EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

NI businesses to benefit from £1m funding

A £1m investment from Innovate UK will enable Northern Ireland’s Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC) to start supporting local businesses in the next few months.AMIC’s flagship building, which was granted planning permission in May, will be a 10,500 sq m ‘Factory of the Future’, set to open in 2026 at Global Point Newtownabbey.

The development is part of plans for a £100m investment in AMIC, a Belfast Region City Deal project delivered by Queen’s University in partnership with industry, Ulster University and Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council. The objective is to reinvigorate local industrial potentialand address the future technology and skills challenges faced by the region’s manufacturing sector.
For further information www.bit.ly/3JmSICZ

UK’s newest robotic hub opens in Yorkshire

Universal Robots, the world’s largest collaborative robot (cobot) company, has opened its first UK hub in Sheffield. Taking advantage of the region’s rich industrial heritage, the new hub will help UK manufacturers unlock the benefits of collaborative robotics and automation. Leveraging Yorkshire’s strong manufacturing links, the new robotics hub will house offices and a showroom where visitors can see demonstrations of the latest technology and applications for cobots. This latest hub follows record annual revenues for Universal Robots of $326m, up 5% on 2021.
For further information www.universal-robots.com

MATEF: A new show with a big future

MATEF, a new manufacturing technologies exhibition covering tube processing, plasma cutting, profile bending, metal processing, presses, machine equipment, sub-industry materials, sawing machines, compressors, lathes, technical hardware, hand tools, conveyors and software, takes place in Istanbul this week (20-23 June). Held in collaboration with the Turkish Machine Manufacturers Association (MİB), the venue for the show is Tüyap Fair and Congress Centre.

Staged for the first time this year, MATEF aims at bringing together domestic manufacturers and foreign visitors to provide new export opportunities to exhibitors. According to data from the Machinery Exporters Association (MAİB), the Turkish machinery sector grew by 9.6% last year and reached an exports level of $25.3bn, breaking the all-time record. Visitors to the show will get the opportunity to meet with machinery industry leaders and discover the latest innovations.
For further information www.mateffair.com

Appointment supports growth at GM Group

As the GM Group prepares for the official opening of its new facility in Oldham, the company has laid a further marker of its ambitious growth intentions with the appointment of a new regional sales manager. Joining the GM Group to drive sales of the Victor CNC range of machine tools, Mathew Bates is now regional sales manager for the northwest of England and Wales. Bates is a seasoned engineer with more than 30 years of industry experience.

GM Group director Nicola Howard says: “The Victor brand of machine tools is renowned for its build quality, performance, longevity and a diversity that caters for all applications, industry sectors and machine shops. We’re confident that Mathew will apply his industry expertise and build upon our already impressive market penetration in the area.”
For further information www.gm-cnc.com

Smart picking and vision AI on show

Machine tool builder Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen (SW) GmbH will be present several new solutions from its extensive manufacturing and automation portfolio in hall 5, booth 320 at Automatica in Munich (27-30 June 2023). Thanks to interactive exhibits, visitors can experience automation live: they will be able to test a newly developed optical recognition system, compete against an automated robot arm in a game of ‘buzz wire’ and have a personalised giveaway handed to them via smart picking.

These and other solutions from SW show how manufacturers can use flexible manufacturing modules, agile process chain connectivity and digital manufacturing control and production to meet challenges such as fluctuating quantities and shorter runtimes with reduced volumes.
For further information www.sw-machines.com