Nissan’s Sunderland plant is celebrating another record-breaking milestone after the 10 millionth vehicle rolled of the production line.

It has taken the plant 33 years to reach the 10 million mark – making it the fastest car factory in the UK to attain the landmark figure. The milestone also means that, on average, a new Nissan has been built in Sunderland every two minutes since production started in 1986. A vivid blue Nissan Qashqai Tekna proved to be the 10 millionth vehicle.
Steve Marsh, vice president – manufacturing at Nissan Sunderland says: “Reaching this huge figure has called on all the ingenuity, commitment and spirit of our highly skilled workforce, many of whom hail from the northeast of England. Together we are determined to continue driving up the high quality standards that our customers have come to expect over the past three decades.”
For further information www.nissan.co.uk

Strutt Engineering, a family-owned business in the heart of the Peak District, specialises in the manufacture of hydraulic grabs used in the scrap handling, quarrying, waste recycling and excavation sectors.

The company recently switched away from manual machining with the introduction of an XYZ SLX 425 ProTurn CNC lathe, which has since been supplemented with the arrival of an XYZ 1000 LR CNC vertical machining centre.
“The combination of the two CNC machines has seen significant improvements in quality; we’ve been able to bring much of the work back in-house, thereby eliminating lead time and logistics issues,” explains managing director George Strutt. “One of the biggest benefits is the improvement in health and safety and housekeeping. With the machines totally enclosed, risk to operators is drastically reduced, while the environment is kept much cleaner as the swarf and coolant is fully contained. In switching from manual to CNC we’ve moved the company forward and introduced a degree of future-proofing.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Newcastle-based Expert Precision Engineering has invested in four machines from XYZ Machine Tools, two XYZ TC400 turning centres, and XYZ 1100 HD and XYZ 800 HD vertical machining centres.

Among the key reasons to choose XYZ was its use of the Siemens ShopMill and ShopTurn control systems, along with the solid construction of the machines, with their box slideways and overall machining capacities.
“We find that with the Siemens control we can cut programming time in half thanks to the easy-to-use interface and graphics, and we can also edit programs quickly,” says director Martin Stokoe. “The rigid construction of the machines, along with the powerful spindles, also suited the work we would be machining, which involves hogging-out material. In our view, the XYZ models can do the work of machines that would be twice the price, so they provide excellent value for money and cost-effective machining, delivering savings that we can pass on to customers.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Advanced Engineering is back and bigger than ever on 30-31 October at the NEC, Birmingham.

With a two-day attendance of some 15,000 engineering professionals, the 11th edition of the trade show will provide companies with the opportunity to meet with OEMs and supply chain partners from sectors spanning the engineering industry. This year, the latest additions to the event are the Medical Device Engineering Zone and the revamped Enabling Innovation area, which will join the likes of aerospace, performance materials and nuclear engineering.
Supported by Medilink, GTMA, Gambica and other UK trade bodies, the new Medical Device Engineering Zone is in response to the rapid growth of the industry and will welcome manufacturers looking to showcase their innovations in this booming area of engineering. Visitors will also have the opportunity to visit the Medical Device Engineering Open Forum and discover how medical technology is going to develop further in the future.
For further information www.advancedengineeringuk.com

The team at Yamazaki Mazak is celebrating after helping the Worcestershire 5G Consortium win ‘Most Commercially Viable Use Case’ at the inaugural 5G Realised Use Case Awards.

Led by Worcestershire County Council and the Worcestershire Local Economic Partnership (LEP), the consortium received the award at the recent 5G Realised Event in London. Mazak was chosen as part of the consortium thanks to its pioneering work implementing Industry 4.0 design principles into its array of machine tools and CNC technology.
Mazak trialled an augmented reality (AR) app designed to provide field service engineers with remote support. The AR app helps engineers to measure end-to-end speed and latency, and gain an insight into the future potential of 5G for industry. Tim Gane, business systems director at Yamazaki Mazak UK, says: “5G represents a tremendous opportunity to further accelerate productivity growth, and enable even quicker data transfer and analysis for manufacturers. With potential speeds of up to 10 Gb per second, 5G will be the industry standard for connectivity in the future.”
For further information www.mazakeu.co.uk