EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Half a century of intelligent tube technology

Unison Ltd, the UK-based inventor of all-electric tube manipulation, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a birthday bash at the company’s Scarborough headquarters. Around 100 customers, colleagues, friends and members of the Made in Yorkshire trade group attended the event, which began with a hearty brunch and welcome by Unison’s joint managing director, Alan Pickering. Technology talks and machine tool presentations followed, which included demonstrations of Unison’s all-electric Breeze range of tube bending machines, and fibre laser cutters from Unison’s sister company, Nukon Lasers UK.
For further information www.unisonltd.com

Guhring celebrates 50th anniversary

Guhring UK celebrated its 50th anniversary in style with a celebratory event at its Birmingham headquarters. Hosted at the company’s manufacturing site in Estone Drive, Guhring welcomed technical partners, customers, suppliers and esteemed guests such as chairman of the board, Oliver Guhring.

The company launched 50 years ago in a rented facility a few miles from its existing site as an operation selling drills to local manufacturers with a trade counter for ‘walk-in’ orders. Wind forward to today and the company operates from a 60,000 sq ft manufacturing facility that produces solid carbide and HSS round tooling, as well as PCD tools. Also available is a complete service for bespoke tooling production, tool regrinding and service, coating, tool design and more.
For further information www.guhring.co.uk

Automation can be the key to success

The adoption of robotics and automation in UK manufacturing has the potential to improve productivity, efficiency and quality across multiple sectors, delegates discovered at a Manufacturing Technology Centre conference: ‘Robotics and Automation – A New Perspective’. According to speakers at the conference, the adoption of robotics and automation offers the potential to overcome problems such as labour shortages, skills shortages and low productivity.

More than 300 delegates from a wide range of industries shared insights into the transformational benefits of cutting-edge robotic technologies and heard how automation can improve productivity and drive global competitiveness for UK businesses. Topics covered at the conference included overcoming barriers to adoption and meeting the challenges presented by automation.
For further information www.the-mtc.org

Gestamp and In-Comm launch training centre

A major UK automotive supplier is joining forces with In-Comm Training to boost its learning and development offer and support employee retention. Gestamp, which manufactures components for use in car body structures, is investing in a dedicated training centre at its plant in Four Ashes, Wolverhampton. Six classrooms will deliver Lean Manufacturing Apprenticeships for a minimum of 60 existing team members every year, as well as a host of other development activities designed to increase the skills base of its 650-strong workforce. The Gestamp Training Centre will house two In-Comm Training experts.
For further information www.gestamp.com

Manufacturing rebounds

Britain’s manufacturers are seeing a rebound in activity in the first quarter of the year as the domestic and global markets improved.The latest Make UK/BDO Q1 Manufacturing Outlook survey shows a marked pick-up on the picture in the final quarter of 2022. The figures echo the gradual improvements in other data such as the UK and European PMIs which are now only just in negative territory, as well as a strong pick-up in demand from China. Most notably, the improvement was driven by strong demand in the mechanical equipment and electronics sectors.
For further information www.bit.ly/433Tkp6