THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

300 new JLR jobs in Midlands

JLR is recruiting 300 new technicians and test engineers in the West Midlands. The roles will support the continued growth of Range Rover production and development of next-generation electric vehicles (EVs).Of the 300 roles, the UK-based car manufacturer is recruiting around 100 maintenance technicians for its Solihull plant to operate and maintain automated production facilities in a new body shop costing around £130m.

In addition, JLR is recruiting around 200 technicians and test engineers for its Gaydon Engineering Centre and Whitley Powertrain facility, where they will support with testing and development of JLR’s next-generation EVs as part of a global family that exceeds 38,000 colleagues. The company will upskill all technicians and test engineers with electrification training as part of JLR’s ‘Future Skills Programme’, to ensure they are equipped with vital skills for the production and maintenance of EVs.
For further information www.jaguarlandrover.com

Stockholder cuts lead times with Kasto automation

A steel and non-ferrous metals stockholder in Germany, is using a new sawing centre from Kasto for the close-tolerance cutting to length of its various bar, tube, profile and other products. At Bieber + Marburg, the demand for sawing in particular is increasing enormously, so the company needed to examine how best to expand this side of its business and determine what technology to target.

During a demonstration, the impressive speed of an automatic production circular saw from the KASTOvariospeed range impressed the stockholder’s management and it quickly became apparent that it would be the optimum solution to the shortfall in cutting capacity.

Nextto the circular saw, a KASTOsort robot is responsible for cut piece container management. The robot recognises the containers, which already contain the relevant delivery label, and loads the required parts into them automatically, even unattended over the weekend.

Bieber + Marburg’s new KASTOcenter Varioplus 4 warehouse is 50 m long by 7 m wide and 9 m high. It contains about 1500 shelves with space for material up to 7 m long and 330 mm in diameter. A gantry crane stores and retrieves stock at up to 60 m/min. It serves both the KASTOvariospeed C 18 automatic circular sawing centre and a bandsawing area, where a newly installed KASTOtec SC4 is part of the expansion.

“The KASTOcenter varioplus 4 has enabled us to reduce set-up time from 15-20 minutes on the bandsaws, to less than two minutes on the circular saw,” reveals Marcel Finkernagel, director of administration and organisation at Bieber + Marburg.“Operation is then automatic, with consistent quality of cut on material up to the saw’s maximum capacity of 330 mm diameter.”
For further information www.kasto.com

Post-EMO open house at Citizen

Manufacturers wishing to learn more about the latest CNC sliding-head and fixed-head turning canters from Citizen Machinery UK, but who perhaps are unable to attend the EMO 2023 machine tool trade fair in Hannover (18-23 September), may be interested to know that on 3-5 October, the company will hold an open house at its Brierley Hill facility in the West Midlands.

The event will mark the 40th year of selling fixed-head lathe manufacturer Miyano’s products in the UK and Ireland, initially through previous sales agent Macro Machine Tools. Since 2010, the brand has been a wholly-owned part of Citizen Holdings, which also offers Cincom sliding-head lathes and range of turning machines incorporating auto-loading systems for rapid material and parts handling.
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

Trumpf fires mega laser on centenary

Trumpf marked its 100th anniversary earlier this month by firing one of the world’s most powerful show lasers. The laser light shone for the first time on the evening of 3 August. Under the right weather conditions, the green laser light(produced by a particularly energy-efficient 3 kW laser) was visible up to 80 km away.Show lasers are not part of Trumpf’s core business, so its customers would normally use this kind of system for tasks such as welding electric-vehicle batteries.

In 1923, Christian Trumpf and two partners acquired the mechanical workshops previously occupied by Julius Geiger GmbH in Stuttgart. This laid the foundations for the company, which from 1937 operated under the name Trumpf. From the mid-1930s, the company specialised in the production of manual machinery for simple sheet-metal processing tasks. In the 1950s, the company’s focus shifted to stationary machine tools.As early as 1985, Trumpf launched its first laser, laying the foundation for its rise as a laser expert.
For further information www.trumpf.com

New HQ for Bodor

International laser solution provider Bodor is unveiling plans for its new global headquarters. The 300,000 sq m Bodor Dream Park is a state-of-the-art facility that will encompass R&D, production, showrooms, administration and a ‘life zone’, all to support Bodor’s strategic vision of leading the laser industry and co-creating better human life.
The company will extend a warm invitation to its esteemed customers and partners to visit Bodor Dream Park in December 2024 and experience the facility first-hand.The UK representative for Bodor lasers is World Machinery.
For further information www.worldmc.co.uk