DAC February 2022

n NEWS February 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 THEWELSH DRIVES-MAKER Invertek Drives is investing £10m to expand the manufacturing and distribution facilities at its global headquarters in Welshpool, and to develop a new applications centre. The investment will create 85 new jobs over the coming year, adding to the 280 who already work at the site, and follows a recruitment drive over the past year to expand the company’s production and r&d departments. The investment will include three new production lines, each consisting of six assembly cells. These will boost Invertek’s production capacity from 350,000 to 600,000 drives a year. Invertek says that the investment is sign of the continuing commitment by Sumitomo Heavy Industries – which acquired the company in 2019 – to make its Welsh subsidiary a leader in developing and manufacturing variable-speed drives. “We’ve seen significant growth in sales and turnover over the past 18 months, despite the global pandemic,” reports Invertek’s CEO, Shaun Dean, who is also senior vice-president of Sumitomo Heavy Industries and CEO of Sumitomo’s Power Transmission and Controls Group. “Invertek’s approach to maintaining a strategic stock of components has ensured we’ve been able to continue manufacturing our Optidrive range of VFDs (variable-frequency drives), despite the global supply chain problems currently facing many manufacturers. “Invertek continues to commit to investing heavily in the innovation, development and manufacturing of VFD technology,”he adds.“This is part of our drive to create the leading next-generation VFD technology that will help to further reduce energy use and associated CO 2 emissions globally.” The expansion of Invertek’s manufacturing facilities comes just three years after it completed work on a 5,500m 2 manufacturing and distribution facility next to its existing site at Offa’s Dyke Business Park. Invertek says that it will now buy this building from the Welsh Government, which built the facility and initially leased it to Invertek. Part of the new investment will be used to expand Invertek’s innovation and r&d facilities. This is in addition to new r&d laboratories – including a dedicated motor room, and a test and validation centre – which have been completed in the past two years. “In 2022, we will see further investment globally in our sales network,” Dean adds. “We have already witnessed the rapid growth of Invertek Drives USA, with an expanding HQ near Chicago. We are also investing further throughout the EMEIA region where there continues to be significant growth and opportunities.” Invertek Drives was founded in 1998 and has grown year-on-year since then. Invertek invests £10m to boost capacity and create 85 jobs p Rubix UK has acquired KJN Automation , the Leicester-based supplier of aluminium profile and related products and services. KJN’s managing director, John Nelsey, will continue to lead the business and will report to Nigel Banks, MD of Rubix’s UK services division. In 2021, KJN had sales worth £6m. p The organisers of the Hannover Messe (Fair) have rescheduled this year’s industrial mega-show from its original dates of 25-29 April to 30 May-2 June. The show is being shortened from five days to four because of existing commitments at the Hannover showground. The organisers say the fair will return to its traditional five-day format in 2023. p The VariohmGroup (owned by discoverIE ) has acquired the US-based manufacturer of linear position sensors and precision switches, CPI (Control Products Inc) . CPI is the eighth member of the group which now has more than 400 employees. Other members include VariohmEurosensors, Heason Technology, Positek, Herga Technology and Ixthus Instrumentation . p The global machine vision market was worth $7.85bn in 2020 and will expand to $14.2bn by 2028 – a CAGR of 7.8% over the period – according to the analyst, Fortune Business Insights . www.fortunebusinessinsights.com p Omron has appointed the Newtown- based cobot specialist Reeco Automation as its AMR (autonomous mobile robot) solution partner for the UK. They will jointly develop systems for manufacturing and warehouses, following an earlier collaboration on a cobot-based palletiser. Reeco has appointed Mick Deegan as its head of AMR applications. p The global distributor Digi-Key Electronics added more than 500 new suppliers – including Siemens, Schneider and QuickLogic – and more than 125,000 new product lines to its portfolio during 2021. The company, which has been expanding in the industrial automation market, now offers more than 12.6 million products frommore than 2,000 suppliers p Kohler has acquired US- headquartered Curtis Instruments whose products include motor controls, HMIs, instrumentation and CAN modules. Founded in 1960, Curtis has 1,100 employees and operates in 16 countries, including the UK, where its headquarters are located in Northampton. NEWS BRIEFS SIEMENSHAS LAUNCHED a vendor-independent app store for users of its Industrial Edge platform. As well as Siemens’own apps for the discrete and machine tool sectors, the store will offer apps from third-party suppliers that support the platform, such as Braincube, Cybus, SeioTec and Tosibox. Customers will be able to choose software components from numerous suppliers which they can then integrate into their manufacturing processes. The store already offers apps covering connectivity, data storage, visualisation, analysis, machine monitoring, and energy and asset management. The store experience will be familiar to users of consumer app stores. In a few steps, they can fill a shopping cart, place an order, pay and use their products. Siemens argues that the platform is an ideal way for app developers to access the industrial automation market. https://www.dex.siemens.com/?selected=edge Invertek Drives’£10m investment will see further expansion of its global headquarters inWelshpool Industrial edge app store works like consumer stores