EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

26,000 attend MACH 2026

MACH 2026 organiser, the Manufacturing Technologies Association MTA, has revealed the UK’s national event for inspiring, innovating and connecting manufacturing attracted around 26,000 visitors across five days in Birmingham last month. Day three (Wednesday) was officially recognised as the event’s busiest day. MACH, which will next take place on 3-7 April 2028, welcomed His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh on the Thursday.

James Selka, CEO of the MTA, said: “Our core focus was to ensure this year’s show guided and supported manufacturers in navigating challenges such as rising operational costs, skills shortages, supply chain disruption and geopolitical uncertainty. I believe we achieved that, and more, with 26,000 attendees seeking ways to remain competitive in the current challenging and uncertain environment in which we operate.”

More information www.machexhibition.com

£1m+ order for Sodick

Exhibiting at every MACH since 1992, the exhibition pedigree and presence of Sodick Europe, alongside sole UK distributor Sodi-Tech EDM, is difficult to match. In 34 years of exhibiting, the recent 2026 edition in Birmingham proved the most successful ever with brake double-digit sales. One leading aerospace and power generation manufacturer placed a £1m+ order at the show. Visitors to the stand were drawn to the Sodick ALC600P ‘i Groove + Edition’, which Sodick says marks a leap in wire EDM technology. The machine offers patented wire rotation technology that reduces wire consumption by up to 30%.

More information www.sodick.eu

Steelwork rises for enormous forging line

Sheffield Forgemasters has begun steelwork assembly on the UK’s largest open die forging line.The company is building a new 13,000-tonne forging line at Brightside Lane, with steelwork for the building projecting to 45 m high, more than 10 m taller than surrounding structures.With steelwork for its new 30,000 m²machine shop on nearby Weedon Street at an advanced stage, the construction is transforming the traditional manufacturing heartland of the city, dwarfing the adjacent Meadowhall shopping centre and Ikea superstore. The company expects to see framework for both buildings completed by the end of 2026.

More information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

11,000 visit GrindingHub

Around 11,000 visitors, 462 exhibitors and four days of a trade fair filled with technology, networking and business opportunities: GrindingHub 2026 successfully concluded earlier this month in Stuttgart.Visitors travelled from 59 countries, with Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria and Turkey particularly well represented. With 38% of visitors coming from abroad, GrindingHub once again underlined its position as a key international meeting place for the grinding technology community. While the biennial GrindingHub is set to return in 2028, the inaugural GrindingHub Americas will take place in Cincinnati, Ohio on 18-20 May 2027.

More information www.grindinghub.de/en

Express Engineering wins King’s Award

Express Engineering Group, a global specialist in the manufacture, assembly and testing of precision-engineered solutions, has been awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise.The group, which comprises Express Engineering in Gateshead and QA Weld Tech in Middlesbrough, has been recognised in the International Trade category for its “outstanding short-term growth”.

The honour follows a period of record-breaking performance in which the 330-employee business grew its overseas sales by more than 91% between 2022 and 2024, generating £78m in export sales over that period. This achievement solidifies the group’s status as one of the northeast’s largest and most successful exporters, delivering safety-critical components to major offshore energy and infrastructure projects across the globe.

More information www.express-engineering.co.uk