Machine Building

Split roller bearings cut the cost of bearing downtime

With supermarkets continuously driving down prices, despite rising inflation, food production is perhaps one of the most ultra-competitive industries in Europe today. As this pressure intensifies food processors and manufacturers are continuously looking for ways in which cost savings can be made. One area which may offer significant savings is the maintenance and servicing of production machinery; in particular the substantial downtime involved in removing and fitting rolling bearings which have failed, or require servicing.

27th November 2013

Students design hydraulic maintenance strategy for London Eye

Engineers from Bosch Rexroth, The JCB Academy and the EDF Energy London Eye have come together to give more than 90 engineering students access to the London landmark as part of their engineering diploma. The students, aged between 16 and 18, were tasked with designing a hydraulic maintenance strategy for the 135m high structure, which this year welcomed its 50 millionth visitor since opening in 2000.

26th November 2013

Partnership set to launch cooker and control system

Siemens Industry and Olympus Automation have partnered to deliver a system that reduces production time and enhances the quality of soups, sauces and ready meals to the global food and beverage market.

26th November 2013

Stainless steel enclosures specified for specialist vehicles

Eldon has supplied stainless steel enclosures to Fuller Tankers for protecting electrical components mounted on the exterior of the vehicles.

26th November 2013

4-axis machining centre for demanding positional tolerances

Huddersfield engineering firm, Reliance Precision, installed a Hermle 4-axis machining centre in January 2013 to improve the production of a tightly toleranced defence industry component. It was originally required in small batches but the customer raised the quantity to 1000-off per year, potentially for 5 years, prompting a review of the manufacturing process.

22nd November 2013

MIMO visible light communication networks to advance 5G

National Instruments and the University of Edinburgh have partnered to develop a test bed to improve indoor wireless communications capacity. Professor Harald Haas, lead researcher at Edinburgh and featured NIDays UK speaker, has pioneered a next-generation massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technique, referred to as spatial modulation, to power a highly energy efficient capacity increase in another step on the path toward fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications.

22nd November 2013

CIR emitters ensure PVC gelling during manufacturing process

Carbon infra-red (CIR) emitters from Heraeus Noblelight are helping Polyflor of Manchester to ensure gelling of PVC applied to a substrate before the web is further processed under an oil-heated chrome drum. The installation has prevented un-gelled PVC from running off the edges of the substrate, saving product as well as eliminating process and maintenance problems.

22nd November 2013

Laser cutter benefits from Huco-Flex M precision couplings

CadCam Technology, a UK manufacturer of industrial grade flatbed laser cutters and engravers, is using Huco-Flex M (membrane type) precision couplings from Huco Dynatork to help tolerate and compensate for any slight misalignment in its X-axis half drive shafts. The company's machines are so renowned for their accuracy that it is even possible to laser-engrave on paper!

22nd November 2013

3D measurement for railway bearing quality control

Olmec UK has designed a turnkey laser height system for inspecting bearings used in the railway industry. Using an LMI Gocator 3D smart camera, which includes an integrated laser source and optics and provides on-board processing of 3D data, the Gocator 2050 sensor system measures the height of various bearings used in bogies in the rail industry. The bearing consists of a number of different components and if any part is missing the height of the bearing will differ from that which is expected.

22nd November 2013