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News round-up New project looks to boost AM in aerospace
Kenilworth-based Whitehouse
Machine Tools – the UK and Ireland
sales agent for several high-pro le
machine tool manufacturers in the
Far East and Europe – has appointed
Peter Smith to the new position of
sales and marketing director.
www.is.gd/lZTLhX
The Manufacturing Technologies
Association (MTA) has welcomed
new president Andy Hodgson,
strategic lead for digitalisation at
Siemens. He will serve a two-year
term. www.is.gd/s84MDv
Southern Manufacturing &
Electronics 2021 will go ahead as a
two-day event from 6-7 October this
year at the Farnborough International
Exhibition Centre. The organisers
have also con rmed the 2022 show
will return to its usual dates in early
February next year.
www.is.gd/X3aQGP
The Ceratizit Group has won the
2020 Innovation Award of the FEDIL
business federation for the
development of a new process for
the additive manufacturing of
tungsten carbide-cobalt.
www.is.gd/p7J4h0
Mills CNC - the exclusive
distributor of Doosan machine
tools in the UK and Ireland – has
appointed seasoned CNC machine
tool sales professional Martyn Jones
as business manager for the
Birmingham and West Midlands
region. www.is.gd/kz5x7v
Specialist moulding manufacturing
company Midas Pattern Company
has taken delivery of a new Haas
CNC machining centre that will
increase capacity at the rm’s
factory in Bedford. The Haas VF-
11/40 machining centre replaces an
older machine, the 2002 Midas VF-4
and it becomes the largest CNC
machine the rm operates.
www.is.gd/8arIuS
Renishaw has opened
applications for a record 70
graduate positions, 51
apprenticeships and over 60
placement positions across its
Gloucestershire and South Wales
sites. This represents a major
investment of its business,
including roles in engineering and
manufacturing. www.is.gd/VoVly8
The board of the High Value
Manufacturing Catapult
(HVM Catapult) has
announced that
Katherine
Bennett –
currently senior
vice president
of Airbus in the
UK – will
succeed Dick Elsy
as CEO when he
retires later in 2021.
www.is.gd/c2ViQW
High-tech engineering group
Sandvik has acquired a minority
stake in the privately-owned
American company Oqton – a
provider of AI-powered
manufacturing solutions – that allow
manufacturers to manage, optimise
and automate their manufacturing
work ows. www.is.gd/USF0lN
Citizen Machinery UK - which
supplies Cincom sliding-head and
Miyano xed-head turn-mill
centres into the British and
Irish markets has opened
a new dedicated
solution centre at its
Bushey
headquarters.
CMSolutions is
focused on
customisation.
www.is.gd/DMC0c6
VDW (The German Machine
Tool Builders’ Association) which
organises the METAV show has
taken a minority stake in Munichbased
Span ug Technologies GmbH
– a start-up dedicated to automating
parts procurement in the
manufacturing industry.
www.is.gd/2MjLjb
Machine learning technology will
be used to make the additive
manufacturing (AM) process of
metallic alloys for aerospace
cheaper and faster, encouraging
production of lightweight, energyef
cient aircraft to support net zero
targets for aviation.
Project MEDAL – Machine
Learning for Additive Manufacturing
Experimental Design – is led by
Intellegens, a University of
Cambridge spin-out specialising in
arti cial intelligence, the University
of Shef eld AMRC North West, and
aerospace giant Boeing.
It aims to accelerate the
product development lifecycle of
aerospace components by using a
machine learning model to
optimise AM processing
parameters for new metal alloys at
a lower cost and faster rate.
The global AM market is worth
£12bn and is expected to triple in
size over the next ve years. Project
MEDAL’s research will concentrate
on metal laser powder bed fusion –
the most widely used AM approach
in industry – focussing on key
parameter variables required to
manufacture high density, high
strength parts.
The project is part of the
National Aerospace Technology
Exploitation Programme (NATEP), a
£10 million initiative for UK SMEs
to develop innovative aerospace
technologies funded by the
Department for Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy and
delivered in partnership with the
Aerospace Technology Institute
(ATI) and Innovate UK.
James Hughes, research
director for University of Shef eld
AMRC North West, said the project
will build the AMRC’s knowledge
and expertise in alloy development
so it can help UK manufacturers.
SME manufacturers joining the Industry 4.0 revolution are driving
demand for data science and software engineering skills, according to the
Made Smarter digital technology movement.
Half of the 126 businesses adopting technology with the support of
the Made Smarter North West pilot have put data and systems integration
at the heart of their productivity and growth plans.
But while technology is solving business challenges, it is also
highlighting a digital skills gap across industry and emphasising the need
for existing workforces to be upskilled. www.is.gd/NHpTry
Project MEDAL will look to improve the
AM process of metallic alloys
Katherine Bennett
8 February 2021 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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