EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Strong 2022 results for Kuka

Robot manufacturer Kuka won more orders than ever before initslatest financial year: at €4.46billion, the company achieved the highest order intake in its history, an increase of 25.1% compared with the previous year. Demand for Kuka products and solutions was particularly high in China. However, customers in the US also invested heavily in Kuka systems, especially for the production of e-vehicles. Sales were 18.6% higher than in the previous year (2021), while in the first three months of the current financial year, Kuka again exceeded the results of the same period last year across all divisions.
For further information www.kuka.com

Doors set to open at LAMIERA 2023

LAMIERA 2023 will open its doors this week (10-13 May) in Milan, Italy. As the only exhibition in Italy that focuses on the sheet metal-forming industry, LAMIERA meets high demand for machinery of this type across the country. In the 10 years from 2011 to 2021, the consumption of metal-forming machinery in Italy climbed from €704m to €1.7bn, reports the LAMIERA organiser. Italy now consumes 35% more metal-forming machine tools than Germany.

Entrance to the exhibition is free for those registering online, with opening hours extending from 09:30 to 18:00 on each day of the show, which takes place at the Fieramilano venue. LAMIERA will combine its exhibition with cultural and thematic insights developed through a programme of conferences on specific topics and side events that will host discussions with opinion leaders and experts.
For further information www.lamiera.net

Impossible Objects breaks 3D printing speed barrier

Impossible Objectsis taking its CBAM composite 3D-printing process to the next level with the announcement of the CBAM 25 machine, which was unveiled at the RAPID +TCT tradeshow in Chicago last week. According to the company, CBAM 25 prints15 times quicker than the fastest competition, bringing 3D printing into mass production. Commercially available in early 2024, CBAM 25 uses advanced materials offeringgoodproperties. Notably, the ‘Carbon Fiber PEEK’ material set achieves very high chemical and temperature resistance, and mechanical properties superior to most engineering plastics.
For further information www.impossible-objects.com

Nucor commissions huge steel rolls

Nucor, the largest steel producer and recycler in North America, has placed orders for ultra-large steel rolls with Sheffield Forgemasters for its brand-new plate rolling mill.Sheffield Forgemasters will deliver three rolls weighing 147 tonnes each to Nucor’s Brandenburg Mill near Louisville, Kentucky, which can produce 1.2 million tons annually.

Dan Millington, technical sales manager (steel processing) at Sheffield Forgemasters, says: “Manufacturing rolls of this size is a highly technical process, requiring multiple forging operations through our 10,000 tonne press, controlled heat treatment to meet the customer requirement, as well as rough and finish machining. We are the only UK company with the capability to produce rolls of this size.”
For further information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

£2.2m seed round for machine tool AI

Productive Machines, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up from the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), has raised £2.2m in seed funding to make its advanced machine tool process optimisation technology available to a far wider range of manufacturers worldwide.UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) led the round with participation from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, ACT Venture Partners and Fuel Ventures, alongside grant funding from Innovate UK.

Productive Machines has developed a powerful computational model to predict and mitigate the influence of harmful vibrations at every stage in metal and composite milling. It uses a digital twin to determine the best parameters for each machine tool and production run.Machines configured by Productive Machines can produce parts in half the time it took originally and deliver improvements in surface quality and tool life. The technology is already in place at 10 major manufacturers, including Renault and MASA Aerospace.
For further information www.productivemachines.co.uk