n NEWS January 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 THE CHINESE AUTOMATION GIANT Inovance has entered the European market for industrial AC motors with an IE5efficiency motor that uses a hairpin technology adapted from the automotive sector. Inovance unveiled the motors at the recent SPS exhibition in Germany, along with several other new ranges including variable-speed drives designed to meet European eco requirements, as well as families of articulated and Scara robots. Inovance claims that the flat winding and hairpin winding technology used in its new MV33 motors will allow their sizes to be reduced by two or three frames for the same output. The permanent magnet synchronous motors can operate in temperatures up to 60°C. The new MD630 variable-speed drives have been designed for the European market and support EtherCat, Profinet and EtherNet/IP. They comply with European directives and offer safety functions to SIL 3, as well as built-in filters and programmable logic. Inovance’s new articulated and Scara robots for Europe will initially be available for payloads of up to 20kg, but larger models will be released during 2025. The company claims to be largest supplier of Scara robots in China, with 20.8% of the market. It is also China’s fourthlargest supplier of articulated robots with a 6.5% share of the market. In China, Inovance sells robots that can handle payloads of up to 300kg. In 2023, Inovance achieved revenues totalling almost $4.3bn, with 47% of this coming from its industrial automation activities (33% came from the EV and rail sector, 17% from elevators, and 3% from robotics). The company employs 23.685 people and claims to be the Chinese marketleader in servo systems (with 28.2% of the market) and medium-voltage AC drives (with 15.9% of the market). It is also China’s secondlargest supplier of LV AC drives (with 17% of the market) and small PLCs (15.3% of the market). Globally, Inovance says it is the front-runner in elevator controls. It is also making inroads into servodrives, claiming to be the world’s fourth-largest supplier in 2023. In 2022, it says was seventh in global sales of LV AC drives. As well as the new products at SPS, Inovance also announced a new design philosophy that will eventually cover its entire product range, making its products easy to identify. www.inovance.eu Chinese automation giant enters European AC motors market p Rockwell Automation and Microsoft have announced an expanded collaboration aimed at “revolutionising” industrial transformation. They will provide manufacturers with advanced cloud and AI systems that deliver data insights, streamline operations and enhance scalability. The relationship combines Rockwell’s industrial automation expertise with Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities. Together, they plan to bridge the gap between traditional industrial practices and modern digital applications to unlock the full potential of industrial data. p Made Smarter Adoption North West, the regional digital technology adoption programme, has secured an additional £230,000 to help more SME manufacturers access cutting-edge digital tools. The new allocation from the Department for Business and Trade will back at least 10 companies to adopt technologies such as sensors, robots and 3D printers to boost their productivity and growth, create highvalue jobs, and support decarbonisation. p Global shipments of mobile robots will rise from 547,000 in 2023 to 2.79 million by 2030 (a CAGR of 24.1%) according to a new report from ABI Research. Revenues generated will rise from $18bn in 2023 to $124bn by 2030, it predicts. p A US automation company, Launchpad Build is opening a global R&D hub in Edinburgh to drive the development of its advanced robotics technology, Digitool, which is designed to cut production costs and time-to-market, while simplifying automation and boosting productivity. The company sees the location as a gateway to the UK and EMEA. The hub will employ a team of 24. Launchpad has been awarded a £2m Scottish Enterprise R&D grant towards the project. p The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) has announced that it has already sold more than 65% of the floorspace for its next Mach manufacturing technologies exhibition, which takes place in April 2026. The MTA expects the five-day event to attract more than 30,000 visitors to the NEC. p The Coventry automation and robotics specialist, Expert Technologies Group, has won a major contract from a Spanish automotive parts supplier, SEBN (Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze). The project, to supply two automated harness assembly lines for EVs, has been backed by €1.4m of support from UK Export Finance and NatWest. NEWS BRIEFS Inovance says that its IE5 motors can be two to three frame sizes smaller than others with the same output SIEMENS AND EPLAN HAVE SIGNED a deal that will make it easier to exchange data between Siemens’Teamcenter X and TIASelection Tool software, and Eplan’s Electric P8 and Pro Panel products. They say that this interoperability will make engineering and production processes faster, more efficient, and less prone to errors. The automated interaction between the companies’software will make engineering information from Siemens software available on Eplan, and vice versa. Users will benefit from a more efficient chain for machine and line engineering, making electrical engineering much faster, they say. The collaboration between the companies was agreed by Cedrik Neike, CEO of Siemens Digital Industries, and Prof Dr Friedhelm Loh, owner and chairman of Eplan’s parent, at the recent SPS trade show in Germany. “The partnership between Siemens and Eplan is a milestone in digital engineering,” Neike declared. “The optimised data exchange enables customers to realise their projects in construction, operation and expansion faster and more efficiently. With this collaboration we’re strengthening our Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem and are creating more value for our customers than each of us could individually.” Siemens-Eplan data-sharing deal will simplify machine engineering
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