January 2022

45 www.drivesncontrols.com January 2022 SOUTHERN MANUFACTURING PREVIEW n T he Southern Manufacturing & Electronics show will return to its venue in Farnborough next month. The organisers report that interest in the event has bounced back even faster than they had hoped, and they now expect the 20,000m2 Farnborough International Exhibition Centre to be fully occupied. With the manufacturing sector apparently keen to get back to face-to-face business, the number of visitors is predicted to approach the record of 9,250 set in 2020, before the Covid pandemic had made its full impact felt. Extensive anti-infection measures will be in place at the event, including the requirement to submit a negative Covid test result and/or evidence of vaccination before entry is allowed. The centre is equipped with state-of- the-art filtered fresh air ventilation. Access to the show will be easy, with 3,500 free on-site parking spaces. A free shuttle bus will run from nearby railways station to the show. On-site facilities include a choice of catering options and freeWiFi in the foyer. Reducing energy consumption in a manufacturing context is one of the issues that will be tackled during the show’s free seminar programme, which will operate in a socially distanced format. Sessions will run on all three days, covering other topics such as CE marking, lean manufacturing strategies and additive manufacturing. A complete list of the seminar sessions and a registration form can be found on the exhibitionWeb site. Despite the turmoil of the past 20 months, many of the show’s regular participants will be returning to the event, which bills itself as“the UK’s longest-running and largest annual engineering show”. Exhibitors will be offering an array of automation, mechanical and electronic components, tooling, industrial hardware, and business and subcontract services from across the UK, Europe and beyond. Exhibitors at Southern Manufacturing 2022 with an involvement in motion engineering, automation and allied activities include ASM Assembly Systems, Binder, Brady, Cembre, Davall Gears, Elesa, Elma Electronic, Extreme Cases, Fischer Connectors, FS Cables, Haas Automation, HammondManufacturing, Harwin Connectors, Helukabel, Hexagon, Hitaltech, ICS Robotics, IKONippon Thompson Europe, Kanya, Keyence, Lee Products, MagDev, Mountz Torque, Olson Electronics, Optimax Imaging Inspection &Measurement, RDP Electronics, Relec Electronics, RJS Electronics, Rose Plastic, Schurter Electronics, the Sempre Group, TDK-Lambda, Telegartner, Trafag, Vision Engineering,Wemec,Wurth Electronics and Yamaichi Electronics . Design & Automation Solutions , which creates customised collaborative robot applications, will be demonstrating a Melfa Assista collaborative robot, supplied by Mitsubishi Electric . Recent examples of DAS applications include a cap-feeding system for a UK biotech automation company, and a project to provide a high-performance powered gantry system. InTouchMonitoring will show its i4 cloud- based monitoring, scheduling, reporting and analytics systemwhich, it says, improves throughput, cuts energy consumption, and can help to identify why some machines are performing better than others, or why there are gaps in production schedules. The system, available on a subscription basis, ensures that all machines are being utilised fully. The increased efficiency usually means there is no need to buy newmachines, says the company. CamdenBoss will be showing a range of hexagonal-shaped enclosures for industrial IoT applications that are a radical departure from the normal rectangular and square shapes. The UK-manufactured Hex-Box IoT enclosures have six-sided housings, with all sides offering removable panels that, once in position, are self-retaining, avoiding the awkward assembly that is often needed when using enclosures with removable panels. Robofoam will be demonstrating a technology for use with six-axis robots, that applies foam seals to parts. The flexible system can apply custom-designed seals to anything from one-off prototypes to high-volume production quantities. The hardness of the foam can be varied by controlling the ratio of material to air, generating a closed-cell bubble structure. n Organisers of the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics show expect it to fill its regular venue in Farnborough when it returns next month for the first time since 2020. Southern Manufacturing heads back to Farnborough SHOWFACTS Where: Farnborough International Exhibition Centre, Hampshire When: 8–10 February, 2022 (9.30–16.30 on first two days; 9.30–15.30 on last day) Entry: Free (register on Web site) Parking: Free Shuttle buses: Free to/fromFarnborough Main and North Camp rail stations Phone: 01784 880 890 Websites: www.industrysouth.co.uk Twitter: @industry_co_uk Hashtag: #southmanf InTouch Monitoring claims that its i4 cloud-based monitoring, scheduling, reporting and analytics system improves throughput, cuts energy use, and identifies why some machines are performing better than others.