The UK’s best and brightest young skilled apprentices and students have been selected to represent all four nations in Team UK at the ‘Skills Olympics’ in Kazan, Russia (22-27 August).

More than 30 young professionals from sectors such as engineering, construction, and digital and IT, have cleared the highest hurdle in a two-year challenge to be the best in the world. These skilled young people have already triumphed in regional and national competitions and had one more momentous obstacle to overcome at team selection events the length and breadth of the UK. The results were revealed at Loughborough University.
For further information www.worldskillsuk.org

A specialist in software and solutions for the sheet metal and fabrication industries, Lantek, reached a turnover of €19.25m in the 2018 fiscal year, a 10% increase in comparison with the previous period.

The company’s customer base also continued to grow, with 1,886 new clients bringing its total client portfolio to 21,884 in over 100 countries on five continents. In Lantek’s home country of Spain, the number of customers was around 2,000, while turnover was €2.72m. The markets that progressed best last year were Germany, with 32% growth, followed by China at +30.7% and the US with 11.3% growth.
For further information www.lanteksms.com

Owen Gibbons has been appointed by Citizen Machinery UK to take over the role of European sales manager with immediate effect.

Based at the firm’s Bushey headquarters, showroom and technical centre, he is responsible for supporting the activities of the dealer network that markets and sells Cincom sliding-head and Miyano fixed-head turn-mill centres into countries around Europe. In addition to the UK and Ireland, Citizen Machinery UK is currently responsible for sales in France, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa.
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

The biennial IPS (International Partners in Steel) trade event will once again be hosted by Kaltenbach at its group headquarters in Lörrach, Germany on 25-28 June.

The 12th edition of this industry event will feature interesting demonstrations of the latest processing technologies, practically oriented seminars, as well as exclusive excursions that are designed to inform visitors about the latest innovations. In addition, Kaltenbach says that the technologies and trends of tomorrow will be on view.
IPS 2019 is the marketplace for steel experts, presenting an attractive support programme that offers the opportunity for successful and effective networking. The programme will include focus areas on: sheet metal, pipe and profile processing; handling and intra-logistics; separating and cutting; surface treatment of metal sheets and profiles; joining, welding and fastening; forming; and tooling.
Around 40 partner companies – leaders in their various disciplines within the steel sector – are also expected to exhibit and present seminars at IPS 2019.
In an area of around 3000 sq m, the latest technology, machines, tools and software will be demonstrated, while new trends and innovations within steel manufacturing, service centres and metal processing, will be discussed. Previous IPS events have seen approximately 3000 visitors attend from around the world, to network and contribute towards discussions on the latest technical developments.
An important aim of the event is to enable those involved in the steel sector to gain insights into new, cost-efficient production solutions.
For further information www.ips-fair.com

To launch its range of Compcut composite plate saws into mainland Europe, Sharp & Tappin last week exhibited at JEC World in Paris for the very first time.

The Sharp & Tappin range of Compcut composite plate saws has won positive acclaim in the UK market for precision, accuracy and consistency, demonstrating high standards for cut quality, parallelism and perpendicularity. At JEC World, the company highlighted its Compcut 200 model, a compact unit that has proved popular across the UK with R&D companies, university departments and composite test centres.
Says Sharp & Tappin’s CEO Ben Sharp: “We’ve been encouraged by the response from the UK market to our entire Compcut range, and sales have been very buoyant, particularly with the Compcut 200 model, which has fulfilled our goal of offering a high-quality, entry-level plate saw. It is this market reaction that has encouraged us to start exploring the potential for sales within mainland Europe.”
To underpin the company’s confidence in the performance of its composite plate saw, a Compcut 200 unit was working on the Sharp & Tappin stand throughout the show, cutting samples across a wide range of different composite materials. Visitors were also encouraged to bring along their own composite material/samples to cut on the demonstration machine.
For further information www.sharpandtappin.com