Drives & Controls Magazine November/December 2022

THE NINETEEN GROUP, the exhibition organiser which recently acquired the Drives & Controls Show and its sister events AirTech and Fluid Power & Systems from DFA Media, has announced that they will appear as “zones” at the Manufacturing & Engineering Week event at the NEC in June 2023, before returning as standalone exhibitions in 2024. The week-long event – which Nineteen is promoting as “the Glastonbury of the industrial sector” – will combine live and digital events. It will include the Design & Engineering Expo and Maintec exhibitions as well as events that Nineteen acquired when it bought The Hennik Group, publisher of The Manufacturer , earlier this year. These include the Smart Factory Expo, the SME Growth Summit, the Sustainable Manufacturing Digitalisation Summit and the Manufacturing Top 100 Awards. “We launched the first Manufacturing & Engineering Week this year and I referred to our ambition as being about building a Hannover Messe type event,” says Nineteen Group CEO, Peter Jones. “However, in 2023, with the incredible additions we have made, I think Glastonbury is a more relevant reference point – something uniquely British that celebrates creativity and original thinking both on a large scale on our ‘main stages’, the centrepiece exhibitions, or on smaller stages, or virtually, where cutting-edge technology can be demonstrated, or industry thought-leaders can inspire through a series of topical sessions.” The main exhibitions will take place at the Birmingham NEC on 7 and 8 June 2023. The zone dedicated to Drives & Controls and the other former DFA Media events will provide educational content, including an Automation and Robotics Theatre. “We are so pleased to have the addition of Smart Factory Expo and Drives and Controls, and its sister events incorporated within Manufacturing & Engineering Week 2023” says Haf Cennydd, who is overseeing the Manufacturing & Engineering Week portfolio for Nineteen. “The sheer scale of our ambition for Manufacturing & Engineering Week means that it will produce a momentum and a focus on the industrial sector that will benefit all.” www.mandeweek.co.uk n NEWS November/December 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 Drives & Controls Show joins ‘Glastonbury of industrial sector’ line-up p Bosch Rexroth has bought the Israeli motion control and servodrive specialist Elmo Motion Control for an undisclosed sum. The move is aimed at strengthening Bosch’s presence in the smart factory, automation and robotics markets. Elmo specialises in compact, high-performance, precision servodrives and multi-axis controllers. It will remain in Israel along with its management and staff of more than 330. Bosch plans to enhance Elmo’s capabilities. p Plymouth-based Applied Automation has signed a sole UK distribution agreement with the Danish collaborative robotics specialist, Spin Robotics , to sell its easy-to-use end-of-arm screwdriving tools for cobot-based assembly applications. Spin’s products will be added to Applied Automation’s industrial automation products supported and sold through its technical distribution division in Cardiff. www.appliedautomation.co.uk p Rockwell Automation has bought Cubic , a Danish company that makes modular systems for constructing electrical panels. Rockwell says that combining Cubic’s flexible systems with its own intelligent devices and expertise will speed time-to-market for intelligent motor controls, and help to generate smart data for users. Cubic, founded in 1973, is expected to report more than $75m in sales for 2022. Cubic’s modular system can be used to create any type of electrical panel or switchboard using standard parts. p IoT connectivity vendor Moxa has formed a partnership with controls and automation distributor PES Group to stock and support its edge connectivity and cloud communications products in the UK & Ireland. PES will stock Moxa’s full range including Ethernet switches, fieldbus gateways, remote I/O and serial-to-fieldbus converters. It will also provide technical support, backed up by Moxa’s own UK applications and support engineers. www.pes-group.co.uk p The global market for “smart” production line conveyor systems – both linear and planar – is outpacing the general manufacturing and machinery market and will expand from $300m in 2021 to almost $1bn by 2026, according to new research by Interact Analysis. Sales grew by 27% in 2021 and are likely to expand by a further 36% this year. Over the period 2021-206, it expects the linear market to achieve a CAGR of 26.5%. www.interactanalysis.com NEWS BRIEFS Jones: something uniquely British THEGOVERNMENT is delaying the compulsory use of the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) safety mark by a further two years, giving businesses until 31 December 2024 to prepare for the scheme. Announcing the delay, Business Secretary Grant Shapps said it will give “thousands of businesses the freedom to focus on growth”. The UKCA mark is intended to supersede the European CE mark. Businesses have been able to use the UKCA mark since 1 January 2021 to demonstrate conformity with product safety standards in England, Scotland andWales. This is the second delay to compulsory implementation of the mark. In September 2021, its compulsory use was put back from its original starting date of January 2022 until January 2023. The government will now continue to recognise the CE mark for two more years, giving businesses more time to prepare for UKCA. They can use the UKCA mark now, giving them flexibility to choose which marking to apply. In a statement announcing the delay, the government says that“given the difficult economic conditions created by post-pandemic shifts in demand and supply, alongside Putin’s war in Ukraine and the associated high energy prices,”it does not want to“burden”businesses to meet the original (revised) deadline of 31 December 2022. The government is also reviewing the wider product safety framework“to minimise the burdens on business while keeping the UK’s system up-to- date with new innovative methods such as e-labelling”. UKCA is delayed by two more years