www.machineryclassi ed.co.uk
briefs Environmental product development
briefs
Sarginsons degree apprentices
Theppana Mahunathasan and
Tom Bowers with Sarginsons
Technology Manager Gavin
Shipley
Sarginsons Industries has landed a
new contract to make an agricultural
product that reduces water waste
and the use of pesticides.
The Coventry-based castings
expert has been commissioned by
Irish rm MagGrow to manufacture a
manifold that can be retro tted onto
crop sprayers to make them more
targeted and reduce waste.
It is the latest project for
Sarginsons’ Design for Manufacture
Technology Centre, which was
established in 2019 to support
manufacturers from the product
concept through to production. The
manifold requires a two-part diecast
solution from Sarginsons as part of
the product.
MagGrow is a patented,
proprietary technology for droplet
formation that yields superior drift
reduction of over 70% and increased
spray coverage performance ranging
from 36% to over 100%, compared
to conventional spraying.
As well as the two core bene ts of
drift control and superior coverage, it
reduces water usage by up to 50%,
extends spray windows and reduces
labour needs. The MagGrow system
has no moving parts, is easy to install
and maintain, and can be tted to a
new or existing crop sprayer.
Sarginsons has an order to supply
around 200 units to MagGrow with
the potential for around 1,000 a year
as global interest grows in the
product, particularly in The
Netherlands and the USA.
Metal bird art helps support wildlife
fundraising effort down under
Lincoln-based manufacturing rm
Micrometric has partnered with
Metalbird UK to produce 250 unique
metal art birds, which have raised
£11,000 for the wildlife affected by
the Australian bush res.
Metalbird is the brainchild of Phil
Walters, an industrial designer and
lover of birds and street art whose
work was originally inspired by
satirical street artist Banksy.
Metalbird started as a guerrilla
street art project in New Zealand to
surprise and delight passers-by but
has now developed into a gift
company, thanks to popular demand.
The birds, which pay homage to
the 500 million native Australian
birds and animals that have been
killed in the bush res, are made from
4 mm mild steel using Micrometric’s
leading laser cutting machines.
Phil Walters, founder and director
of Metalbird, said: “Just like so many
others across the globe, we are
heartbroken by the impact of the
bush res in Australia. We began
thinking of ways in which we could
provide some form of support for the
millions of birds and animals that
have been affected by the res – and
that’s when we decided to enlist the
help of the team at Micrometric to
create kookaburra metal art birds."
Budget CCA bene t revealed
The Confederation of British
Metalforming (CBM) has spotted
something of bene t to the
industry in the recent Budget. The
organisation says: “There were a
lot of headline announcements in
today’s Budget, but one
signi cant move for
manufacturers that may have
been missed is the extension of
the Climate Change Agreement
(CCA) scheme to 2025.
"CCA, which we rst lobbied
for 20 years ago, allows
businesses to reduce their
Climate Change Levy bill in
exchange for meeting targets to
improve their energy ef ciency
and was due to close in 2023.
Today’s extension gives
companies another two years
under this scheme and that could
well equate to £4m of savings for
CBM members every year.
"This is not just about
nancial savings, as it also gives
manufacturers more time to
consider innovative ways to
reduce their carbon footprints
without the burden of having to
pay more taxes.”
Additive manufacturing
3DPrintUK, a provider of polymer
selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D
printing services, has completed
the transition to its new purposedesigned
facility. Based within
the Leyton Industrial Village in
northeast London, the facility
boasts almost 10,000 sq ft of
space, providing an increase of
8,000 sq ft over the company’s
previous location.
The new building has been
designed to house 3DPrintUK’s
growing eet of EOS polymer SLS
machines, and to fully
accommodate all the necessary
ancillary and post-processing
capabilities that the company
offers clients as part of its
service.
Scottish manufacturing
Planning permission has been
granted for the development of
the National Manufacturing
Institute Scotland (NMIS) facility.
Situated on Netherton Campus at
the centre of the Advanced
Manufacturing Innovation District
Scotland (AMIDS) in
Renfrewshire, the new facility is
set to transform manufacturing in
Scotland.
Construction is currently in
progress on the enabling
infrastructure for AMIDS, which is
being funded through the
Glasgow City Region City Deal.
Renfrewshire Council’s
planning authority gave the green
light to plans for the brand new
carbon-neutral NMIS building,
which comes complete with a
distinctive heather-coloured
façade. At around 1.5 times the
size of a football pitch, the facility
will include a skills academy, a
fully digitalised factory of the
future and a collaboration hub.
The new site will help support
manufacturing and engineering
rms of all sizes, from all sectors
across the country, and
internationally, to innovate and
grow their businesses.
NMIS is a group of industryled
manufacturing research and
development facilities where
industry, academia and the
public sector work together on
ground-breaking manufacturing
research to transform productivity
levels, make companies more
competitive and boost employee
skills.
The NMIS is operated by the
University of Strathclyde and
supported by the Scottish
government, Scottish Enterprise,
Highlands and Islands Enterprise,
High Value Manufacturing
Catapult, Skills Development
Scotland, Scottish Funding
Council and Renfrewshire
Council.
8 March 2020, issue 2 - Machinery Classifi ed
/www.machineryclassi