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Orgalime Members Digest March 2012

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:51:03 GMT

Director General’s message
Our message to the institutions is becoming increasingly direct, as both officials and politicians talk in vague terms about growth without ever mentioning the word industry
and Brussels goes on in a 'business as usual mode': industry is not a dirty word!

Industry is not smoke stacks, pollution and unacceptable face of capitalism. Industry provides jobs and the employees of manufacturing companies from the backbone of the European economy,including also of the service economy. It is time that politicians really made efforts to understand what makes industry attractedto the EU, invest and flourish!

KUKA JOINS TOP RESEARCH CENTRE

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:47:47 GMT

KUKA Robotics UK is to play a wider role in the development of new manufacturing technologies after joining one of Britain’s top research organisations.

The Midlands-based industrial robot supplier has become a member of the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) so it can offer greater technical support to future automation projects.

Membership of the organisation means KUKA will take part in a broad range of AMRC projects and receive privileged access to the centre’s resources and capabilities.

KUKA says it is keen to work more closely with the Rotherham establishment after being chosen to supply a number of robots for a variety of AMRC research programmes.

“As the UK subsidiary of Europe’s largest robot manufacturer, I feel it is not only important to give backing to the AMRC’s pioneering work, but also demonstrate KUKA’s enthusiasm to share its expertise with a talented group of researchers,” explained managing director Jeff Nowill.

KUKA robots are currently being used at the centre for a project headed by Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems to explore automated assembly applications in the aerospace industry.

The robot supplier also provided a KR 16 model for a three-year study, which investigated the production of large aircraft components using the shaped metal deposition process.

It was part of an automated production cell, which was designed to build up components from welded wire and show how the SMD method could be transformed from an experimental concept to a commercially viable manufacturing technology.

MultiPix announce distribution agreement with Datalogic

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:29:21 GMT

Multipix are delighted to announced that they have entered into an agreement with Datalogic Automation, Italy, one of the major worldwide producers of automatic identification, detection and marking solutions for industrial automation.

"We are very excited to be able to offer our customers the range of ID readers and Vision Sensors from Datalogic. These products offer a complete range of industrial solutions for automatic identification. Thanks to the use of innovative technology solutions Datalogic are able to identify automatically, accurately and with absolute precision all types of labels, bar codes and 2D codes, applied in any position and orientation", comments Julie Busby.

See our website for full details on the product range

The convenient C-Mount VeriSens® vision sensors with integrated flash controller and up to 2 MP resolution

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:19:00 GMT

The new VeriSens® XC series of vision sensors from Baumer are the first devices in this category featuring a fully integrated flash controller and resolutions of up to 2 megapixels. These two advantages combined, provide extremely easy integration and flexible system solutions. The C-Mount design introduces complete freedom of lens selection. At the same time, the integrated flash controller significantly reduces the cost of typically employed external light solutions. External lighting can be flashed with up to 48 V and 4 A while its configuration is already included in the intuitive software of the VeriSens®. CCD sensors with three different resolutions ranging from VGA to 2 megapixels are available with the VeriSens® XC series.

AIRPENGUINS FLYING AT THE BIG BANG FAIR

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:43:02 GMT

Festo’s famous bionic AirPenguins are poised and ready to fly at The Big Bang Fair 2012 – the UK’s largest science, technology and engineering fair for young people. Attracting considerable attention whenever they perform, the AirPenguins will undoubtedly be one of the fair’s highlights. Set to fascinate visitors with their graceful aerobatic agility as they fly around the exhibition hall, they provide a thought-provoking insight into the types of energy transfer and behavioural mechanisms that could form the basis of future automation technology.

The Big Bang Fair aims to inspire young people about careers in science and engineering, and to help 11-14 year olds choose their subject options at school. It is also guaranteed to provide a fun, yet educational day out for all 7-19 year olds. The environment is a bit like a cross between the Science Museum and a theme park, enabling everyone to gain hands-on experience of some of the most world’s most exciting science and engineering technology. This year’s event is likely to attract more than 35,000 visitors, including some 5,000 teachers.

Festo’s AirPenguins are renowned for their aerial beauty, but they really need to be viewed close-up to appreciate how engineers have created these bionic creatures, using mechanisms copied from the movement of fishes and rays. So although they will be flying each day – every hour on the hour, for 10-15 minutes – they will also be present on Festo’s stand.

The stand will additionally feature a number of hands-on interactive displays, aimed at encouraging children to think about engineering concepts. Also on show will be other recent bionic developments from Festo’s Bionic Learning Network, which is an alliance of educational establishments and specialist companies tasked with exploring bionic solutions for automation applications of the future. These will include the Bionic Handling Assistant, a unique handling system which takes its inspiration from an elephant’s trunk, and the FinGripper adaptive gripping device, which embraces the way fish and rays convert energy into movement. Some of these developments have already transferred from research to production, and are now being used to considerable benefit in complex machines such as industrial robots.

Entry to The Big Bang Fair is free, but visitors need to pre-register and state whether they want to attend any of the workshops or educational theatre shows. Thursday, March 15 and Friday, March 16 are reserved for school groups, while on Saturday, March 17 The Fair is open to families.

NEW FAST STACKING ROBOTS FROM KUKA

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:31:29 GMT

Speed and accuracy are the hallmarks of a new range of KUKA palletising robots, which are specially designed for use in the food processing and logistics industries.

The new palletising robots, part of KUKA’s new QUANTEC series, not only offer a choice of payloads of 120, 180 and 240 kg, but also have a reach of 3,200 mm. They can achieve fast stacking times meticulously thanks to a new compact design and use of lighter components.

In addition, the robot arm features a hollow wrist with a 60mm aperture so that all common types of dress packages can be safely routed within the arm’s casing. The hollow wrist design also allows easy access for quick changeovers, making offline programming much simpler and prolonging the service life of the dress package.

Industrial robot supplier KUKA Robotics UK will shortly launch the new QUANTEC series at a special event where customers will be invited to see some of the new models in action at its Midlands headquarters.

“These new QUANTEC models successfully address the major challenge of delivering a rapid, robotic palletising operation without compromising on accuracy,” explained Ian Walker, general sales manager at KUKA Robotics UK.

“They are designed to boost productivity and transform cumbersome, time-consuming tasks into nimble, high-performance processes,” he added.

As well as the new palletising robot range, KUKA Robotics UK will also unveil other products at the open house event such as KUKA’s new KR C4 all-in-one system, which integrates robot, motion, sequence and process control, and its touch screen smartPAD operator panel.

Kawasaki Robotics on the move

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:29:41 GMT

Kawasaki has recently completed its move to new premises in Warrington. This was a strategic move for Kawasaki to streamline its customer support services, which were previously carried out across two buildings. The new building is 10,000 sq ft and will be the head office for all of Kawasaki Robotics UK operations.

Kawasaki’s emphasis on providing first class training courses will be supported with a new dedicated training facility to be fitted out by early 2012. The training facility will allow for hands on training and mentoring on site by Kawasaki’s in house training team.

The building’s prime location, close to major motorways also means Kawasaki Service Engineers are able to respond to support calls quickly.
The layout will see internal departments come together to be situated in the same building, improving internal communications, workflow and increasing customer service.

FANUC rolls out consolidated UK support framework

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:30:58 GMT

Factory automation business FANUC has consolidated its UK support operations to provide a clearer route for product sales and after sales support. FANUC will now provide a central customer contact point for its three UK core businesses, FANUC FA, FANUC Robotics and FANUC Robomachine.

The new structure follows on from the announcement, last October, that FANUC’s Luxembourg headquarter operations would amalgamate to ‘project a strong corporate image Europe-wide’. The FANUC UK Team will bring clarity of its extensive automation product range to its customer base and the UK market in general.

Sharing the common controller platform the three FANUC businesses already have many examples where their respective products are working together with inherent benefits of straight-forward communications and renowned FANUC reliability.

At the MACH 2012 exhibition in April this year the three companies will exhibit together, for the first time, showing the complete range and capability of FANUC. CNC controllers and drives, robot machine tool loading, EDM, plastic injection moulding and drilling machine centres will all feature together with illustrations of the extensive support packages available for FANUC customers.

UK Plastics Design and Moulding Community Converges in London for PDM12

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:36:40 GMT

The annual Plastics Design and Moulding Exhibition and Summit (PDM12) returns to the ExCel Centre in London for 29-30 May 2012, confirming its unique position in bringing together the best of British plastics manufacturing and design. Visitors can now register online for free entry to the event at: http://www.pdmevent.com
PDM12 is the perfect place for plastics and design professionals to network, learn and do business. Visitors can meet representatives from every part of the UK plastics community including leading industry names from injection moulding machinery makers Engel, Sumitomo Demag and Billion to 3D printer specialists like Hewlett Packard, ZSolutions and Bits from Bytes, as well as rapid prototyping companies like Midas and Ogle.

Among other premier exhibitors are polymer producers Bayer MaterialScience, polymer distributors Distrupol, Plastribution and Ultrapolymers and masterbatch and additive suppliers Gabriel-Chemie and Pantone. Representing the full plastics design and manufacturing chain, PDM 12 exhibitors also include product design companies, vacuum thermoforming, rotational and blow moulding machinery suppliers, toolmakers and hotrunner specialists, mouldmakers and moulders, software suppliers and materials testing specialists.

The PDM12 Summit, running across both days of the show, tackles a host of in-depth topics focusing on the core subject of Best Practice in Plastics Design. It will include award-winning design and innovation case studies and the second day will also feature sessions from the British Plastics Federation’s rotomoulders as well as additives and masterbatch groups. More details of headline speakers and the full PDM conference programme will be announced later in February.

Back by popular demand at PDM 12 is the free Plastics Surgery - Ask the Consultant offering practical advice on manufacturing a product in plastic. Experts from the Plastics Consultancy Network, specialists in plastics design, manufacturing and materials issues, will be on hand to assist any PDM visitor.

Many exhibitors are looking forward to sharing their latest innovations with the industry at PDM12:
“Engel had a great PDM last time, and taking part again this year was a no-brainer,” says Graeme Herlihy, managing director of Engel UK. “There have been lots of new application developments recently in the world of Engel, and PDM is the perfect opportunity to showcase them.”

Peter Atterby, managing director of Luxus adds: “Luxus is the only UK independent recycler to develop technical polymer alloys with a high recycled content able to satisfy global manufacturing needs - particularly in the auto industry. So we’re very much looking forward to sharing our thoughts on what we believe will be the next challenges in sustainable component design at PDM12.”

Rachel Collier, technical sales manager at Midas Pattern Co Ltd concludes: “Midas is looking forward to PDM12 and the platform it provides us to showcase our high quality RIM mouldings. Located at an excellent venue, we see PDM as the ideal place to strengthen our sales into the Southern counties.”

Visit http://www.pdmevent.com for more information and for travel advice on getting to PDM12 at the ExCel Centre via car or public transport. PDM12 is co-located with the Product Design + Innovation Conference http://www.pdesigni.com

2011 ROBOT SALES GROW BY 68%

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:41:23 GMT

The latest robot sales statistics compiled by the British Robot and Automation Association (BARA), reveal that sales have increased by a dramatic 68% over the last year. Almost all of the major robotics suppliers to British Manufacturing have reported this trend which is welcome news from the industry.

The most dramatic growth has come from the automotive or automotive components sectors with growth of 235% and 176% respectively. Surprisingly both the food and drink and pharmaceutical, health and medical sectors reported a decrease of 8% and 76% respectively.

Mike Wilson Chairman of BARA said "we are delighted with such an increase in industrial robot sales over the year although most of this has been within the automotive industry. Most sectors have experienced increases and this represents the best growth statistics since 1997. Average growth is nearly 70% year-on-year which represents strong sales for most of the robot manufacturers."

Mike continued "the Government are also putting considerable money behind the promotion of robotics in UK Manufacturing in recognition that robots actually create more jobs through growth. Currently over 100 companies are making use of the free automation review open to any UK manufacturer. This in turn should also enhance growth in robotics over the next couple of years"

Any company wishing to make use of the free automation review should contact Grant Collier on 0208 773 8111 or email grant.collier@ppma.co.uk or visit the website www.automatingmanufacturing.co.uk

The FET Flagship RoboCom Info Day for Industry

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:19:54 GMT

The FET Flagship RoboCom Info Day for Industry
January 27, 2012
c/o VDMA Lyonerstr. 18, 60528 Frankfurt/Main, Germany

To whom it may concern,

as you may be aware, the European Commission recently launched a new initiative in Future and Emerging Technologies: the “FET Flagships” (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/programme/fet/flagship/). They are ambitious large-scale, science-driven, research frameworks that aim to achieve a visionary goal. The scientific advance should provide a strong and broad basis for future technological innovation and economic exploitation in a variety of areas, as well as novel benefits for society. There are currently six FET Flagships under consideration by the European Commission out of which two will be selected for funding in a range of about € 100 million per year each, for a total of ten years.
Our proposed FET Flagship, in particular, addresses a new class of machines and embodied information technologies for a sustainable welfare, which we call the “Robot Companions for Citizens (RCC)”, http://www.robotcompanions.eu
Driven by its vision of sustainable welfare through new machines, RCC will involve pertinent stakeholders in science and technology, society, finance and politics.
The involvement of many different industries is, in particular, crucial, for the success of the extremely ambitious goals of the RCC Flagship: nothing else but a completely new generation of service robots with innovative materials, drives, energy storage, and sensors are aimed at. But, thanks to the expected capabilities of these robots, new markets with huge potentials are foreseen.

Business Secretary Vince Cable Praises UK Wide Talent Retention Solution

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:03:11 GMT

Business Secretary Vince Cable met Allan Cook, Chairman of the Skills and Jobs Retention Group yesterday, together with representatives from BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Nissan.
The Group has created the Talent Retention Solution (TRS), a website that holds details of engineering staff at risk of redundancy and vacancies in the engineering sectors. This is good news for engineers looking for work, for companies looking to recruit and for the UK as a way of retaining vital skills for the benefit of growing sectors in engineering such as aerospace, automotive, renewables, marine and nuclear.

UK Manufacturing to Benefit from Jobs Created by Robots

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:22:04 GMT

Who would have thought it - Robots being responsible for job creation? It has been demonstrated repeatedly that automation and robotics increase productivity and efficiency and growth. The Automating Manufacturing Programme, funded by Government aims to increase the competitiveness of UK manufacturing, which will create growth and in turn result in greater employment.

The latest study conducted by the market research firm, Metra Martech Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment published recently by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) in Tokyo, demonstrates that 3 million jobs have been directly created in recent years by the use of robots and a further 1 million positions estimated globally by 2016.

Mike Wilson Chairman of the British Automation and Robots Association (BARA) said "This is great news for British manufacturing. The IFR study highlights the importance of robotics to the future growth of UK industry and the jobs it will create as a result. The recently launched government funded Automating Manufacturing Programme is providing assistance to companies looking to use automation to improve competitiveness and drive growth." He concluded "Together we can make UK manufacturing the best in the world and create the jobs that our country needs."

The report found that between 2000-2008, manufacturing employment increased in nearly every major industrialised country, even as the use of industrialised robotics increased sharply. This trend is now being seen in China, Brazil and other emerging markets as they rapidly increase their use of robotics. In Brazil, the number of robots almost quadrupled during the study period with both production and employment rising by over 20%.

The report also highlighted 3 areas of importance with respect to growth in this market:

• Robots carry out work that is unsafe for humans
• Robots carry out work that is not viable in a high wage economy
• Robots carry out work that would be impossible for humans

One of the case studies cited was the company Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark - an excellent example of robots saving jobs in a high wage economy. Shipbuilding in Europe has been in decline in the last 2 - 4 decades but robots have been key to efficiency savings to Odense. The company has invested in an autonomous, robotic arc welding system that has yielded big dividends. Productivity increased six fold when compared with manual welding, speeded up production time and made quality improvements, whilst also protecting the jobs of the qualified welders.

The Government is providing, through the PPMA Group, up to £600,000 of funding to promote automation in UK manufacturing. Chief Executive Officer of the PPMA group Chris Buxton commented "we are delighted that the Government has put its full weight behind a programme that recognises the importance of automation in UK industry and the positive effect this has for growth and employment."

To apply for a government funded Automating Manufacturing review that involves a totally independent automation and robotics specialist visiting premises to conduct a confidential review and advise where automation can assist, increase productivity and drive growth - contact grant.collier@ppma.co.uk.

UK Manufacturing to Benefit from Jobs Created by Robots!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:43:24 GMT