n NEWS June 2024 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 A £37.6M DIGITAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE is being established in Belfast, aimed at revolutionising how UK industries develop products, services and systems. The UK Digital Twin Centre, led by the Digital Catapult, is being backed by Innovate UK, Belfast Region City Deal and three industrial partners: Thales UK, Spirit AeroSystems and Artemis Technologies. It is due to open later this year. The Centre is expected to contribute 230 new jobs to the manufacturing sector across the UK, and to generate £61m for the local economy in Northern Ireland by 2033. The Centre will run programmes for all levels of industry, from SMEs to large enterprises. It aims to accelerate industry’s adoption of digital twins by providing access to cutting-edge technologies, cutting the costs of producing digital twins, and developing suitable skills. It will also provide a space where industry, academics and the public sector can collaborate. The Centre’s industrial partners will deliver six initial use cases to demonstrate the potential of digital twins to transform the marine, aerospace and defence sectors. “Today’s announcement is a pivotal moment in realising the real-world value of digital twins for the UK,” says Deborah Colville, who has been appointed the Centre’s director. “The Centre will give businesses across the UK access to the expertise, technology and resources necessary to accelerate the adoption of digital twins to reduce design and manufacturing costs, help meet net-zero targets and drive competitive advantage globally.” £15m of the Centre’s funding will come from the Belfast Region City Deal to back core research, and to build skills and capabilities. The investment will support the region’s aim to build innovation and digital capabilities, increase productivity, help reach net-zero targets, and create more and better jobs. “This is an ambitious project that will bring exciting opportunities for collaboration and accelerate the fantastic transformation Belfast’s digital sector is already witnessing,” says Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris. “The UK Government’s £350m investment into the Belfast Region City Deal will be used to support this project and ensure that we continue to make good progress across the City and Growth Deal programme, bringing even more prosperity to Northern Ireland, and ensuring it is the best place in the world to invest.” https://digicat.org.uk/UKDigitalTwinCentre https://digicatapult.org.uk www.belfastregioncitydeal.co.uk Belfast will host £37.6m UK Digital Twin Centre p Hitachi is buying the German robotic and automation technology specialist, MA micro automation for €71.5m and plans to combine it with its US-based systems integrator JR Automation Technologies (which it bought in 2019) to accelerate the expansion of its automation activities. MA, which was originally Siemens’ specialist machine-building business, had a turnover in 2023 of €46.5m, and employs around 200 people. In 2013, MA became part of the Max Automation group, which has now sold the business to Hitachi. p The UK drives-maker Sprint Electric has received a further £1.9m of investment from the Foresight Group private equity firm, in addition to the £2m that it provided in 2023. The new funding will allow Sprint to enhance its business strategy and look for fresh areas for growth, based on its new generation of regenerative AC drives. It will also help to create jobs, including three at PhD level. Sprint has raised a total of £4.7m in the past 12 months. p Battery Ventures, a technologyfocused investment firm, is buying steute Technologies, the German manufacturer of switches, sensors and other products for automation and safety applications, for an undisclosed sum. Family-owned steute, which was founded in 1961, employs around 450 people. It specialises in sensor and switching devices for use in explosive or corrosive environments and extreme temperatures. It also supplies wireless technologies for automation applications, as well as medical-control devices for operating rooms. p The Danish companies, the cobotmaker Universal Robots and the manufacturer of AMRs (autonomous mobile robots), MiR, have opened a joint 20,000m2 headquarters in Odense, Denmark. Both are owned by US-based Teradyne Robotics. p The Swedish maintenance management specialist MaintMaster has bought Irish-based OEEsystems, a pioneer in OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) software. The acquisition brings together businesses with complementary strengths, and will help users to optimise asset performance, enhance productivity, and drive operational efficiency. Combining MaintMaster's CMMS with OEEsystems' software will give maintenance and operation teams a common view of the performance of their work. NEWS BRIEFS PHOENIX CONTACT’S PLCnext Technology open control platform has been given a boost with news that Festo is planning to use PLCnext in future intelligent devices. The first new Festo products based on the platform are expected to be launched at the end of this year. Festo says it has been looking for a partner with an open system approach to provide a suitable operating system. PLCnext’s open architecture will allow Festo to offer tailored automation systems to its customers. “We are convinced that the openness of PLCnext Technology will provide our customers with many advantages,” says the company’s chief IT and digitalisation officer, Gerhard Borho. “The openness of PLCnext Technology opens up the possibility for numerous suppliers to offer flexible, safe and modern automation technology,” adds Ulrich Leidecker, Phoenix Contact’s COO and president of its industry management and automation business. “The technology partnership with Festo represents a milestone for the automation industry. Because the more partners there are in an open automation ecosystem, the more valuable it becomes for each individual participant.” The PLCopen ecosystem now has more than 300 partners. Other users of the platform include Yaskawa, Ixon, CopaData and Codesys. Festo adopts Phoenix Contact’s PLCnext open control platform Digital Twin Centre director Deborah Colville: a pivotal moment
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