2020 REVIEW OF THE YEAR
Our October (www.is.gd/gr6zaU ) issue led
with a feature on the Advanced Machinery and
Productivity (AMP) Institute – a new initiative
currently in its formative stage, that will ll in
a missing hole in the UK’s innovation
landscape.
The AMP project aims to exploit one of the
country’s deep wells of expertise – the
mechanical machine building – but use
Industry 4.0 technologies to develop
machines for future products and processes.
The AMP Institute we discuss, is not in the
business of recreating the UK’s machine tool
building industry of old, but is more focused
on the machinery of the future, with the effort
believing it can exploit the current disruption
in manufacturing processes to enter a market
where equipment does not yet exist.
Certainly, an interesting initiative and one
that Machinery will certainly keep a close eye
on and it will ful l an unaddressed, yet critical
aspect, of the UK’s manufacturing innovation
infrastructure.
We also had a detailed report on Hexagon
Manufacturing Intelligence (HMI) which
unveiled four new products to the market that
sit within its autonomous operation and smart
factory future vision.
In our second aerospace supplement of
2020, the lead story looked at how the
response to Covid-19 brought air travel to a
halt and has affected the related equipment
and services supply chain negatively, but on
the other hand, it has also prompted a drive
for a sustainable aviation future.
Air travel according to Boeing, will not
return to pre-pandemic gures for three years
we report, while Rolls-Royce’s chief
technology of cer Paul Stein said he believed
that post-Covid-19, interest in sustainability
will be “stronger than ever”.
ROBOTIC FUTURE
In November ( www.is.gd/Qfxnh2 ), we led on
the rise of the robots, that are increasing
across the shop- oors of UK manufacturers,
although it seems we are still lagging behind
our European friends across the water.
According to an annual report by the
International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The
IFR said that the European average robot use
is 114/10,000 factory employees, compared
to the UK’s gure of 91/10,000.
By 2022, the IFR forecasts that an
operational stock of almost four million
industrial robots is expected to be working in
factories worldwide, but increasing use of
robots is driving demand for skilled workers
October 2020 Volume 178 Number 4299 MACHINERY www.machinery.co.uk
and educational systems must adjust to this
demand, but Covid-19 also offers the chance
for modernisation and digitalisation of
production on the path to recovery.
In the issue, we also speak to the only UKAberlink
UKowned
company that designs and makes
coordinate measuring machines (CMMs),
Aberlink has introduced two new CMM designs, both
and nd out about how the company
of which have varying capabilities and feature
accompanying metrology software that has
hidden gems within.
Horizon is the most accurate CMM ever
produced by Aberlink, while the second new
CMM is Extol and is in the mould of the
company’s Xtreme CMM and is the world’s
rst CMM to utilise a delta mechanism.
BREXIT IMPACT
The nal issue of 2020 in December ( www.
is.gd/iUwdl3 stellar editorship of Machinery, featured a
comprehensive report on impending changes
that will have a huge impact on the market,
as the UK’s transition period for leaving the
EU comes to an end.
) and the last of Andrew Allcock’s
On 1 January 2021, a new legislative
regime for machinery safety will be
introduced, most particularly for Machinery’s
audience machine tools. For England,
Scotland and Wales, the beginning of the
New Year marks the start of the application
of the UKCA product safety compliance/
product marking regime.
In those three countries (Great Britain),
Aerospace
supplement
November 2020 Volume 178 Number 4300 MACHINERY www.machinery.co.uk
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | MachineryTweets November 2020
OVER A CENTURY OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
Ten questions
Robotiq on bin-picking
technology p14
Better measures
Aberlink unveils innovative
hardware & software p16
001_MACH_OCT20.indd 1 23/09/2020 17:58
UKCA will, in speci c circumstances, replace
the CE product safety compliance/product
marking regime but will become required for
all new machine tools sold into GB markets
from 1 January 2022. CE marking remains for
the EU (and Northern Ireland), so will also still
be seen on machines alongside UKCA. The
underlying UKCA and CE requirements will be
identical as of 1 January 2021, but they may
not stay so.
Another special report looked at how to
overcome reshoring challenges and according
to Dawson Shanahan’s joint managing
director Les Reeves – to compete on price
“reshored businesses must increase their
ef ciency and lower their production costs by
innovating and investing in new production
systems and technology”.
Fittingly, as we enter 2021 that is likely to
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | MachineryTweets October 2020
OVER A CENTURY OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
No errors allowed
Nuclear AMRC trusts
in NC simulation p21
The power of four
Hexagon MI’s smart
factory products p18
Pump up the volume
Progressive subcontractors
continue to invest
p25
Planes of the future
& case studies p27
MECHANICAL
THINKINGTHE ADVANCED MACHINERY & PRODUCTIVITY INSTITUTE SETS OUT TO LEVERAGE UK STRENGTHS
CELEBRATE INDUSTRY’S EFFORTS AT
WWW.ENGINEERINGHEROES.CO.UK
Medical concerns
GF Machining Solutions’
integrated approach p23
December 2020 Volume 178 Number 4301 MACHINERY www.machinery.co.uk
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | MachineryTweets December 2020
OVER A CENTURY OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
AUTOMATION?
AS EASIERAS STANDARD SOLUTIONS PROLIFERATE, IT HAS NEVER BEEN EASIERINSIDE CADCAM & PRODUCTION IT SUPPLEMENT
001_MACH_NOV20.indd 1 29/10/2020 11:30
THE NEW REGIME
MACHINERY SAFETY IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND & WALES – 1 JANUARY 2021 BRINGS CHANGE
Reshoring
A subcontractor’s
advice p17
myMILLTURN portal
WFL gets closer to
customers, virtually p24
Offset optimisation
Aberlink’s novel
solution p28
001_MACH_DEC20.indd 1001_1 23/11/2020 11:4023/40
be dominated by Industry 4.0, automation and
digitalisation, we also report on the launch by
Austria-headquartered large-capacity mill-turn
machine tool specialist WFL Millturn
Technologies of its myMILLTURN portal.
The online platform was right on cue for
the global Covid-19 pandemic, but managing
director Kenneth Sundberg, told Machinery
“interest has been higher than maybe he
anticipated” and has some 100 user
customers, with up to 200+ individuals having
login details.
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets | January 2021 21
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