Drives&Controls INSIDE FEATURING: DRIVES & CONTROLS 2026/2027 ANNUAL BUYER’S GUIDE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING: Standard defines new era for industrial robot safety TRANSPORT: Drives upgrade keeps Scarborough’s cliff lift running SENSORS AND ENCODERS: Smart profile sensor solves space problem AUTOMATION FOR MANUFACTURING JULY/AUGUST 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com Anniversary Supplement
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O4 YEARS CELEBRATING ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT CONTENTS n Drives & Controls is a controlled circulation publication. If you live in the UK and want to subscribe phone 0333 577 0801 or fax 0845 604 2327. Alternatively for both UK and overseas subscriptions please subscribe online at www.drivesncontrols.com. If you have any enquiries regarding your subscription, please use these numbers . The content of this magazine, website and newsletters do not necessarily express the views of the Editor or publishers. The publishers accept no legal responsibility for loss arising from information in this publication. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced or stored in a retrieval system without the written consent of the publishers. Paid subscriptions UK: £110 per annum Europe: £145 per annum Rest of World: £180 per annum Printing: Warners Midlands PLC., PE10 9PH ISSN 0950 5490 Copyright: DFA Media Group 2026 NEXT ISSUE The September issue of Drives & Controls will contain a special section on energy efficiency, as well as a feature covering developments in the food and beverage industry, and a look at what’s been happening in the world of service, maintenance and repairs. UPDATE 16 Comment 17 ABB Back to Basics 56 Gambica column 58 New Products 62 Design Data and Multimedia 209 Products & Services IN DEPTH Follow us on X @DrivesnControls Drives Magazine Web site www.drivesncontrols.com Follow us on LinkedIn @ Drives & Controls Join us on Facebook Drives & Controls Drives& Controls DfAmedia group 40 36 34 32 5 58 DRIVES & CONTROLS JULY/AUG 2026 Vol 42 No 7 Editor Tony Sacks t: 01732 465367 e: tony@drives.co.uk Production Manager Sarah Blake t: 01233 770781 e: sarah.blake@dfamedia.co.uk Marketing Manager Hope Jepson t: 01732 370340 e: hope.jepson@dfamedia.co.uk Financial Finance Department t: 01732 370340 e: accounts@dfamedia.co.uk ADVERTISING Sales Director and DFA Direct Damien Oxlee t: 01732 370342 m: 07951 103754 e: damien.oxlee@dfamedia.co.uk Sales Manager Sara Gordon t: 01732 370341 m: 07505867211 e: sara.gordon@dfamedia.co.uk Italy Oliver & Diego Casiraghi e: info@casiraghi.info t: +39 031 261407 f: +39 031 261380 Managing Director Ryan Fuller t: 01732 370344 e: ryan.fuller@dfamedia.co.uk Reader/Circulation Enquiries Perception-MPS Ltd t: 01825 701520 e: cs@perception-sas.com HEAD OFFICE DFA Media Group 192 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1BE t: 01732 370340 f: 01732 360034 e: info@dfamedia.co.uk www.drivesncontrols.com 5 News A round-up of the latest business and industry developments from around the world. 20 Technology Cutting-edge innovations in motion, power transmission, controls and related technologies. 30 Industrial Security Security is a prerequisite for functioning industrial safety, and is mandatory in the EU’s Machinery Regulation which comes into force next January. But how do you provide holistic protection for automation networks? 32 Resilience As manufacturers tries to recover from continued disruption from a variety of sources, an industry insider explores where factories are most fragile, and the steps they can take to ensure resilience. 34 Copyright A recent German court ruling could have implication for robot users everywhere. A robotics expert gives five reasons why you should care about what the injunction means for you. 36 Machinery Regulation The impending Machinery Regulation may be an EU law, but its reach is global, with implications for any UK machine-builders who are selling into Europe. We discuss some of the key takeaways for UK OEMs. 38 Robotics and Automated Manufacturing An expert explains how a newly revised standard covering industrial robot applications could affect robot users. Plus a report on a London start-up that is using advanced automation technologies to produce its low-cost smart labels that could replace barcodes and QR codes. And a look at the world’s smallest pharmaceutical palletising cell. 46 Sensors and Encoders Advice on adapting to a revised standard on sensors for use in sterile environments, and how a smart profile sensor is saving space for a Swiss firm. Plus a look at using encoders to achieve accurate load positioning, and how you can use motors as sensors to detect pump faults. 52 Transport A report on the world’s largest fleet of electric hydrofoil ferries that will soon be “flying” across Norwegian fjords at speeds of up to 46km/h. Plus how Scarbrough’s historic Spa Cliff Lift has been brought up to date using modern drive and control systems. 44 52 Average net circulation January to December 2024 Subscribe for your FREE copy now 20,514 20 91 ANNUAL BUYER’S GUIDE This issue contains the 2026/2027 edition of the industry “bible” for power transmission, automation and motion engineers, telling you who sells what and how to get in touch with them. 63 A special 28-page supplement marking Drives & Controls’ 40th anniversary includes a fascinating timeline showing how the automation and motion control industry has developed and evolved over this period. 56
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NEWS n 5 Industrial Strategy ‘attracts £380bn and supports 155,000 jobs in first year’ ONE YEAR AFTER THE LAUNCH of its Modern Industrial Strategy, the Government says that it has already attracted more than £380bn of private sector commitments to high-growth sectors, supporting more than £35bn in exports, and 155,000 jobs across the country. The Strategy is a 10-year plan aimed at increasing investment and driving economic growth, targeting, in particular, eight key sectors – including advanced manufacturing, clean energy and “digital and technologies” – that the Government believes will define the UK’s 21st century economy. In a report marking the first anniversary of the initiative, the Government says it is “helping to ensure the UK remains one of the world’s leading places to innovate, invest and grow businesses in the industries that will shape the future economy”. It adds that the Strategy is “starting to give businesses certainty and confidence, with joined-up decisions and faster action on infrastructure, planning decisions, energy support, skills gaps, regulatory burdens, the capital for innovative companies, and how government backs UK firms to compete and export”. The 66-page report, called Delivering the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy: Year One, declares that perceptions of the UK’s attractiveness to foreign investors have “rebounded”, returning the nation to joint second in Europe with Germany in 2026. It adds that the eight earmarked sectors (known as the IS-8) are more productive, and companies in those sectors pay their workers £7,900 more, than the national average. Among other things that the government says it has done in the first year of the Industrial Strategy are: n Supported small businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs with increasing access to growth capital, with the expansion of multibillion-pound public finance initiatives and pension fund reforms. n Ensured the UK leads Europe in attracting venture capital, capturing a record 48% of new European VC funding so far in 2026 – the highest rate in 16 years. n Created new laws to overhaul planning regulations, and introduced measures to ensure smaller companies in supply chains get paid on time. More than 130 trade barriers have been removed, creating £13bn in potential additional exports over five years. n Committed more than £1bn to train people with the skills to work in key industries – including 29 Technical Excellence Colleges serving more than 100,000 students – and launched a nationwide push to upskill 10m workers in AI by 2030. n Allocated £9bn for cutting-edge research and commercialisation of new technologies to create new companies – such as firms developing AI hardware – and introduced a £500m Sovereign AI Fund. A new business support Web site (www.business.gov.uk) has already attracted more than 750,000 visitors. While delivery of the Strategy is “moving at pace”, the Government admits that there is more to do. “The current geopolitical challenges make the Industrial Strategy even more urgent, and the impact of interventions needs to be felt by businesses and their workers, from reducing energy bills and red tape wrangles, to improving skills.” It adds that the Industrial Strategy’s delivery will accelerate in its second year. It has produced a roadmap predicting, among other things, that procurement and payment reforms will deliver benefits worth £7.4bn a year to SMEs from 2028. By 2035, its expects the Strategy to deliver 1.5 million more jobs, as well as strengthening supply chains and offering sustained market opportunities. www.drivesncontrols.com July/August 2026 THE CHINESE AUTOMATION giant Inovance has set up a UK operation, with an office in Manchester, to provide service and support to customers in the UK and Ireland. The general manager is Dominic Bowker, who has more than 30 years of experience in the drives, motion control and industrial automation sector, including periods at Siemens, Control Techniques and GE Converteam. He will be responsible for developing Inovance UK’s business and supporting its customers. Inovance is a $6.4bn industrial automation group which claims to lead the Chinese market for AC drives and servomotors. It is the world’s fourth-largest supplier of servodrives and seventh-largest supplier of AC drives. Founded in 2003, Inovance has more than 27,000 employees. Its portfolio includes motion controls, CNCs, PLCs, HMIs, controllers and industrial robots. From its office in the Cheadle Royal Business Park, Inovance will provide technical sales, support, training and guidance. “What attracted me to Inovance is the combination of innovative technology, strong engineering capability and a genuine commitment to supporting customers locally,”says Bowker.“The company continues to invest heavily in its product portfolio, helping customers improve productivity, efficiency and competitiveness. The establishment of a UK operation demonstrates that long-term commitment.” Chinese automation giant sets up an operation in the UK New College Durham is one of four Technical Excellence Colleges for Advanced Manufacturing, aimed at training around 65,000 skilled personnel for this sector by 2030 as part of the Industrial Strategy
n NEWS July/August 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 Data centres propel faster growth in LV drives market than previously predicted p ABB is buying the UK flow control, instrumentation and actuator specialist Rotork for around $5.5bn in cash, partly funded by the $4.8bn sale of ABB Robotics to SoftBank, which is due to close this year. ABB says the acquisition will strengthen its focus on automation and electrification, and expand its offering for large and complex infrastructure projects and industries. Rotork will operate as a division within ABB’s automation business. p Schneider Electric is buying the industrial data and AI software supplier, Cognite for $3.1bn. It says the acquisition will strengthen its position in industrial AI, adding that Cognite’s cloud-native platform, which combines a unified industrial data model with agentic AI capabilities, will allow users to “operationalise” AI in their plants, asset management and engineering workflows. Schneider plans to integrate Cognite into Aveva software. p Humanoid, the UK company developing industrial humanoid robots, has raised $152m in Series A financing, valuing it at $1.35bn. The funding – led by led by Prime Movers Lab, and including contributions from Schaeffler and Bosch – brings the total amount raised since Humanoid’s founding two years ago to $270m. It is the largest ever Series A funding for humanoid company in Europe. The company will use the capital to fund the next phase of its growth, strengthen its leadership, and accelerate its commercial deployments and business expansion. p Electro-Wind, the Stoke-on-Trent manufacturer of transformers, power supplies and other electrical equipment, has extended and refurbished its main production premises, adding new winding machines, ovens, air extraction systems and cranes. The 47-year-old, familyowned company now operates across three sites. Since acquiring its main factory in 2012, it has expanded its production capabilities, staff numbers, and the size and weight of its transformers. In 2024 its added new premises to make smaller transformers, allowing the main factory to focus on large, specialised projects. p The London-based spatial intelligence company, Slamcore, which uses proprietary visual AI and stereo cameras to track the position and behaviour of vehicles in factories and warehouses, has attracted $14m of funding from investors including ROKStar Ventures (a subsidiary of Rockwell Automation) and Toyota Ventures, bringing the total it has raised so far to $45m. In the past two years, Slamcore, which spun out of Imperial College in 2017, has deployed its technologies across more than 30 sites in Europe and North America. NEWS BRIEFS The Association of Electrical & Mechanical Trades (AEMT) has added three new categories to its annual awards for the UK electromechanical maintenance and repair sector. The first is an Electromechanical Champion of the Year award, created to recognise individuals whose skill, commitment, leadership and influence have made an exceptional contribution to the industry. In addition, the Service Centre of the Year category has been split into separate Small Service Centre of the Year, and Large Service Centre of the Year, awards, ensuring that organisations of all sizes can be judged against businesses of comparable scale. Entries close on 11 September, 2026. The winners will be announced at a presentation dinner in Coventry on 19 November. The 2026 award categories are: n Product of the year (sponsored by Sulzer) n Project of the year( EMiR Software) n Small service centre of the year (AEMT) n Large service centre of the year (Menzel) n Supplier of the year (DFA Media) n Contribution to skills and training award (Innomotics) n Rising star award (sponsorship available) n Electromechanical champion of the year (sponsorship available) n Sustainable organisation of the year (Hayley Group) n Diversity in engineering award (WEG) Details of the awards, eligibility criteria and online entry forms are available online at www.aemtawards.com AEMT adds three new categories to its awards for 2026 THE GLOBAL MARKET FOR lowvoltage AC drives will grow from $14.4bn in 2025 to $17bn by 2030 – an average annual growth rate of 3.4% – according to the latest research from Interact Analysis. This is an upward revision from the analyst’s previous predictions, driven partly by the massive expansion of data centres needed to process AI, cloud computing, cryptocurrencies and other intensive loads. Data centres are a highgrowth area for LV drives, with the US currently outpacing other countries in its capital investments. Over the period to 2030, Interact expects the Americas to achieve the fastest growth of any region, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5%. In 2025, the Americas represented 25.6% of the global market for LV AC drives, with revenues worth nearly $3.7bn. However, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region (excluding Japan) is still the biggest regional market for LV drives, accounting for 38.5% of the global market in 2025, with revenues exceeding $5.5bn.The region accounted for more than a third of the world’s low-voltage AC motor drives sales last year. The Emea (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region made up 29.8% of the global AC drives market last year, at just under $4.3bn, and was the fastestexpanding region with a growth rate of 4.7%. Although Europe has experienced weaker organic growth, the appreciation of the Euro against the US dollar has boosted the European market when measured in dollar terms. Interact predicts that global sales of LV AC drives will expand from $14.4bn in 2025 to $14.9bn this year – a year-on-year increase of 3.2%. “In the long term, we expect the low-voltage AC drive market to maintain a relatively steady growth trajectory over the forecast period,” says Interact market analyst, Renee Ju. “Our forecast is largely based on our manufacturing industry output tracker, under the assumption that market growth will be closely aligned with the performance of downstream industries. www.interactanalysis.com Global sales of LV AC drives by region (2024-2030). Source: Interact Analysis
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n NEWS July/August 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com 8 INDUSTRIAL ETHERNET ACCOUNTED for 79% of all new industrial networking nodes installed worldwide during 2025 – up from 76% in 2024 – according to the latest annual survey of the industrial networking market conducted by HMS Networks. At the same time, fieldbus technologies continued their longterm decline, accounting for just 14% of new nodes, down from 17% the previous year. After a slowdown in 2024, the industrial networking market stabilised in 2025. The industrial Ethernet market grew by 12% last year, and wireless communications by 8%, while the fieldbus market shrank by 11%. HMS expects the number of new nodes to be installed over the coming five years to grow by around 7.7% a year, on average. Much of this will be driven by migration of the remaining fieldbus installations to Industrial Ethernet. Three industrial Ethernet protocols – Profinet, Ethernet/IP and EtherCat – together accounted for 75% of the global industrial Ethernet market last year, with all three increasing their market shares. Profinet rose from 27% in 2024 to 30% in 2025, EtherNet/IP climbed from 23% to 25%, and EtherCat grew from 17% to 20%. Trailing some way behind were Modbus TCP, which held steady at 5%, CC-Link IE, which remained stable at 3%, and Powerlink which slipped from 3% to 1%. Wireless technologies appear to have stalled, accounting for 7% of new node installations in 2025 – unchanged from 2024. Wireless retains its role as a complement to wired industrial networks, particularly for mobile equipment, machinery retrofits, and IIoT sensors located in hard-to-reach places. Although there is still significant interest in 5G, its rate of deployment in industrial applications remains slow. The most commonly cited barrier to its wider use is the complexity of private 5G infrastructures. The technology has yet to deliver the breakthrough in adoption that many in the industry had been expecting. Installations of new Profibus nodes dropped from 1.1 million in 2024 to 1 million in 2025 – a 9% decline. Profibus remains the largest player in the fieldbus market, but dropped from 5% to 4% of the industrial networking market. Modbus RTU held steady at 3%, reflecting its continued role as a universal low-cost serial protocol, while CC-Link, DeviceNet and CAN/CANopen each remain in the 1–2% range, with modest further declines. Profinet and EtherCat continue to lead the market in Europe, with strong activity around SPE (Single Pair Ethernet) for sensor-level connectivity, and APL (Advanced Physical Layer) for process automation. The decline of Profibus is most evident in Europe, where migration to Profinet is most advanced. Both Profinet and EtherCat are continuing to expand in the Chinese market, while CC-Link IE maintains a stong foothold in Asia. HMS Networks’ analysis is based on a combination of market insights, internal data, and input from key stakeholders in the industrial automation industry. When HMS started to publish its figures for the industrial networking market in 2015, Ethernet accounted for just 34% of new nodes. “Twelve years of data tell a remarkably consistent story,” says Magnus Jansson, HMS Networks’ director of product marketing. “The migration from fieldbus to Industrial Ethernet is now in its later stages, but the more interesting question is what happens next. “When nearly everything is Ethernet, the conversation shifts from ‘which protocol?’ to ‘what is running on top of it?’, functional safety, cybersecurity, TSN, OPC UA, SPE and IT/OT convergence. That is where the complexity, and the differentiation, will increasingly sit. “The 2026 numbers also reinforce something we have been seeing in our industry survey: cybersecurity is now cited by nearly half of respondents as a top integration challenge, and 93% expect OT cybersecurity to change substantially over the next five years,” he adds “The protocols matter, but the layers above them increasingly define how factories actually operate.” More News reports on our Web site We post many more news reports on our Web site than we have space for in the magazine. Often the site also carries longer, more detailed versions of reports in the magazine. Here are some of the stories posted since the previous issue of Drives & Controls. n US firm raises $18m to slash control panel build times by two thirds https://drivesncontrolsnews/2y0bmqg8 n Industrial AI plan aims to boost UK productivity by 2.5% https://drivesncontrolsnews/sdm6yah0 n 25% of UK manufacturers have moved production abroad – or could do so https://drivesncontrolsnews/jr3oidvz n Frameless motors result in small, power-dense geared actuators https://drivesncontrolsnews/qfk6a0eh n UK agentic AI platform could ‘revolutionise’ manufacturing productivity https://drivesncontrolsnews/jyni72pp n Skills shortages risk billions in AI productivity gains for UK manufacturers https://drivesncontrolsnews/xn2mpwvx n Fanuc works with Google to implement physical AI in robots https://drivesncontrolsnews/yrcxf5fg n MTC launches robot experience centre to boost automation take-up in UK https://drivesncontrolsnews/ud89tc39 n Austrian project uses AI to boost efficiency of industrial drives https://drivesncontrolsnews/d7cgxdhh n Congatec and Codesys join forces to virtualise real-time control https://drivesncontrolsnews/1thrkv16 n ABB links up with prosthetics pioneer to revolutionise robotic dexterity https://drivesncontrolsnews/yfajzpqc n 3D sensor ends safety bottlenecks for robots and industrial automation https://drivesncontrolsnews/x1c2jeae Industrial Ethernet dominates with 79% of new nodes in 2025 Three protocols dominate the global industrial Ethernet market, accounting for 7%% of new node installations (Source: HMS Networks)
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n NEWS July/August 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com 10 A 0.2% IMPROVEMENT IN THE efficiency of large synchronous motors and generators could deliver electricity cost savings of $9.5–12bn and avoid 60–75 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over the 25-year life of the machines, according to a new report from ABB. The 21-page report, called The Industrial Efficiency Gap, argues that highefficiency industrial motors and generators could unlock one of the largest untapped opportunities to save energy, cutting costs and reducing emissions for industrial users around the world. Analysing data from more than 1,000 large synchronous motors and generators that ABB built in Sweden between 2015 and 2025, the report finds that a significant efficiency gap persists between what most users routinely specify, and what is achievable by adopting the company’s Top Industrial Efficiency (TIE) approach, which specifies the highest efficiency motors or generators using proven commercially available technologies. Motors rated above 375kW currently account for around 10.4% of global electricity demand – a figure that is expected to double by 2040. By improving efficiency levels across the global installed base of such equipment by just 0.2%, the machines’ operators would be able to save $12bn in electricity costs over 25 years, with typical paybacks of a few months to three years. “Industry has spent decades optimising what happens inside plants,” points out David Bjerhag, who manages ABB’s global high-speed synchronous machines business. “Yet large motors and generators have rarely been part of that conversation, even though they run continuously for 25 years and sometimes even more, converting more energy to motion than almost anything else on site. “The gap between a standard machine and a TIE-optimised one is not technological,” he adds. “It is a specification gap. The companies closing it fastest are the ones where the engineer who selects the motor, and the CFO or CSO responsible for energy performance, are aligned around a single metric – total cost of ownership.” Last year ABB announced that a 5MW TIEoptimised synchronous motor for a steel plant in India had achieved an efficiency of 99.13%, setting a new world record. Over its lifetime, this machine is expected to save $5.9m in electricity costs and avoid 45,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, with a payback period of just over three months. The sectors with the biggest take-up of TIE machines are air separation and chemicals, where 85% of motor orders comply with the recommendations (and where the motor users who pay the running costs tend to be the motor specifiers as well). By contrast, just 10% of order from the oil and gas sector, and 15% of those for power generation applications comply. Applying the 0.2% efficiency improvement across the global installed base of industrial motors and generators would save 4–6TWh per year – enough to power between 750,000 and 1 million homes in OECD countries. Over the 25year life of a motor, that accumulates to 100– 150TWh of electricity saved – equivalent to that needed to power the UK for five months – with CO2 emissions reduced by 60–75 million tonnes. A 0.2% motor efficiency rise could deliver $12bn savings The UK subsidiary of the industrial gearbox and drive systems manufacturer, Stober, has appointed Josh Tolley as its UK sales manager. Tolley has spent the last decade specialising in motion controls, and was most recently a team leader in Siemens’ motion control business. At Stober, Tolley will work with Martin Preece, head of the company’s UK subsidiary. Another new arrival at Stober is Adam Anders-Holmes who has been appointed applications and solutions manager. Graham Ellis has retired from his job as binder UK’s sales director, after 17 years with the company. His career began in 1975 as an apprentice at AWRE, Aldermaston. This was followed by a move to ITT Cannon and a career in the connector industry with roles at Harwin, Cinch, Molex and Amphenol. Ellis joined binder’s new UK operation in 2009 as sales manager and helped to establish the brand in the UK market, before being promoted to sales director of the Hemel Hempstead based company in 2021. ABB’s calculations on the savings potential of large motors are based on analysis of more than 1,000 machines that it built in Sweden over a ten-year period EVENTS PPMA Show 2026 22-24 September, 2016 NEC, Birmingham The UK’s largest processing and packaging machinery, robotics and industrial vision event is expected to attract more than 350 exhibitors and 1,500 brands. The show will be the first that Automate UK has organised since it launched its Apprenticeship Cluster programme designed to address skills shortages in the manufacturing and engineering sectors. The show will offer advice and support to organisations on how to bridge the skills gap. www.ppmashow.co.uk Engineering Design Show 7–8 October, 2026 Coventry Building Society Arena The organisers say that EDS has entered a new era, with a sharper identity built around the show’s three core disciplines: embedded design, electronic design and mechanical design. They add that EDS is built around the needs of UK design engineers, connecting exhibitors with an engaged audience looking for innovations. More than 200 exhibitors and 4,500 visitors are expected, and there will be more than 50 conferences and workshops. www.engineeringdesignshow.co.uk Digital Manufacturing 2Day 13 October, 2026 MTC, Coventry This event brings together manufacturers, technology providers, experts and innovators to explore how data, automation and AI are transforming operations across the sector. Built around real-world implementations rather than theory, the event focuses on the practical challenges facing manufacturers today, from connecting systems and unlocking the value of data, to scaling automation and delivering measurable business results. https://eur.cvent.me/Pqmavv MachineBuilding.Live 14 October, 2026 National Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Stoneleigh Park The event returns to this venue for a second year. It is aimed at machine-builders, systems integrators and manufacturing professionals needing industrial automation systems. It is billed as “a unique opportunity to meet faceto-face with the largest array of machine building, systems integration and industrial automation technical experts ever assembled in one place at one time in the UK”. https://machinebuilding.live Advanced Engineering 4–5 November, 2026 NEC, Birmingham More than 9,000 engineers and 400 exhibitors are expected to attend the event that will also include talks by more than 200 speakers. The organisers say it is where engineers, manufacturers, technology developers and supply chain specialists come together to understand what is changing, what is emerging and what demands their attention. For the first time it will be co-located with the UK Metals Expo. The show is doubling its Enabling Innovation zone from 10 to 20 SMEs and start-ups. www.advancedengineeringuk.com
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n NEWS THREE UK ENGINEERING FIRMS – Siemens, Wymbs Engineering and HMK Automation & Drives – have jointly developed a robotic cell to help food manufacturers to automate complex and repetitive production tasks at a lower cost, with reduced risk and engineering complexity. The open platform brings robot control into the same environment as that used to manage other parts of a production line, eliminating the need for vendor-specific robot know-how, and making industrial robots easier to integrate, operate and maintain for food manufacturers. The modular cell can be adapted to perform a wide range of tasks, such as pickand-place handling, depositing products and performing customisation tasks. It can be reconfigured to perform roles such as injecting cream into doughnuts, decorating bakery products, or picking-and-packing products. The machine can be equipped with an industrial agentic AI application for contextual image recognition, and to provide operators with suggestions based on real-time data. For example, the agent can analyse unusual temperature readings, offer possible reasons, and suggest fixes. The industrial AI will offer a more accessible way to understand machine behaviour, investigate faults and support maintenance. It is intended to reduce reliance on specialist programming knowledge, and to help production teams to respond more rapidly if issues occur. Robots used in food manufacturing often rely on supplier-specific controllers, software and programming tools. The new open platform reduces this reliance by using Siemens automation components to control the robot alongside the rest of the production line, reducing the need for separate robot controls and specialist programming. The modular platform allows the cell to be adapted for different products and processes using software. This will allow faster product changeovers and give manufacturers greater flexibility to adapt to changing customer demands. It also means that manufacturers will be able to respond quickly to seasonal demand, or to new product launches, with the cell allowing custom decorations to be applied in batches as small as one. The machine uses off-the-shelf components that comply with IEC 62443, making repair and replacement easy and fast, while supporting cyber-resilience strategies. The launch of the cell comes as food manufacturers are coming under increasing pressure to improve productivity, protect margins and increase flexibility. The developers say their machine will improve the precision and repeatability of processes such as depositing, filling, icing and decorating. The platform has also been designed with future manufacturing requirements in mind, including cybersecurity compliance, and the wider use of industrial AI in production environments. “There’s huge potential for robotics and industrial AI to help food manufacturers overcome long-standing challenges around cost, labour availability and operational complexity,” says Lucas Laurie, Siemens’ key OEM accounts manager for the UK & Ireland. “But the technology has to be practical. Companies need systems that are easy to integrate and simple to support. “With Wymbs Engineering and HMK Automation & Drives we’re bringing robot control in the sector into the same standard automation environment many manufacturers already use across their production lines,” he continues. “That means robotics can be operated and maintained in a more familiar environment, rather than sitting apart as a separate system”. Siemens-led UK trio develops robot cell to make life easier for food firms The modular robot cell is designed to help food manufacturers to boost productivity, cut waste and increase precision
NEWS n ZZZ HSODQ FR XN THE ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS giant Wago is aiming to boost sales of its automation products in the UK from around £4m at present to £20m by 2030. This is part of a wider plan to drive the company’s UK revenues from £43.4m last year to £75m by the end of the decade. Over the past seven years, Wago has achieved an average revenue growth of 16% a year in the UK, tripling the size of its business. The push into the automation sector is, in part, a response to its dominant position in the electrical connectors market where it claims to have an 87% share of the UK installer market, limiting its scope for further expansion. At present, connectors account for around 80% of Wago’s UK revenues, with its automation products making up 20%. In other countries, the company’s automation portfolio represents a bigger proportion of its sales, so UK and Ireland managing director, Darren Hodson, wants to boost automation sales here to around 40% of total revenues. “It’s going to take hard work to get there,” he admits, adding that the company’s relationship with panel-builders and systems integrators is currently not strong enough. Wago’s automation products include PLCs, edge PCs, I/O systems, HMIs, IIoT devices, industrial switches, sensor/actuator boxes, couplers and software, including Scada. Wago has brought in John Mackey, previously with Siemens Digital Industries, to be its head of automation and sales, and tasked him with spearheading the automation drive. He is hoping to “disrupt” the middle section of the automation market, currently occupied by suppliers such as Beckhoff, Omron, Mitsubishi, Weidmuller and Phoenix Contact. Mackey is targeting the food and beverage manufacturing sector, in particular. Other target markets are electrical microgrids and data centres. Rather than positioning automation as a large-scale transformation that requires businesses to start again from scratch, Wago is focusing on using its open and scalable technologies to work with existing systems, helping customers to install, connect, monitor and automate their facilities in stages. Wago’s support for open technologies such as Codesys and the ctrlX automation operating system (originally developed by Bosch Rexroth) will help it to link up with existing installations. “Wago brings together strong German engineering with an open automation philosophy which puts us in an excellent position to help businesses modernise without creating unnecessary complexity,” says Mackey. Wago currently employs around 90 people in the UK, operating from a purpose-built £25m headquarters in Rugby, opened last year. The 63,000ft2 (5,850m2) site contains offices, a warehouse holding £3m of stock, training and demo facilities, and a production area where it assembles items such as terminal rails and cable assemblies. Over the past decade, the company has sold more than a billion connectors in the UK. Wago’s plans to expand its UK operation come as its family-owned German parent company celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding. Wago currently employs around 9,000 people globally and last year generated revenues worth €1.34bn – an 8% increase on the previous year. The company has more than tripled in size over the past seven years, and has a portfolio of more than 25,000 products. Wago targets a five-fold rise in UK automation sales to hit £20m by 2030 Wago UK and Ireland MD, Darren Hodson: it’s going to take hard work
n NEWS AGIBOT, THE CHINESE MANUFACTURER which was the biggest supplier of humanoid robots worldwide last year, has launched on the UK market and appointed several local partners to promote real-world applications of its technologies. The initial UK partners include Robots International, Extend Robotics and Scancom. The company, whose portfolio includes walking and wheeled humanoids as well as four-legged robot “dogs”, is offering a Robot-asa-Service (RaaS) model designed to make advanced AI robots more accessible without large upfront costs. Humanoid robots will be available to rent at prices from £1,999 per day, while quadruped robots will cost from £899 per day, including deployment and support. At a launch event in London, Agibot also unveiled its latest humanoid, the 173cm-tall Agibot A3, which has a 55kg body reinforced with magnesium and titanium alloys. A dualbattery system provides up to 10 hours of operation, and the batteries can be swapped in 10 seconds to achieve extend this. The robots can work together in groups, and achieve centimetre-level positioning accuracy, without any need to modify their hardware. At the event, Agibot’s president for the EU and the US, William Shi, said: “The UK is a strategically important market for Agibot’s global expansion. It has a strong innovation ecosystem, a mature partner network, and diverse real-world scenarios where embodied AI can create value. “We hope to work more closely with local partners to bring Agibot’s technologies, products, and service capabilities into practical applications, and to use the UK as an important starting point for broader deployment across Europe,” he added. Agibot has set up a demonstration facility in Milton Keynes where visitors can see its portfolio of robots in action, mainly in consumer applications. Agibot has recently produced its 15,000th robot, having taken just over three years from its founding in 2023 to reach volume production. According to the analyst Omdia, Agibot led the world last year in terms of the number of humanoid robots shipped (more than 5,100) and global market share (39%). Between them, Agibot and another Chinese manufacturer, Unitree, accounted for 71% of global humanoid shipments during 2025. As well as industrial and logistics applications, Agibot’s robots have also been deployed for security, data collection, hospitality, training and education duties. The company recently broadcast a six-day livestream of several of its humanoids at work in a real factory. The robots performed real production tasks, including quality inspection, under factory conditions. According to Agibot, in more than 64 hours of operation, the robots completed more than 64,000 production-line tasks with a success rate of 99.99%. www.agibot.com Chinese humanoid-maker targets UK market In a recent livestream, a team of Agibot humanoid robots performed real tasks in a real factory
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AUTOMATION ISN’T ALWAYS THE ANSWER You might think that a company called Frontline Robotics would be at the cutting edge of industrial production, relying heavily on advanced automation technologies for its manufacturing processes. But it doesn’t. And that is because of where the company is located, and what it does. Frontline Robotics is a Ukrainian manufacturer of drones and other weapons used by the country’s army on the frontline with Russia. To keep its products up-to-date, the company makes small changes to them up to 20 times a month, based on feedback from soldiers using the equipment. Every six months or so, it makes major changes to its line-up. Under these conditions, high levels of automation can limit flexibility. “Automation comes with cost of freezing the product version,” the company’s chief business development officer, Mykyta Rozhkov, told Business Insider recently. “With the amount of changes we are doing every month, huge fixed processes don’t work,” he explained. Not relying too much on automated processes is one of the keys that allows Frontline Robotics to innovate at the pace that it needs to. So the company is using a combination of machinery and manual assembly. It also designs its products so that they can be upgraded quickly. Another advantage of avoiding reliance on large automated machinery in Ukraine is that there is the constant threat that the equipment could be destroyed in a bombing raid, thus halting production entirely. Of course, producing military equipment under war conditions is not typical of manufacturing operations around the world. But the limitations of all-out automation and reliance on advanced technologies such as AI can be seen elsewhere too. The BBC recently reported that Ford in the US has rehired more than 300 “veteran” quality inspectors after finding that an AI-based system it had installed was not performing as hoped. Last year, Ford’s COO announced that the company was deploying AI across its entire industrial system, including the use of 900 AI-powered cameras designed to detect quality issues. But, according to Charles Poon, Ford’s vice-president of vehicle hardware engineering, the technology did not live up to expectations. “Mistakenly, we thought that just by introducing AI and ingesting the design requirements that we had, would produce a high-quality product,” he told reporters. But, the automated tools lacked the expertise of the veteran technicians, many of whom had left the company before their knowledge could be passed on. “We didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles,” Poon admits. So Ford has now rehired many of these experts. Their work will include training its systems and mentoring younger workers. When used wisely in the correct applications, industrial automation can be a game-changer for manufacturers. But it isn’t always the answer. Tony Sacks, Editor n COMMENT
Drives&Controls & BACK TO BASICS n SPONSORED BY The EC fan vs drive debate isn’t as simple as it seems Electronically commutated fans continue to grow in popularity, particularly in HVAC applications, but they’re by no means the only way to improve efficiency. Andrew Knight, HVAC services manager at Essex-based Gibbons, an ABB Value Provider, offers his perspective on the EC fan versus drives debate. The HVAC sector has been transformed in recent years with the increasing adoption of EC (electronically commutated) fans. They have plenty to offer for AHU (air-handling) applications. They’re compact, efficient, and often have a lower upfront cost than separate motor-drive configurations. Conversely, a separate drive and motor also has its advantages, particularly in terms of reliability, servicing, and long-term maintainability. EC fans may be less practical on larger duties, higher pressure applications, or where future access and repairability are key considerations. In these cases, an external inverter drive with a highefficiency motor, such as ABB’s SynRM technology, can offer a robust and efficient alternative. At Gibbons, we work with both EC fan and motor-drive systems. Over the years we’ve seen cases where EC fans were the obvious choice, others where the motor-drive was more suitable, and many where either option could have worked perfectly well. Ultimately, the right choice depends on the application. Whether the control element is integrated into the fan, or handled by an external drive, the principle is the same. Both options benefit similarly from cube law efficiency improvements. We see them less as competing technologies, and more as different ways of achieving the same goal – saving energy. The biggest efficiency gain comes from introducing speed control in the first place. A synchronous reluctance motor and drive will help you to squeeze the final few percentage points of efficiency from a system, but either configuration will already save vast amounts of energy compared to a belt-driven centrifugal fan without speed control. The best choice often comes down to practicality. In some installations, maintenance and longevity are the key considerations. A drive-motor system is generally more serviceable and typically has a longer life, and provides greater flexibility in higher pressure systems. EC fans meanwhile are an excellent fit for smaller AHUs, particularly if EC technology is already in place. Sometimes availability is a factor. We can often source motors and drives faster than we can EC fans, helping projects to move forward more quickly. Both EC fans and drives have an important role to play in improving fan efficiency, but despite what manufacturers on either side may say, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. It will always depend on the specific needs of the application. For more information, visit www.gibbonsgroup.co.uk The EB260 encoder from BAUMER combines the precision of optical sensing with durability, compactness, and the cost-efficiency of magnetic systems. This means new opportunities in Drive Technology and Factory Automation. • Ultra-Compact design only 11mm installation depth. • Multiple parameterisation options mean simple integration. • Sophisticated Baumer technology eliminates signal errors. • Smart condition monitoring features an integrated Airgap monitor. LowHarmonics is unique by way of merging high precision and superior reliability and the EB260 encoder illustrates the pioneering technology of BAUMER’s innovative sensors and encoders. Find out more at: www.baumer.com/c/91644 T: 01793 783 839 E: sales.uk@baumer.com LowHarmonics Encoder Opens-Up New Opportunities in Automation Both EC fans and drives have a role to play in improving fan efficiency
As Drives & Controls celebrates 40 years of chronicling industrial automation and motion control, it is fitting to reflect on another name that has become synonymous with progress in the drive industry: IMO Jaguar. Over the past four decades, the IMO’s Jaguar brand has earned a reputation for combining innovation, reliability and practical engineering. From some of the earliest compact inverter drives of the 1980s through to today’s high-performance intelligent drive platforms, Jaguar’s story mirrors the wider evolution of industrial motor control itself. Born at the Dawn of the Inverter Revolution When the first Jaguar drives appeared in 1986, variable speed drive technology was still emerging from specialist applications into the industrial mainstream. Large, expensive and often complex to commission, early inverters were far removed from the compact, feature-rich products engineers expect today. The Jaguar VL Series, launched in 1986, was among the first miniature three-phase analogue drives and established a design philosophy that would remain central to the brand: delivering advanced control in a practical, accessible package. Two years later came another milestone with the CUB VC150, recognised as one of the first lowcost analogue single-phase drives. This was followed in 1988 by the CD Mk1, the first digital threephase inverter in the Jaguar family to feature RS485 communications, bringing connectivity to a market that was increasingly looking for smarter automation solutions. These early innovations arrived at a time when manufacturers were beginning to recognise the productivity, process control and energysaving benefits that variable speed technology could deliver. Building a Reputation for Innovation The 1990s saw rapid technological development across the drives sector, and Jaguar was at the forefront of many of these advances. In 1993, IMO introduce D Inverter, one of the first DIN-rail mountable micro drives, simplifying panel design and installation. Just a year later, IMO launched the DXE series featuring sensorless vector control technology, allowing significantly improved motor performance without the need for encoder feedback. The arrival of the VX Torque Vector series in 1995 and subsequent Dynamic Torque Vector products further strengthened Jaguar’s position in demanding industrial applications. By combining higher starting torque, improved speed regulation and greater control accuracy, these drives helped expand inverter technology beyond pumps and fans into more sophisticated machine control environments. Industry recognition followed. By 2002, more than five million Jaguar inverters had been installed worldwide, a testament to both the scale of adoption and the confidence users placed in the brand. The Energy Efficiency Era While productivity and control remained important, the early 2000s brought a new focus: energy efficiency. n COVER STORY Four Decades of Drive Innovation IMO Jaguar:
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