PPMA celebrates its 500th member

Minebea Intec, formerly known as Sartorius Intec, a supplier of weighing, line inspection and process control equipment, is the latest company to join the association. The company has recently undergone a significant rebrand following its move to Japanese group, Minebea.

Speaking about the decision to join the PPMA, Colin Maher, Country Manager - UK & Ireland, Minebea Intec, says: "Following our recent rebranding and a significant focus on investing in new technologies, the time was right to join the PPMA to build the company's profile and highlight the new technological innovations we'll soon be launching for the manufacturing industry.

"The PPMA provides us with a significant platform to highlight our new product range as well as networking with our peers and potential customers across the processing, packaging and manufacturing industries."

Minebea Intec's product portfolio includes platform scales, process vessel and silo scales, checkweighers and equipment for detecting foreign objects for the food industry and other industry segments.

The company will also make its debut at the PPMA Show at the NEC, Birmingham in September 2017, which will be co-located with Interplas, the UK's leading plastics industry event. MineBea Intec will join more than 200 exhibitors that have already booked stand space at the UK's premier free-to-attend complete production line event for processing and packaging machinery.

Speaking about its record booking for 2017, David Harrison, PPMA Group Exhibition Manager says: "With more than 6000 sq. meters already booked, we're confident that the PPMA Show 2017 will be bigger and better than the previous edition in 2015. Interest was already strong at this year's Total Show event where many of the stands were booked, 12 months in advance. We had over 7300 visitors coming to discover the latest technological innovations and discuss key business opportunities and look forward to welcoming returning and new visitors to the NEC next September for what's set to be our biggest show yet."

Companies such as Schubert, ULMA Packaging, ABB Robotics, Mettler Toledo and Beckhoff Automation are already confirmed to exhibit and will be joined by new exhibitors, such as PPMA's 500th member, MineBea Intec and CPACK Packaging.

A memorable year

Valerio Del Vecchio, PPMA Head of Marketing, says: "This marks the end to a successful and memorable year and a great way to enter our 30th anniversary in 2017. We'll soon be announcing plans to celebrate 30 years of helping the industry and look forward to continuing to create value for our members through the provision of new and improved services."

The PPMA Group of Associations comprises the Processing and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA), British Automation and Robot Association (BARA) and the UK Industrial Vision Association (UKIVA). It was founded in 1987 with just eight "founder' companies and has since seen a substantial increase in membership as well as an expansion in the type of services offered.

It also launched PPMA BEST (Business Education, Skills and Training) in 2014 - a charity designed to encourage young people to enter and develop a career in engineering within the processing, packaging, robotics, automation and industrial vision supply industries through education, training and support.

Speaking about the PPMA Group, Dr Andrew Mint, PPMA Chief Executive Officer, comments: "We're delighted to welcome MineBea Intec as our 500th member. This is the biggest the PPMA has been since it launched in 1987 and we're excited to build on this as we enter our 30th year. The industry continues to show resilience and we're confident it will continue to build on recent momentum, with Brexit delivering a boost to exports and factory output beating economists' forecasts. It's a great time to be a part of an optimistic industry and we can't wait to see how this continues to develop in the months ahead."

For more information on the PPMA Group of Associations, please visit www.ppma.co.uk.