Business Secretary Dr Vince Cable was doing the rounds at MACH 2012 and Machinery was able to ask him about rebalancing the economy, which I and everybody else take to mean a shift back to manufacturing, away from financial services.
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What are your abiding memories of the Budget? The granny tax? Seen offensive to many for more than one reason, of course. A budget for a rebalanced economy? Well, we had the headline GlaxoSmithKline factory announcement just afterwards. The company is to build its first new manufacturing facility in the UK in almost 40 years and pointed up the budget's business-friendly measures of better intellectual property protection and lower corporation tax.
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Is it important to inspect, maintain and service machines on a regular basis? Harry McNiven, service manager with XYZ Machine Tools, says yes, but check supplier capabilities
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In our February issue, Machinery noted that the Nuclear AMRC has as part of its raison d'être the building of a UK supply chain, not just to support the UK's new nuclear build, but also to win business worldwide (see here).
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Machinery received a press release recently that screeched: "Industry Faces New Burdens as Banned Chemicals List is Tripled", in relation to the REACH process (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals), with trichloroethylene as one of the named "banned" substances.
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Defence expenditure in the world's largest military spender, the USA, is under attack, as is the UK's budget. The impact will be felt widely as a "golden decade" draws to a close. Andrew Allcock explains
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The boom was bigger, the bust larger than was thought. So said Chancellor George Osborne during his Autumn Statement. Growth will be slower, austerity more prolonged. So, where will the growth be coming from?
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A government-backed scheme to support firms' investigation of automation is welcome, but needs to be carefully managed. So says Barry Weller, a specialist robot engineer with Mitsubishi Electric
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The WorldSkills 2011, held in London at the ExCel, closed its doors on Sunday 9 October, following the awards ceremony. Machinery was present at the opening ceremony on Tuesday, 4 October, courtesy of gold sponsor Mori Seiki, which had donated 26 machines (was to have been 27, but Iran failed to show) to support the CNC milling, CNC turning and Manufacturing Team Challenge events.
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The euphoria that was associated with Jaguar Land Rover's announcement of the setting up of an engine plant in the UK, on the back of great sales figures for the company's vehicles, and creating up to 750 jobs, has been tainted by the announcement of the loss of 3,000 high value-added manufacturing jobs at BAE Systems, due to depressed/delayed demand for the Eurofighter and Joint Strike Fighter (F-35 Lightning II) aircraft.
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The iPhone and iPad are constantly in the news. Most recently, this has been related to its China-based Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn and its increased use of robots. The company said it will deploy 1 million robots over the next three years – it currently uses 10,000 robots.
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Andrew Allcock reviews latest thinking that ambitious countries may not turn to manufacturing, but jump straight to services to drive growth in their economies
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The rapid industrial rise of China and Asia is now written in history and demonstrable through the manufactured products on the shelves of UK stores. But is Africa the next region to put on a manufacturing spurt? Andrew Allcock considers this prospect
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It was back in 2006 that Machinery highlighted the UK's development of manufacturing technology for the production of optics for the next generation of so-called Extra Large Telescopes, or ELTs (see http://bit.ly/qSyR8p). One of the results, Cranfield University Precision Engineering Centre's BoX grinding machine was exhibited at MACH that same year, although development had started in 2004.
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Social networking websites and online business gets much attention, both from hungry investors and the media. Here in the UK, Silicon Roundabout in East London is currently much hyped. But it is traditional businesses that are the real Internet winners. Andrew Allcock explains
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Sometimes it's the seemingly simple things that have the wow factor. And that's just the feeling Machinery experienced when it got close up with XYZ Machine Tools' LPM machining system. I use the term 'machining system', but those who first make its acquaintance will see a vertical machining centre. Well, yes, but that's really a mistake, because the LPM machine is part of a system of working, one that is particularly directed to the efficient repeat manufacture of short run batches. LPM stands for Lean Production Machine, in fact.
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As the world continues to climb out of the financial mire, we have, once again, been reminded about natural events and their potential for impact on the economy.
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Composites are now; metals are old school. Composites are sexy; metals are dull. Yes, the talk is all composites: their use in aircraft, cars, F1, sporting goods and, reportedly, the next iPad and iPhone. However, Andrew Allcock finds that metals are fighting back
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Two features and one news item in this issue (May 2011) serve to underline how, with increasing competition from Asia, western firms can play to their strengths, exploiting lower cost countries to leverage their own businesses, either as suppliers or, for some, as customers.
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Simon Pollard, the new president of the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), told annual gala dinner attendees that the UK is a "great place to manufacture", but that he was looking for better support
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The 2011 Budget opens with a section entitled 'Rebalancing the economy' – shorthand these days for moving away from an over dependence on finance and towards making things.
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Over recent years, I have noticed that a new type of company is increasingly prevalent, the LLP or limited liability partnership. Metrology specialist Aberlink is one of the latest, it having become Aberlink Innovative Metrology LLP.
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The arrival of the updated Machinery Directive last year has not, up to now, seemingly brought with it the reams of technical press coverage that the entrance of the original Machinery Directive did when introduced in the UK in 1993. But, according to safety specialist Laidler, this iteration marks the largest change since the directive first appeared. (See article here)
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There is much focus on manufacturing's big hitters, like Rolls-Royce, and 'sexy' sectors, such as aerospace. But UK manufacturing is more than this, says Martin James, chairman of CRDM (www.crdm.co.uk)
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The Manufacturing Technologies Association's director general, Graham Dewhurst, was one of those called to give evidence in the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee's "First oral evidence session on Rebalancing the Economy: Trade and Investment".
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