The MTA has announced that Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking is to be, once again, the headline sponsor of the largest event of its kind in the UK – MACH 2018. This is the fourth time Lloyds Bank has sponsored MACH, further strengthening a long-term relationship between the bank and the MTA, the organiser of the event. MACH takes place every two years and in 2016 attracted over 25,000 visitors. As part of its ‘Helping Britain Prosper’ plan, Lloyds Bank is support British manufacturing with an additional £1bn of new lending this year. MACH 2018 will be held on 9-13 April at the NEC Birmingham.
For further information www.machexhibition.com

Mills CNC, the sole distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has appointed Heath Redman as its new operations manager. Redman has over 30 years’ manufacturing and machine tool management experience gained in the UK and overseas. The operations manager position is seen as critical in directing and focusing the company’s aftersales service resources to achieve a seamless transition between the services provided, as well as ensuring that they deliver (individually and collectively) business benefits to customers.
Redman has previously run his own manufacturing and machine tool companies
in South Africa.
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk

A recent restructuring of the management team within Güdel’s UK operation has set the scene for additional investment at the Coventry site to support further growth. The recent appointment of Troy McCourt as UK managing director, together with the recruitment of additional sales and engineering staff, will be followed by further investment in a number of areas, including the company’s IT systems. McCourt joins the company as a past user of Güdel gantry robot systems in a previous role.

“Having had experience of Güdel products and systems for a number of years, I was already impressed by the quality and longevity of the company’s gantry robots and linear-motion products,” he says. “I am delighted to have joined this highly-respected business and look forward to working with the team to take it to the next level.”
For further information www.gudel.com

The man who piloted the Starship Enterprise was given a glimpse of the scientific future at the University of Huddersfield recently. Actor Sir Patrick Stewart – who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation on TV and film – is emeritus chancellor at the university. On his latest visit he was shown some of the scientific and technological research taking place.

Sir Patrick visited the university’s Future Metrology Hub, a £30m research centre that is aiming to transform UK industry by developing sensors embedded into machinery, leading to increases in accuracy. The hub – heavily backed by the EPSRC – is based in the university’s Centre for Precision Technologies. On his visit, Sir Patrick met the hub’s director professor Xiangqian Jiang and senior lecturer Dr Haydn Martin, plus many of its multi-disciplinary researchers who are harnessing new developments
in metrology and miniaturisation.
For further information www.hud.ac.uk

For three days during mid-June (13-15), visitors to the Trumpf 2017 open house will be introduced to what’s new in the company’s punching, laser and bending technologies, and be invited to take part in a programme of seminars focussed on smart production. The event will mark the UK launch of the TruMatic 1000 Fiber, a laser machine that comes with additional punching and forming functionality; the first model is due to be installed at a Bedfordshire fabricator in May.
For further information
www.uk.trumpf.com