www.pwemag.co.uk The magazine for plant, works and maintenance engineers Annual Buyers’ Guide 2026 Welcome to the Plant & Works Engineering 2026 Buyers’ Guide It’s clear that both traditional maintenance methods and emerging digital technologies each have important roles to play. Understanding how to integrate these approaches effectively is key to making informed decisions about equipment and service needs. PWE’s Buyers’ Guide offers a comprehensive and accessible resource, providing essential information about a wide range of industrial products and services. Whether you are looking for condition monitoring systems, boilers, pumps, valves, or compressed air solutions, this guide connects you with leading suppliers across various sectors. It features both well-established companies and newcomers offering innovative products and services. As the UK accelerates its transition toward low-carbon industrial energy systems, hydrogen is becoming increasingly important in sectors where decarbonisation and energy resilience are strategic priorities. In these environments, hydrogen is not simply a new fuel, it introduces a set of interconnected assets that must be designed, monitored and maintained with the same discipline applied to high-performance manufacturing systems. Electrolysers, compression systems, purification equipment, storage infrastructure and downstream utilisation technologies each bring specific engineering and maintenance requirements. Many operate at elevated pressures or experience significant thermal and mechanical cycling, making asset integrity, diagnostics and control especially important. This places hydrogen firmly within the sphere of smart manufacturing and advanced maintenance practices. In hydrogen applications, continuous monitoring, leak detection, sensor integration and data-driven control are central to ensuring safety and reliability. For maintenance teams, mechanical expertise, instrumentation knowledge and digital competencies increasingly converge, as equipment health, process stability and risk reduction depend on integrated system performance. Equipment design also requires careful attention: materials compatibility, sealing strategies, actuation methods and appropriate maintenance intervals must reflect hydrogen’s unique characteristics. Experience from 2025 has shown that hydrogen initiatives advance most effectively when industrial engineering, automation and asset management expertise are embedded from the outset, alongside regulatory and safety considerations. Maintenance 4.0, already shaping asset strategies across UK industry, aligns naturally with these needs. Condition monitoring, predictive analytics and intelligent control systems directly support reliability, uptime and safety in hydrogen-enabled operations. For many organisations, the most resilient approach will be a hybrid model that combines trusted maintenance practice with the benefits of digital insight, ensuring both compliance and operational robustness. Skills development will be vital. As experienced engineers retire, capability gaps are emerging across mechanical engineering, automation, digital systems and hydrogen-specific knowledge. Addressing these gaps will be central to maintaining competitiveness and enabling the UK to build and sustain hydrogen infrastructure domestically rather than relying heavily on external expertise. While the UK’s pace of digitalisation varies by sector, the combined pressures of energy costs, decarbonisation commitments and the operational complexity of new energy technologies are accelerating investment. Manufacturers increasingly recognise that integrating traditional know-how with smart technologies is essential to ensure reliability, efficiency and long-term resilience. PWE Buyers’ Guide is designed to help you identify suppliers offering both established engineering solutions and the advanced technologies required to support next-generation industrial assets. Whether you’re seeking proven equipment or the latest innovations in monitoring, control and predictive maintenance, the Guide provides the information needed to make informed decisions for your plant. We hope this year’s Guide supports your planning for 2026, helping you combine the strengths of traditional maintenance with the emerging demands of new energy technologies. On behalf of the PWE team, I wish you a healthy and prosperous 2026. Aaron Blutstein Editor
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