Food for thought

The urgency of global challenges - climate change, resource scarcity, food safety - is accelerating. How can a growing world population of 9 billion by 2050 access healthy food? How can we make travel and commuting safer with less environmental impact?

Funding crisis on the horizon?

The partners of the Horizon 2020 SOMA Consortium recently announced the end of their highly acclaimed project to advance the state-of-the-art robotic manipulation capabilities for industry.

5G - a real security risk?

Countries and trading blocs have a long history of using regulations to ensure that all products, including imported goods, meet consistent expected standards. In the 1970s, the UL94 standard on polymer flammability was initially seen - outside the US - as a form of import control. Goods made of non-compliant polymers would simply be left on the quayside.

Watch this space

When is comes to the space sector, while it might be NASA with its Mars Rovers and planet-hunting probes, or Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its Falcon Heavy megarocket that grab the headlines, the contribution made by the UK’s space industry should not be underestimated. Indeed, the sector has seen significant growth in income, exports and employment in recent years, with total income now standing at £14.8 billion.

Bottleneck eliminated

When growth at Korean firm Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co meant order processing and picking lines were too slow to handle the orders in time, system integrator SMCORE proposed the Avancon ZPC-Conveyor concept.

Overcoming the Iceberg Effect

The case for investing in robotic process automation (RPA) seems incredibly strong. In practically every business, employees spend many hours per week undertaking repetitive manual tasks with data, such as copying and pasting, and capturing and rekeying. In the manufacturing environment, this is often even more prevalent.

A symbol of hope

The UK is ambitious to increase its trade with the rapidly emerging economies, and is prepared to prioritise it over maintaining trading levels with its established trading partners.

Automation gets a bad press - again

There is a problem here in the UK with the way some of the mainstream media portrays robotics and automation. Take for example the Sun’s recent coverage of the latest wearable safety technology being rolled out to warehouse workers at 25+ sites belonging to online giant, Amazon.

Auto-mate: Why automation can be a business’s best friend

Automation and the manufacturing/production industries are no strangers; they’ve been bosom buddies since the 1970s and have been quietly reshaping business for almost half a century. Few sectors have embraced automation so much and for so long. However, the world is changing and some within the sector are being left behind.

Essential up-skilling

With the engineer recruitment crisis continuing seemingly unabated and, in all probability, Brexit exacerbating the situation, the need to encourage more young people to study STEM subjects and subsequently pursue a corresponding career has been widely acknowledged. Whether or not such efforts ultimately prove a success remains to be seen, but in the meantime employers in the industrial sector could do much worse than to look at their existing workforces and make sure that they are achieving to