Capital Equipment

The Brixworth Engineering Co Ltd are justifiably proud that their first load manipulator (the Benco engine stand), designed and manufactured over 40 years ago, which is still giving sterling service. From that initial concept, the company have refined and developed products now capable of efficiently, effectively and safely handling unit loads of up to 20 tons.

Ineos Fluor is now specifying GEM steam traps throughout its UK plant following a trial carried out by Andy Davies, a Mechanical Engineer at Ineos Fluor’s Rocksavage site in Runcorn, Cheshire. Undertaken for his dissertation, as part of his BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering degree, Andy Davies’s findings have now been incorporated into a preference document issued by Ineos Fluor, identifying GEM as the company’s first choice for steam traps.

ATM Automation is fast approaching its 40th year and during this time the company has come to be recognised as a leading supplier of Robotics and Automation within the United Kingdom. Over the years ATM has inevitably become involved in a broad range of applications which often require a unique combination of technologies to provide the optimum solution. With such diversity in applications, ATM’s philosophy of actively seeking out and embracing new technologies has proven to be a major contributing factor in the company’s ongoing success. As a further commitment to these principles, Vision Guided Robot Systems have become the latest addition to the ATM portfolio.

ATM has, for many years, been recognised as the leading supplier of Robotics and Automation to the plastics industry within the United Kingdom. The introduction of the new MR20 – 7 Axis Robot is a further demonstration of ATM’s philosophy of seeking out and implementing new technologies and products which will provide their customers with a competitive advantage in today’s demanding environment.

Marking using lasers has become commonplace in many industries and applications indeed many of the every - day products which we take for granted, including the keyboard used to type these words, has been marked by a laser. There are however specialist or less common areas where lasers are used to mark products and we very rarely if ever hear about these. Products are marked with many different pieces of information and for many different reasons.

Aerotech’s new ALS130H series linear motor driven positioning stages have been designed for ultra high precision scanning and positioning applications where sub-nanometre level resolution needs to be combined with exceptional smoothness, high traversing speeds and fast acceleration over travel ranges up to 150 mm. The classic two-part stage design outperforms leadscrew driven alternatives with their inherent friction related stick-slip problems and offers a far higher load acceleration force than piezo based positioners.

With business today under constant pressure to increase output whilst reducing costs, many more companies are turning to automation to achieve these objectives. Assembly applications can be one of the most challenging areas of the automation industry, where in many cases intricate and complex components have to be handled and orientated at high speed. Success in this type of project requires a combination of skill and innovation on the part of the machine builder, together with detailed product performance and specification data supplied by the customer. Add to this high quality machine building components from dedicated suppliers such as WEISS UK and as SP Technology can demonstrate, you have all of the essential elements for a successful project.

The new E2S Hootronic has been successfully trialled at the Port of Felixstowe, where the cranes cannot operate without a functioning warning device. The port's cranes currently use traditional electro-mechanical hooters, which have several moving parts and are prone to mechanical failure. In the trial, hooters have been replaced by the electronic Hootronic, which overcomes this problem by having no moving parts, eliminating downtime and increasing productivity. The Port of Felixstowe is now enjoying the benefits of replacing failed traditional electro-mechanical hooters with the new Hootronic.

Steinmeyer, Inc. announced a new ultra compact precision positioning rotary stage. The model DT 65-LM offers a sleek low profile design with an overall height of 25 mm and length of 105 mm. This rotary stage weighs only 0.35 kg, but can support loads up to 80 Newtons. Driven by a piezo linear motor, it has a positional accuracy of 0.015 degrees, repeatability of less than 0.003 degrees and a maximum surface run out of 20 µm. Speeds up to 360 degrees/sec and accelerations greater than 10000 degrees/sec² are easily achieved.

The new 3M CUNO High Flow Filtration System has been designed to combine greater water flow rates with optimised performance. It has a compact filter and housing design that reduces costs by minimising system requirements whilst simplifying cartridge installation and removal.