Machine Building

Renishaw's new pioneering encoder boldly goes into space

Renishaw has reached another milestone in the application of its technology by deploying products in space for the first time. The European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellite was launched from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on April 3rd 2014, with Renishaw's new space-encoder technology installed on the advanced Optical Communications Payload (OCP) of the satellite; part of an inter-satellite laser communication system. The OCP provides an optical Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) communications link via a pair of Laser Communication Terminals (LCT) by space telecommunications company Tesat-Spacecom (Tesat) of Backnang, Germany. The GEO LCT is currently accommodated on Europe's AlphaSat.

20th January 2015

High-speed laser machines with POWERLINK and openSAFETY

LASERVORM has developed a control concept for laser machines that works up to 40 times faster than comparable approaches. The real-time POWERLINK network guarantees the necessary high speed and precise synchronisation - down to the microsecond.

19th January 2015

Vapormatt Sabre installed at Ionbond demonstration centre

Vapormatt's innovative Sabre wet blasting machine has been installed at coating specialist Ionbond's demonstration centre in Switzerland.

15th January 2015

Overhead conveyor powered by Bauer improves plant productivity

While forklifts are excellent tools for transporting heavy pallets from place to place, they can also pose a very real risk to employee safety and cause damage to stock; this is especially true in a busy working environment. One Swiss drinks manufacturer found that its bottling plant was so busy that driver error was having a real impact on productivity. Fortunately it was able to reduce operating costs and increase productivity by installing an electrical overhead conveyor (EOC) with vehicles powered by Bauer Gear Motor.

14th January 2015

Brammer eases consumable ordering process with Invend

Invend, an industrial vending system from Brammer, is helping to significantly reduce costs and improve overall efficiency for a major packaging manufacturer.

14th January 2015

HepcoMotion in the frame at Samsung Innovation Museum

Samsung's impressive Innovation Museum opened in April 2014 in Seoul, South Korea, and boasts the development of the company's products from conception to the current day.

14th January 2015

Olmec supplies vision inspection system to automotive supplier

A supplier of injection-moulded components for automotive radiators has commissioned a vision inspection station from Olmec UK to eliminate the possibility of mis-labelled parts reaching the radiator manufacturer. Many component parts with only minor differences are manufactured, and the original manual inspection process involved operators attaching a label from pre-printed batches to an inspected part. Attaching the wrong label led to major problems at the radiator assembly stage.

13th January 2015

Powder presses: clear advantages thanks to new drive concept

Osterwalder AG is replacing the formerly used hydraulic drives by servo-electric drives in its new powder presses. The power is transmitted onto the pressing tool by NSK ball screws from the HTF series. The result: the systems require around 80 per cent less energy and produce pressed parts with a much higher dimensional accuracy. This reduces the amount of finishing work, such as grinding with diamond wheels, and cuts process and material costs.

9th January 2015

BOGE Paintline compressor drives classic motor car restoration

BOGE Compressors is delivering reliable compressed air to Classic Motor Cars Ltd for use throughout its car restoration processes. The BOGE Paintline compressor and BOGE EasiFit Pipework system, specified and supplied by BOGE Platinum Partner Diaphragm Pumps, have provided an approach that is dependable, energy efficient and quiet, meeting the requirements of the company and bringing peace of mind and consistent performance over long periods of operation.

9th January 2015

Coffee manufacturer gets lean with the help of robotic palletise

To increase the speed and efficiency of a coffee stacking line, one of the largest snack foods manufacturers in the world has chosen a KUKA robotic palletiser, from Linkx Systems. Key factors that influenced their decision were the machine's robust yet streamlined design and flexibility in handling two sizes of pallets.

9th January 2015