ROUND-UP SEPTEMBER 2020
In Brief
Industry
Packing a punch
Plastic packaging giant, Schoeller
Allibert, has announced a multimillion
investment programme
at its site in Winsford, Cheshire.
The upgrades to the factory’s
automation systems are part of
a five-year investment strategy
by the company, which is the
largest producer of recyclable
plastic packaging in Europe.
“We are freeing up employees
from manual roles, upskilling
them and developing them
within the business,” said ops
director, Jackie Johnson.
National Physical Laboratory
Funding for NPL centre
The National Physical
Laboratory (NPL) has secured
£50,000 early-stage funding for
the Advanced Machinery and
Productivity (AMP) Institute
in Rochdale. The centre will
focus on the machines and
engineers that will be part of the
future of the industry. The AMP
Institute will work with over 40
companies across the region to
develop the latest technologies.
New brewery in London
Beavertown Brewery has opened
the doors to ‘London’s largest
brewery’, located on a plot
of land covering 24,000m2 in
Enfield. Called Beaverworld, the
£40 million site will see up to
150 jobs created in the local area
and will enable the brewery to
deliver 90 million pints annually,
10 times more than at its
previous Tottenham location.
Renishaw joins
additive project
Renishaw is
collaborating with
Sheffield-based
start-up Additive
Automations, as part
of a project to
automate metal additive
manufacturing (AM)
post-processing, which
involves using cobots
to perform support
structure removal.
The project, called
Separation of Additive-
Layer Supports by
Automation (SALSA),
aims to use robotics
and deep learning to
digitalise some of the
few remaining manual
processes left in AM.
Cobots were chosen
for their high payloadto
size ratio and
integrated force sensors,
which collect data to
determine the geometry
of AM parts. Software
then analyses the data,
using digital twin
technology. The output
is then used to
determine where the
support structures are
so that they can be
removed using an
end-effector tool.
With finishing and
support structure
removal accounting for
an average of two-thirds
of post-processing
costs, it’s hoped that
SALSA could reduce
the average cost per part
by 25%, furthering AM’s
potential as a costeffective
option for large
volume production.
“For the first time, it
is feasible for
manufacturers around
the world to adopt this
technology in rapid
production,” said
Additive Automations
CEO, Robert Bush.
People
Mike Wilson, current
chairman of the British
Automation and Robot
Association, has been
appointed chief automation
officer at the Manufacturing
Technology Centre (MTC)
in Coventry. He will help
the MTC boost automation
capability across UK industry.
Karen Boswell OBE has
been appointed as managing
director of Warwick-based
manufacturer, Baxi Heating.
Boswell joins from Hitachi
Rail, where she oversaw a
growth in revenue, from £250
million to £1.4 billion. Part of
her remit will be to steer Baxi
towards Net Zero emissions.
Recycling & Waste
Mattress munchers
Textek has installed two
state-of-the-art mattress
recycling machines at its site
in Shropshire. The shredders
can mechanically dismantle
a mattress in as little as 30
seconds, compared to the
seven minutes it would take a
skilled worker to manually take
one apart. It’s expected that
a million mattresses will be
recycled in 2020 alone.
Standard for plastic waste
Manufacturers can now take
significant, verifiable steps to
manage plastic waste and its
impact on the environment,
thanks to the launch of the
world’s first best-practice
standard for Responsible
Plastic Management (RPM).
The five-step programme is
independently audited by
global assurance company
Lloyd’s Register.
Hot topic
Manufacturing output has expanded at
the fastest rate for over six years, as
August’s IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing
Managers’ Index hit a 30-month high of
55.2 – the third consecutive month of growth.
Training & Skills
Developments at NMITE
Work at New Model
Institute for Technology
and Engineering (NMITE)’s
Skylon Campus in Hereford
is progressing, with a £1.6
million investment from the
Marches LEP into the training
facility’s Centre for Automated
Manufacturing. NMITE has
also appointed Professor
Beverley Gibbs as its new
Chief Academic Officer.
Record high for MTC
The Manufacturing
Technology Centre (MTC)
apprenticeship scheme has
seen a surge in applications
from prospective apprentices,
with more than 700 young
people looking to join its
programme. Following
a screening process, 135
candidates are now enrolled
in a talent pool, ready to be
hired by local employers.
IHS Markit
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