need, and is a fundamental part of a production process that will eventually produce over 1.5 billion pound coins. The larger-than-normal tool bed also means that a range of materials for different denomination blanks can be processed. This is an ideal solution for our growing international client base.”
For further information www.bruderer.co.uk

Celebrating six decades

Starrett, is celebrating six decades of manufacturing in the UK.

The company, which was founded in the US, opened its UK factory in Jedburgh in 1958, a site that has since grown to become one of the enterprise’s principal manufacturing locations. Today, there are over 150 people employed at the 200,000 sq ft facility in Scotland, which produces in excess of 2 million hole saws per year, as well as
a range of other saws and products, such as optical profile projectors and bandsaw blades. The site forms the epicentre of Starrett’s UK and European operations, and currently supplies products to over
50 countries.
For further information www.starrett.co.uk

Being Brunel

On 23 March, Being Brunel, a new museum that brings together the world’s most significant Brunel collection at Brunel’s SS Great Britain in Bristol, UK, opened to the public.

General view of the interior of Being Brunel, the new museum dedicated to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opening at the ss Great Britain, Bristol, on Friday 23rd March.

To assist with its development, metrology specialist Renishaw has supported the museum since 2015 and was the founder member of the Being Brunel Corporate Club, created to enable local companies to support the development of the new museum. As well as sponsoring Being Brunel, Renishaw has made a video contribution to one of its galleries. The new museum celebrates the life and legacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
For further information www.renishaw.com

3D printing apprenticeships from MTC

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) is to launch the first apprenticeships in the UK dedicated to providing the skills needed for additive manufacturing.

MTC additive manufacturing apprenticeship programmes, which are set to launch in September, will provide a pipeline of technicians skilled in one of the fastest-growing advanced manufacturing technologies in industry. The MTC’s learning design manager Martin Dury says: “The manufacturing industry is crying out for this and we will be able to make it available in a format that allows people to learn while earning, funded by the apprenticeship levy.”
For further information www.the-mtc.org

10th edition of Advanced Engineering

The Advanced Engineering 2018 exhibition is celebrating its 10th birthday by being bigger and better than ever, according to show organisers Easyfairs.

New for this year is the Nuclear Engineering zone. Other zones include Aerospace Engineering, Composites Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Performance Metals and Connected Manufacturing.
This year’s exhibition will build on the success of the 2017 show, where attendance increased by 15% on the year before. Visitors stayed on average just under three hours at the event. The 2018 exhibition takes place on 31 October and 1 November at the NEC, Birmingham.
For further information www.advancedengineeringuk.com