Formaplex has developed an ultra-light chassis for a solar powered electric car project managed by a team of undergraduate students from Cambridge University.

The car, which can travel from London to the Scottish Highlands at a speed of 50 mph on the same power it takes to boil a kettle, recently returned from an 1864 mile race across Australia. Formaplex, which counts major Formula One teams among its clients, tooled the carbon fibre chassis and body panels, significantly reducing the car’s weight. The team created a mould tool and helped the students to laminate layers of carbon fibre.
For further information www.formaplex.com

Mills CNC, through its recently-created Automation Division, has supplied precision engineering specialist Cambridge Precision Ltd (CPL) with a Doosan collaborative robot (cobot).

The Doosan M0617 cobot, equipped with ONRobot electrically-driven two-finger parallel grippers and Schunk vices, has been installed at the company’s facility in St Neots, where it has been integrated with a Doosan DNM 6700 vertical machining centre to create an automated manufacturing cell. Since commissioning, the cell has been programmed to handle more than 20 different projects, and the company estimates that, from a standing start two months ago, over 5000 prismatic parts have been manufactured.
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk

Seco’s recent ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ manufacturing best-practice event, which focused exclusively on the aerospace sector, attracted a total of 747 visitors over the two days.

Says Mike Fleming, Seco’s strategic marketing, products and services manager: “Over 22% of visitors were from outside the UK. We welcomed people from as far afield as China, South Korea, Australia, India and the US, as well as from mainland Europe. We deliberately targeted this year’s event at key decision makers in aerospace component manufacturing companies.
For further information www.secotools.com

TDT Machine Tools has struck a new partnership deal with CMZ, a Spanish manufacturer of lathes and turning centres.

With immediate effect, TDT Machine Tools is able to offer CMZ machines across the central belt of the UK. This area extends coast-to-coast from Lincolnshire in the East, to Wales in the West, taking in the East and West Midlands, including Hereford and Worcester, and extending as far north as Sheffield and Doncaster.
“As many within the machine tool industry are aware, CMZ is a hallmark for quality,” states Phil Terry, sales director at TDT Machine Tools. “These machines are built to last for decades, without any compromise in precision or reliability. Importantly, we can supply standard CMZ lathes from factory stock in one week, which compares favourably to the five weeks typically required for machines from the Far East. Even CMZ lathes built to customer specifications are available on short lead times.”
For further information www.tdt-machinetools.co.uk

Power-tool manufacturer, Fein, has restructured its UK operations to offer more support to end users across the country and strengthen its application-based metalworking strategy.

As part of the restructure, Fein has split its sales operation into three areas – north, central and south – with multiple managers covering each region. Area sales managers will focus on supporting Fein dealers, while area technical sales managers will provide consultative support to end users. The move will enable Fein to work even more closely with those in the metalworking sector.
For further information https://fein.com/en_uk/