£22.6m for AMPI initiative

A consortium led by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has secured £22.6m of funding for a five-year innovation initiative, the first for the Advanced Machinery & Productivity Institute (AMPI), which will be based in Rochdale. The provision of this funding has come through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund (SIPF).

AMPI will stimulate and support the rapid growth of the UK’s machinery manufacturing sector as it transitions to highly integrated digital solutions with sophisticated automated and autonomous robotic systems. The institute will enable invention, realise innovation, and increase the adoption of new machinery and robotics through UK equipment manufacturers. AMPI expects to grow the UK’s advanced machinery capability to a £2bn export capacity within 10 years, establishing over 30,000 high value manufacturing sector jobs in the process.

For further information
www.ampi.org.uk

ABB to buy ASTI Mobile Robotics

ABB will acquire ASTI Mobile Robotics Group (ASTI), a global autonomous mobile robot (AMR) manufacturer with a broad portfolio across all major applications enabled by the company’s software suite. The move will expand ABB’s robotics and automation offer, ensuring it can offer a complete portfolio for the next generation of flexible automated solutions.

Founded in 1982, ASTI has its headquarters in Burgos, Spain and employs over 300 people in Spain, France and Germany. The company is majority owned by Veronica Pascual Boé, who is also CEO. Today, ASTI supports one of Europe’s largest installed fleets of AMRs and has a broad customer base in sectors such as automotive and pharmaceutical, across 20 countries. Since 2015 the company has enjoyed close to 30% growth annually and is targeting approximately $50m in revenue this year.

For further information www.astimobilerobotics.com

Registration opens for Subcon 2021

Registration for Subcon 2021, which is co-located with The Engineer Expo and – new for 2021 – Manufacturing Management Show, is now open to visitors. Taking place in-person at Birmingham’s NEC on 14-16 September 2021, Subcon’s headline sponsors are IAMP and SCS Concept Group. Around 200 exhibitors are expected, including Hoffman Group UK, Wilson Process Systems and Oldham Engineering. Manufacturing Management is also curating a three-day conference with panel discussions and keynote addresses from Make UK CEO Stephen Phipson, Made in Britain CEO John Pearce and many more.

Gordon Kirk, Subcon event director, says: “We’re delighted to bring Subcon back and provide a long overdue opportunity for UK manufacturing to meet in person. The show is a timely and unique platform for UK manufacturers looking to source or develop a robust and localised network of UK supply chain partners.”

Register for Subcon at https://bit.ly/3subconreg

Height gauge improves efficiency

With tolerances on components getting tighter and customer requirements getting stricter, Chelburn Precision was keen to improve its measurement abilities. Based in Rochdale, the company found the solution in a Trimos V7 height gauge supplied by Bowers Group.

Chelburn Precision is a subcontract engineering company making large precision components, mostly for the canning, rubber and plastic, paper converting, and mining industries. Already working with a smaller height gauge, the team found it was holding the company back when measuring larger sized components.
In particular, the team was not able to reach the full height of components with the existing height gauge, resulting in the need to either turn jobs over to measure from a different plane, or make time and room on one of its machine tools to carry out checks. This task not only required extra time, but stopped the production of both the machine tools and their operators while the quality inspectors requested and verified checks to ensure part conformance in line with specifications.

The Trimos V7 is one of the tallest height gauges on the market and highly suitable for workshop environments, says Bowers. Notably, the height gauge features a pair of lateral insert holders, offering robustness and flexibility that allow the use of diverse probes up to 400 mm long.

Michael Horsfall, production director at Chelburn Precision, says: “We have used Bowers Group before for many different measuring devices that we own, so we were in good hands. They even loaned us a smaller unit for us to trial as they were confident that we would be impressed by the quality, accuracy and ease of use of the Trimos height gauge.”

For further information
www.bowersgroup.co.uk

Mazak backs elephant parade

Yamazaki Mazak is supporting a charity arts festival this summer in Worcester, the home of its European manufacturing plant. The machine tool manufacturer is sponsoring one of 66 elephant sculptures that first appeared in the city’s streets and public spaces on 12 July as part of Worcester’s Big Parade. After eight weeks on display, the elephants will be sold to raise money for St Richard’s Hospice, a Worcester-based organisation that cares for adults with serious progressive illnesses. The Big Parade follows in the footsteps of the Worcester Stands Tall giraffe trail in 2018, which raised £210,000 for St Richard’s Hospice.

For further information
www.worcestersbigparade.co.uk