Machine Building

SKF's wire rope lubricator boosts ship management reliability

SKF's wire rope lubricator (WRL) is helping a Greek ship management services provider to maximise safety, cut downtime and significantly extend the life cycle of its ropes. Pantheon Tankers Management Ltd is currently using the specially developed service tool on 11 vessels in its fleet of oil tankers and is showing particularly positive results.

23rd December 2016

3D metal printing of spare parts on demand for drinks industry

3D metal printing provides an excellent option for the rapid manufacturing of spare parts in multiple industry sectors. Based in northern Germany, Jung & Co Gerätebau GmbH specialises in stainless steel, titanium and aluminium parts, and relies on additive manufacturing (AM) to ensure availability of spare parts to beverage filling plants as quickly as possible. The company's focus is to improve and sustain customer relationships by employing the latest technology, including moving to the next step in additive manufacturing. Thomas Lehmann, Managing Director of Jung & Co, collaborates with technology pioneer Concept Laser.

23rd December 2016

Moving plastics for train interiors from igus

There are few places inside a train where you'll not be within close proximity of an igus product. Whether it's an e-chain to gently guide chainflex cables safely above a sliding door, driven by a dryspin leadscrew unit, or iglidur plain bearings to adjust the seat into a comfortable position - they tend to go unnoticed, as they are silent running and, because they are self-lubricating, require no maintenance.

21st December 2016

Schaeffler supports novel UK-designed marine energy device

Schaeffler UK is providing invaluable engineering support to the development of a novel British-designed marine energy device that generates electricity from any form of movement.

20th December 2016

Universal Robots racks up the benefits at Etalex

Installing a Universal Robot to pick metal parts out of a press brake solved several automation headaches at Etalex, a manufacturer of shelving systems that had no room for safety guarding in front of the press and needed a flexible user-friendly robot able to safely handle the pick and place tasks in a high traffic area. The UR10 robot was up for the challenge.

19th December 2016

Controller increases performance levels and ensures compliance

Wieland Electric has provided a compactor control system for Pearce Compaction Systems that has increased performance levels, whilst ensuring that the company complies with all the necessary standards.

16th December 2016

Drive system upgrade saves energy for low-voltage equipment lab

Testing low-voltage switchgear equipment and electric power systems are the core competencies of the Institute for International Product Safety GmbH (I ²PS GmbH) test facility in Bonn, Germany. This location boasts one of the world's most efficient surge generator systems. During the modernisation of this system, the company decided to renew the available drive of the excitation generator. This was achieved by using an asynchronous motor with frequency converter technology from Eaton. The result increased the energy efficiency of the system, as well as its flexibility.

13th December 2016

Bearings for Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

A UK-based manufacturer of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines has specified angular contact ball bearings and housed spherical roller bearings from Schaeffler UK for use on its 4N-55 wind turbine, the world's first commercially viable medium-sized 55kW Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.

13th December 2016

FLIR camera: intelligent feedback sensor for real-time processes

Setting up a machine vision system and making all the different elements work smoothly can be complicated and expensive. To simplify this integration process, Eigen Innovations, a specialist in real-time monitoring systems for many industries, has developed a smart hardware module. And whenever possible, the company likes to include FLIR cameras exclusively because they are so cost effective.

13th December 2016

Renold chain enables peak performance

Renold Synergy chain has long been known for industrial applications, where its ability to outperform its closest competitors has seen it leading the market. What is less well known is that the same cutting-edge chain technology platform on which Synergy was built, has recently helped the Britain Cycling team to Olympic Gold.

13th December 2016