EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Heller Welcomes Strategic Partner

H.I.G. Capital is taking a significant stake in the Heller Group, a Germany-headquartered machine tool and manufacturing system manufacturer. The partnership will ensure the success of its transformation and open up many new opportunities for Heller in the areas of investment, efficiency improvement, product innovation and international market development.

Heller CEO Dr Thorsten Schmidt says: “The partnership with H.I.G. is a milestone for our company. H.I.G.’s additional financial resources and global network will enable us to achieve our strategic goals faster. Our aim remains clear: securing and expanding our innovation leadership in the market to reach new industries and customers.”

More information www.heller.biz

UK clean energy boost

The formation of the Clean Energy Systems Partner Alliance (CESPA) is set to boost onshoring manufacturing with six experts in their respective fields coming together to deliver a single-source solution for innovators and developers of green technology. PP Control & Automation has been joined by Danfoss, Emerson, Glacier Energy, Phoenix Contact and Voltserve. “The UK renewable energy market is expected to double in value to £46bn by 2034,” explains Richard Spears, marketing manager at PP C&A. “With CESPA, we want to ensure as much of this work is captured and delivered by UK companies.”

More information www.cespa.org.uk

£26m plant

British Steel has opened a new £26m manufacturing plant to serve the forklift truck mast industry. The investment at British Steel’s Special Profiles business in Skinningrove, Teesside, will significantly increase throughput over the next two years. The facility includes four new CNC lathes for turning mill rolls, three automated bandsaws for cutting stock to length and a laser measurement system for process control. British Steel also says the plant incorporates one of the finest large-capacity (14 m) bed mills in the world, enabling it to meet precise customer requirements for very tight tolerances.

More information www.britishsteel.co.uk

Horn secures Industry 4.0 award

Cutting tool manufacturer Paul Horn GmbH has received a second Allianz Industrie 4.0 Award Baden-Württemberg, underlining the company’s continuous pursuit of innovation and its pioneering role in digitalisation. Horn’s innovation has been to map the lifecycle of tools digitally, principally to enable the recording of quality-critical data using a web-based solution customised for specific groups of tooling products. The Horn Service Platform (HSP) prevents errors and reduces lead times by digitally automating and accelerating administrative tasks.

More information www.horn-group.com

Machine tool damping breakthrough

The Fraunhofer Institutes for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU and Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials Research IFAM have made a breakthrough in materials research. HoverLIGHT composite material is said to set new standards for the construction of machine tools: by combining aluminium foam and particle-filled hollow spheres, HoverLIGHT achieves a combination of lightness, stiffness, and vibration damping. Tests show that HoverLIGHT can dampen vibrations by a factor of three. All this comes with a weight saving of 20% compared with the original assembly.

More information www.iwu.fraunhofer.de