In a year marked by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, sheet-metal software solutions expert, Lantek, achieved record sales of €21.3m, slightly higher than the figure recorded in the previous financial year. The company also achieved a record figure in terms of the number of active users. In 2020, Lantek gained 2247 new customers, bringing the total to 25,747 across more than 100 countries. The UK, in particular, achieved another year of continuous growth and adapted well to remote working for support, training and commercial presentations.

For further information
www.lantek.com

Faro Technologies, a specialist in 3D measurement, imaging and realisation solutions is setting out two strategic goals in support of its environment, social and governance (ESG) efforts. The first goal is to reduce the company’s carbon emissions by 25% by 2025 through aggressive activities. The second goal is to establish middle and high school partnerships to improve curriculum in STEM subjects, especially for minorities and females from low-income and disadvantaged areas. Year-one STEM funding will be $50,000 across the US, Canada, Germany, Portugal, the UK, Singapore and India.

For further information
www.faro.com

Esprit CAM has deepened its partnership with France’s Technical Centre for the Mechanical Industries (CETIM). While Esprit supports additive manufacturing (AM) technologies such as direct energy deposition (DED) and powder bed fusion (PBF), a third AM technology is now available: binder jetting. By preparing data in Esprit Additive Suite products, CETIM was recently able to build a job made of six impeller parts with a binder jetting machine from Sweden’s Digital Metal. Although Esprit Additive support for binder jetting technology is not yet commercially available, this success demonstrates what is possible.

For further information
www.espritcam.com

Element Six (E6), part of the De Beers Group, will participate as a tooling solutions provider in an EU research initiative to scale friction stir welding (FSW) for mass adoption in the shipping industry.

RESURGAM (Robotic Survey, Repair and Agile Manufacture) is a programme established to improve the productivity of how shipyards fabricate new, advanced technology vessels and increase their access to specialist repair and maintenance. As part of the initiative, Element Six will develop specialised PCBN FSW tools in a range of sizes for welding steels that are required for various marine applications.

For further information www.e6.com

Many consider gear production to be complex and expensive because of the need to acquire a dedicated machine. However, CMZ has released a special video and downloadable guide on how to perform gear hobbing on its CNC lathes. The content steers CMZ lathe users through all the basic gear parameters and cycles required to machine gears. Hobbing is a process to manufacture gears by the use of a tool known as a ‘hob’, with the geometry of the gear obtained by synchronised movement between the spindle and live tool.

For further information https://is.gd/lasoyu