Following the UK launch by Hurco at the end of 2019 of a portable cobot (collaborative robot) range, the company has set up a new manufacturing cell at its High Wycombe technical centre to help potential customers across Britain and Ireland see the way in which machine-tool tending may be simply and inexpensively automated.

Hurco is keen to showcase the productivity and cost benefits that come from maximising spindle uptime. The cobot installed in the demonstration cell has a twin gripper attachment and feeds a Hurco TM8i three-axis CNC lathe.
For further information www.hurco.co.uk

Foresight Group, an independent infrastructure and private-equity investment manager, and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), have made a £1.45m follow-on investment from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund into Inovo Robotics.

This investment will allow Inovo to grow sales internationally and brings the total invested by the fund to £2.95m, having originally invested £1.5m in October 2018 to support the company’s first product to market. Inovo is developing a competitively priced ‘cobot’, a collaborative robot designed to operate safely
within a human work environment.
For further information www.wae.com

The Manufacturing Barometer, the largest survey of SME manufacturers in England, shows that the sector is bouncing back from the worst effects of COVID-19 with a degree of increased optimism around turnover, profits, jobs and investment.

Conducted by SWMAS (South West Manufacturing Advisory Service) and the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP), the report reveals that 40% of those questioned are expecting future sales to increase, which is a massive improvement on the 9% who were predicting this outcome in the previous survey (in April).
For further information www.swmas.co.uk

Electrix International, a Bishop Auckland based manufacturer and stockist of stainless steel electrical enclosures and cable management systems, is exploiting the benefits of a new Trumpf TruMark Station 5000 laser-marking system.

The new machine has replaced a previous foil sticker to provide a fast, permanent way of marking and identifying products without compromising requirements for hygiene or corrosion resistance.
Stewart Beer, manufacturing manager at Electrix, says: “We tested a number of laser markers, but the TruMark Station 5000 stood out, not just for its performance in terms of speed and marking colour/tone, but for its user-friendly interface. This latter point became a decisive factor in the purchase.
We found a number of machines with a good laser head, but they lacked ease of use.”
For further information www.uk.trumpf.com

The Engineering Technologies Group (ETG) has signed a multi-million-pound contract with the Pexion Group to consolidate the technology management and advancement of its multiple manufacturing businesses. In the first stage of the agreement, Pexion Group companies will take delivery of six machine tools with significantly more planned in future phases of the long-term contract.

Pexion owns subcontracting businesses that include Drurys Engineering, Claro Precision, Paragon Precision, Oxton Engineering and Rictor Engineering. In the contract’s initial phase, ETG will deliver a new Quaser three-axis machining centre and a twin-spindle, twin-turret Nakamura-Tome WY150
multi-axis turning centre to Drurys Engineering. Also receiving a Nakamura-Tome WY150, as well as a three-axis Quaser MV184 machining centre and a five-axis Quaser will be Oxton Engineering. Completing the first stage of installations will be a Nakamura NTRX300L large-bed turning centre destined for Claro Precision.
For further information www.engtechgroup.com