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Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2020
Jesse Lawrence
Southern Manufacturing & Electronics is the trade show based in Farnborough that draws in thousands of businesses from a wide range of manufacturing industries. Our MD Tom Jenkins, a well known figure in the market, went to visit the show and here he discusses his highlights.
This year’s Southern Manufacturing & Electronics show boasted over 800 companies exhibiting the machines, services, products, software and tools from all areas of the globe, with usual range of impressively large and fast machines occupying centre stage on some of the larger stands. Having asked around I would say the show is still very healthy with a reasonable smattering of answers to the question ‘Is it busier than last year?’ across the ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘about the same’ responses, leading me to conclude it is probably about the same, despite the usual less than friendly weather conditions at the Farnborough Airport Exhibition Centre. Amongst the 800 or so exhibiters there were a few that caught my eye, below are my show highlights.
Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF)
I’m not so sure how this caught my eye, because the finished product is very small indeed. BMF produce Micro-Precision 3D Printing machines, machines with the capability of 3D printing down to 2 microns using photosensitive resin. Maybe these are the tools to help drive the next era of miniaturisation.
Kardex Remstar
Specialists in automated warehousing solutions with their computer controlled vertical carousel offering a reduction in footprint, manpower and stock losses. The sales rep said it could be used for any industry, but in reality I think you are going to need a high value product or clean room type environment to justify the price tag. Nonetheless, an interesting piece of kit for the right customer.
Qimtek
Qimtek – Quotes in Manufacturing and Technology, produce an online free sourcing platform for manufacturing buyers, boasting the UK’s largest independent network of subcontract engineering suppliers. You upload your engineering project, receive multiple quotes and select your preferred one. The brochure states that it is 100% free from start to finish, but I’m fairly sure this only applies to the Qimtek part of the service.
Inovo Robotics
As well as the array of bespoke robotic solutions on display, there were a number of more universal robotic solutions, including the Inova multiple axis, modular robotic arm. Able to support a payload of up to 10kg and easily programmable via the computer interface, could this be the solution to automate some of your repetitive tasks? Maybe I could put one in the kitchen next to the kettle!
MLPS
MLPS are the UK agents for the SMSR1 sign maker system … which is a label printer! So why am I putting in my highlights list? Well, because of the integrated cutter within the printer it can print and cut the labels to any shape, meaning that you can print a single sheet of labels to go with, or apply to, your products which could include unique identification data too. A good solution for low volume bespoke labelling requirements.
Caddify
Caddify produce mobile apps., but what makes the Caddify app so interesting is that it allows manufactures to easily create an end user app to complement their products. With drag and drop features you can produce an app to go with your products to include product control, diagnostics and telemetrics, as well as adding manuals, training guides, tools, flows and parts locators.
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