Angela Merkel pays a visit to Schunk

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Schunk pavilion at the recent Hannover Messe exhibition and learnt about the future of smart production. She looked on while the managing partner/CEO of the family-owned company, Henrik Schunk, presented smart gripping modules that enable direct human/robot collaboration (HRC).

In other news, the company has received the Hermes Award for its Schunk JL1 co-acting gripper, the world’s first intelligent gripping module for HRC that directly interacts and communicates with humans. “The JL1 is a decisive step on the way to highly flexible handling scenarios for Industry 4.0 and, therefore, for smart production,” says Schunk. It was the first time in the history of the Hermes Award that the trophy has been awarded for a gripping module.
For further information www.schunk.com

Growth drives Filtermist investment

Oil mist collector manufacturer Filtermist has invested in an ABB robot for its welding department as part of the company’s continuous improvement policy. The investment follows sustained global growth which saw Filtermist’s sales increase by 23% last year.
The robot has been installed to TIG weld internal drums and outer cases. Here, cylindrical steel blanks are positioned on a turntable inside a dedicated welding cell, and the robot applies the weld while the table rotates.
For further information www.filtermist.com

NCMT wins £7m machine tool order

Bromford Industries, a specialist manufacturer of aero engine and landing-gear components for the global aerospace supply chain, is in the process of installing nine Okuma MU-6300V mill-turn centres at its Birmingham factory. The Japanese-built, five-axis, vertical-spindle machines are suited to volume production of nickel-alloy aero-engine parts to tight tolerances. The machine-tool order, placed on Okuma’s UK agent NCMT, is valued at £7m. Seven of the machines have already been installed and are producing components, with the remaining two due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2017.
For further information www.ncmt.co.uk

XYZ showcases UMC-5X at open days

Over a series of four open days, XYZ Machine Tools introduced its new five-axis machining centre to more than 140 visitors from 75 companies, with two of the days being dedicated to customers who had approached XYZ directly for a pre-launch preview of the machine.

“The response to these events has been extremely encouraging, and the positive feedback that we received confirms we’ve taken the correct decision to target the higher end of the five-axis market, in terms of machine technology, with the UMC-5X,” says Nigel Atherton, managing director. “Over and above the interest in the five-axis machine, the response to the open days has been fantastic, especially the final day at Nuneaton. Without doubt they have been the best events we have ever held, with 31 machines sold valued at just over £1m, excluding UMC-5X sales.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

ABB + IBM

ABB and IBM have announced a strategic collaboration that brings together ABB’s digital offering, ABB Ability, with IBM Watson Internet of Things cognitive capabilities to unlock new value for customers in industry. Customers will benefit from ABB’s domain knowledge and portfolio of digital solutions combined with IBM’s know-how in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The first joint industry solution powered by ABB Ability and IBM Watson will bring real-time cognitive insights to the factory floor. “This combination moves beyond current connected systems that simply gather data, to industrial operations and machines that use data to sense, analyse, optimise and take actions that drive greater uptime, speed and yield for industrial customers,” says
ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer.
For further information www.abb.com