EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Robotics contest entries up over 50%

Industrial automation expert FANUC UK has reported a 53% year-on-year increase in the number of young people applying for the WorldSkills UK Industrial Robotics competition. A record 80 young people have registered to take part in the 2024 initiative, which aims to give students and apprentices the chance to learn key robotics programming and operating skills with help from FANUC experts. This is a significant increase on 2023, which attracted 52 applicants. The first stage of the competition will see contestants work in pairs to take on a simulated entry-stage task using FANUC’s ROBOGUIDE system.

For further information www.fanuc.eu

Hexagon and Microsoft partner in cloud project

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division is entering a strategic partnership with Microsoft that aims to redefine how engineers collaborate. The collaboration will also enable the discrete manufacturing industry to innovate faster, with more confidence, using new solutions that combine data from virtual engineering processes with real-world measurement of manufactured products.

Modern cloud infrastructure will connect manufacturing and engineering systems in Hexagon’s Nexus digital reality platform for manufacturers, and help employees increase their productivity through cloud-accelerated simulation and AI. Hexagon and Microsoft have partnered closely on the development and scaling of the open-source Fluid Framework and Azure Fluid Relay service, allowing data created in one system to be immediately available to any other person or machine operating in another.

For further information www.hexagon.com

700+ robots for VW Spain

Robot manufacturer Kuka and Volkswagen have signed a framework agreement for the delivery of more than 700 robots in 2024 and over the coming two years.The robots, which includeKuka’s best-selling KR Quantec, will be installed at VW Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, where they will see service in body-in-white production. Kuka and VW have maintained a successful partnership in Pamplona for almost 30 years. “Kuka has been a strong and global partner to the automotive industry for decades,” statesPeter Mohnen, CEO of Kuka AG. “We are pleased to continue our trusting co-operation with Volkswagen.”

For further information www.kuka.com

Ready to boostinvestment?

Britain’s manufacturers could boost their investment by up to £10bn if they were to take advantage of the range of public and private financial options available to them, helping to raise the investment potential of the sector overall by up to a fifth and address the UK’s long-term productivity weakness. This is according to Make UK’s latest report – Finance: Opening Doors to Investment in Manufacturing – published in partnership with NatWest and Lombard. It also finds that 26% would increase their own investment by up to a fifth if access to finance was improved, while12% would increase their investment by up to half. 

For further information www.makeuk.org

Linear-guide cutting facility opens

European users of NSK’s linear guides can now take advantage of the company’s new cutting facility in the Netherlands. Based at NSK’s European Distribution Centre in Tilburg, the €1.6m plant will enhance service levels for customers in key European markets.Upon reaching full capacity, the ISO9001-accredited facility will achieve a production output of more than 1000 pieces per week.Although NSK Europe already has a linear guide cutting facility at its site in Newark, UK, the addition of Tilburg will help to optimise the company’s service level for these products across mainland Europe.

For further information www.nskeurope.com