News

A recent study from trade show organisers Nineteen Group carried out for its forthcoming Manufacturing & Engineering Week event has shown that 78% of UK industrial companies are finding it either harder or much more complex than usual to find the employees they need.

Sponsored by recruitment firm Hunter Selection, the survey was carried out in April 2022 and drew responses from 268 companies operating in manufacturing, engineering, automotive, aerospace, and oil and gas.

According to the survey results, 51% of survey respondents said that the most significant reasons that roles are proving hard to fill is that applicants either lack the experience, skills or qualifications required, or are opting for jobs where they can work remotely work and which offer a more sustainable work-life balance.

The survey results show that the most challenging roles to populate are engineering at 57%, manufacturing at 42%, and technical at 42%.

When survey respondents were asked, “What do you think are the main causes of the skills shortage facing the UK manufacturing and engineering sector?” replies were roughly equally split between a variety of factors, including insufficient involvement of manufacturing in technical education; insufficient understanding of opportunities in modern manufacturing and engineering; and a lack of interest in manufacturing and engineering.

While the desire to join the industry diminishes, the number of vacancies continues to rise, putting added pressure on firms to offer more competitive and flexible job opportunities and show what a career in modern manufacturing and engineering is really about.

“The results of our survey show that despite being brought up with technology, the latest generation of young people often have little understanding of the many interesting career opportunities that are available in today’s manufacturing and engineering sector,” says Natig Abdullaev, Exhibition Director for Nineteen Group. “With its focus on innovation, our Manufacturing & Engineering Week event has been specifically designed to tackle misperceptions of industry head-on and show that it is an exciting and rewarding environment to work in.”

The survey also clearly indicated the impact of COVID-19 on UK manufacturing and engineering businesses, with 67% of respondents saying their business had either been wholly or partly affected by the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic caught many companies by surprise and revealed the need for greater resilience against unexpected shocks that can affect daily operation,” says Russell Smith, Managing Director at Hunter Selection. “For companies across multiple sectors, the combination of staff sickness, self-isolation and lockdowns had a significant impact on their productivity and revealed the need for back-up plans to be put in place to supplement and support workforces.”

Many of these issues could potentially have been resolved by using automation, with the latest generation of collaborative robots, for example, offering the ability to work safely alongside people to help fill gaps in production lines. However, only 35% of survey respondents said they had considered using automated technologies such as robots to either fill vacant roles or assist existing workers.

Says Joe Daft, Head of Robotics at Wise Robotics, “Although robotic automation has been proven to be beneficial for handling a wide range of applications across multiple industries, research has shown that many companies, especially in the UK, face challenges when it comes to adoption of automation. In many cases, this is due to those companies lacking the skills or experience needed to operate robots and other types of automated equipment.

“However, with many automation equipment manufacturers offering training and support for new users, there is a great opportunity for companies to switch to automated equipment to address the issues caused by a shortage of skilled or available labour.”

Amongst the organizations involved in the Manufacturing and Engineering Week event will be Engineering UK and Make UK, both of which actively work to find ways to fill the skills gap and attract young people into manufacturing and engineering careers.

The future of skills development in the manufacturing and engineering sectors will also be one of the topics covered in the Engineering Keynote Theatre at Manufacturing and Engineering Week in a session entitled ‘The Future of Technical Education & Skills Development in Manufacturing & Engineering’. Taking place on 9^th June, the session will be a panel discussion featuring experts from organisations including GKN Aerospace, Royal Mail, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, West of England Institute of Technology and North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, discussing the role of education in helping to fill the UK’s engineering skills shortage.

Manufacturing and Engineering Week will provide a great environment for visitors to see a wide array of the latest innovations covering everything from automated production, AI and Industry 4.0 technologies through to digital maintenance, cybersecurity and much more.

The week kicks off on 6 June with two days of digital sessions, featuring industry leaders giving their expert views on the issues and opportunities facing engineering and manufacturing today. This is followed by two days of live events, with four exhibitions at one venue taking place over 8-9 June – Manufacturing Expo, Engineering Expo, Maintec and Design Engineering Expo. With contributions from key stakeholders in Government, trade bodies and industry, plus a multitude of exhibition stands covering a range of technologies, the four exhibitions will showcase the most exciting solutions across the entire breadth of manufacturing and engineering, from design and development to processes, assembly, control, robotics, maintenance and skills development.

While Manufacturing and Engineering Week places are filling up fast, there is still time to book an exhibition space. To find out what’s available, or for more information about other opportunities such as speaker platforms or sponsorship, please visit the Manufacturing and Engineering Week web site at www.mandeweek.com or register your interest at www.mandeweek.co.uk/register-your-interest.

Lane Electronics has received a Silver Tier Award for exceptional performance and contributions to supply chain success for BAE Systems, Inc.’s Electronic Systems sector. Lane Electronics was honoured at a virtual ceremony and was selected from the pool of suppliers that worked with BAE Systems in 2021.

BAE Systems’ Partner 2 Win program is designed to achieve operational excellence and eliminate defects in its supply chain by raising the bar of performance expectations to meet the demand of current and future customers. As part of the program, BAE Systems meets regularly with its suppliers to transfer best practices to ensure that the components and materials that compose BAE Systems products meet the highest quality standards.

“We are very grateful for the partnership of companies like Lane Electronics and look forward to another year of exceptional performance,” said Kim Cadorette, vice president of operations for BAE Systems’ Electronic Systems sector.

About BAE Systems
BAE Systems, Inc. and its 35,000 people are part of a global defence, aerospace and security company with 89,600 employees worldwide. We deliver a full range of products and services for air, land, sea and space, as well as advanced electronics, intelligence, security, and IT solutions and support services. Our dedication shows in everything we design, produce and deliver— to protect those who protect us in a high-performance, innovative culture. We push the limits of possibility to provide a critical advantage to our customers where it counts.

About Lane Electronics

Lane Electronics Ltd – also widely known as FC Lane Electronics Ltd – is part of the Lodge Group which includes high reliability circular and military connector manufacturer Weald Electronics.

Lane Electronics is a franchised distributor for many of the industry’s leading electrical and electronic connector manufacturers including HUBER+ SUHNER, Souriau, Radiall and Pancon.

With a strong commitment to quality with IECQ – CECC, ISO and QPL approvals, Lane Electronics has a policy of holding large stocks and is also franchised to assemble connectors to customer specific requirements.

More about Lane Electronics at www.fclane.com

Anritsu Corporation is pleased to announce that the Global Certification forum’s (GFC) Certification Agreement Group (CAG) has approved the industry first Dual Connectivity Protocol Conformance test for Standalone (SA) 5G New Radio (NR) on the ME7834NR Protocol Test Platform at their CAG#70 meeting held in April 2022.

NR Dual Connectivity (NR DC) allows a device to connect to two 5G NR serving nodes concurrently enabling higher throughput, better coverage, and improved latency and reliability.

This is the first test where NR SA is operated over millimeter Wave (mmWave), and sub-6GHz frequencies simultaneously. 5G devices can now take advantage of the wider reach of mid-band sub-6 GHz frequencies along with the high data rates supported by mmWave.

The conformance tests are defined by 3GPP in TS 38.523-1 and have earlier been verified by Anritsu at 3GPP RAN WG5 (Radio Access Network Working Group 5). These tests have also been submitted to PTCRB (PCS Type Certification Review Board) PVG (PTCRB Validation group) for approval in the upcoming PVG#97 meeting.

The ME7834NR Protocol Conformance test Platform is registered with both the GCF and PTCRB as Test Platform (TP) 251.

The ME7834NR is a test platform for 3GPP-based Protocol Conformance Test (PCT) and Carrier Acceptance Testing (CAT) of mobile devices incorporating Multiple Radio Access Technologies (RAT). It supports 5G NR in both Standalone (SA) and Non-Standalone (NSA) mode in addition to LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LTE-A Pro, and W-CDMA. When combined with Anritsu’s new OTA chamber MA8171A and RF converters, the ME7834NR covers the sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G frequency bands.

Synopsys, Inc. and Analog Devices, Inc. have announced their collaboration to provide model libraries for DC/DC ICs and µModule (micromodule) regulators with Synopsys’ industry-leading simulation tool, Saber part of Synopsys’ virtual prototyping solution. With this new library in the Saber system-level simulation system, powertrain designers for products such as electric vehicles, avionic machines, instrumentation equipment and supercomputers can perform accurate multi-domain simulations with precision and speed, accelerating the design process and time-to-market.

“With robust and reliable Saber modelling for our power ICs and µModule devices, system designers can confidently rely on our services, focusing their attention on the rest of their complex designs involving field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, memory, sensors, and data converters,” said Afshin Odabaee, business development director for µModule Power Products at Analog Devices. “Collaborating with Synopsys enables us to deliver a powerful simulation solution based on Saber’s integrated environment for simulation and modelling, allowing our customers to accelerate their time-to-market.”

From developing an electric vehicle’s powertrain or charging system, to designing reliable aerospace systems, accurate models and powerful simulation are key to meeting competitive design targets. The availability of Analog Devices’ library of comprehensive component models in Saber enables design teams to perform simulations at various levels of abstraction, with multi-domain physical modelling and unmatched analysis capabilities to explore, measure, and optimise system performance.

“Virtual prototyping is essential to accelerate electronic system innovation and address reliability, design targets, software development, and system validation challenges,” said Tom De Schutter, vice president of R&D in the Systems Design Group at Synopsys. “We are proud to collaborate with Analog Devices to distribute their model libraries as part of our virtual prototyping solution. Together, we are enabling our customers to deliver innovative and highly optimised power systems for a broad spectrum of applications.”

NI and key partners have announced the deployment of a fleet of vehicles in Europe, the United States and China that will enable ADAS/Autonomous Driving engineering teams to address top challenges related to data volume, quality, access and utilisation.

The vehicles are equipped with the high-performance in-vehicle data recording and storage solution from NI and Seagate Technology, with integration services from ADAS experts Konrad Technologies and VSI Labs. The collaboration further enables a connected workflow by combining best-in-class technologies across the global ecosystem.

Ensuring the safe operation of all levels of automated driving is paramount to consumer adoption and acceptance of the technology. In addition engineering teams struggle with the need for vast amounts of high-quality data to train, test and ensure higher validation test coverage of their perception algorithms and hardware.

“ADAS data recording is one of the most complex challenges for the ADAS and AD domain, as data from multiple sensor modalities (camera, radar, lidar, ultrasonics, infrared, IMUs/INS, GNSS and vehicle networks) must be logged synchronously and analysed together to train and validate the performance of safety functions and features,” said Drita Roggenbuck, senior vice president and general manager, Transportation, at NI. “We are excited to team up with other forward-thinking companies across the ADAS and AD ecosystem to provide a solution to this challenge and bring the promise of autonomous driving safer and faster to the road.”

“The strategic partnership with NI has opened up tremendous opportunities for Seagate to take part in, like this meaningful project,” said Melyssa Banda, vice president of Lyve Mobile Solutions at Seagate Technology. “We are excited about the amount of data the research vehicles will collect, which will help take our joint ADAS solutions with NI to the next level.”

Through this initiative, NI and its collaborators will research, develop, and demonstrate industry leading capabilities involved in recording high-quantity and high-quality sensor data in the field, efficient data movement via data transfer services and increased data utilisation for training, analysis and validation of algorithms in the lab.

“This collaboration is a great step forward for the development of the PXI high-performance data-logging system. Synchronised collecting of real-world scenario data from several sensors and vehicle ADAS ECUs is essential to improve the performance of autonomous driving vehicles,” said Michael Konrad of Konrad Technologies. “This data can be used for the data replay to ADAS ECUs to test perception algorithms and to improve the overall performance.”

This initiative builds on the existing work between NI, Seagate Technology and Konrad Technologies, and announces a new collaboration with US-based ADAS research firm, VSI Labs. VSI Labs will conduct research while driving their ADAS recording-equipped vehicle across the United States in an effort to improve the use of data across the entire ADAS an AD engineering workflow. The data collected on the road will also help NI and these companies further evolve their joint solutions, ranging from data recording, simulation, digital twins, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.

“VSI is thrilled to be partnering with NI to test and validate their ADAS solutions,” said Phil Magney, founder, and president of VSI Labs. “Collecting data across a diverse range of scenarios throughout the Drive Series is crucial to furthering ADAS and AD applications, and we’re looking forward to hitting the road.”

Powelectrics has welcomed Laszlo Banyik, an Electrical & Electronic Engineering student at Staffordshire University, as part of their SAMPID programme.

SAMPID stands for Staffordshire Advanced Manufacturing, Prototyping and Innovation Demonstrator and has been set up to offer meaningful real-world experience to students, whilst driving innovation in advanced manufacturing sectors.

Laszlo will be using his academic understanding of IIoT technologies combined with his own engineering experience in various real world roles to enhance Powelectrics’ highly successful digital solution innovation programme.

Powelectrics offers over 30 years of expertise and practical experience in instrumentation and digitalisation.

It delivers IIoT solutions globally, customising its versatile suite of IIoT technologies to gather data from a vast range of sensors, machines and IIoT devices.

The company has developed a versatile suite of IIoT technologies that form ‘Metron Intelligence’, integrating GSM/GPRS, Sigfox, LoRa, RS232, RS485, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, CAN, MODBUS & IO-Link to our MetronView platform and from there creating reports, alarms and integrating data to other portals. More on Metron Intelligence here.

Powelectrics can get your data flowing … fast … from your first step towards digital transformation to an international estate of connected assets!

You can learn more, using the links below:

• Industrial Sectors 
• Digital Transformation Solutions 
• IIoT Products 
• Case Studies 

What can Powelectrics do for you?

Please browse the Powelectrics website and get in touch with any queries you have or applications you would like to discuss. Call +44 1827 310 666, email sales@powelectrics.co.uk or use this contact form.

RS is proud to renew its support for the GR MotoSport team at this year’s Bennetts British Superbike (BSB) championships. RS PRO announced tool partnership status for the 2020 and 2021 championships, and has continued this for 2022. This demonstrates RS’s commitment to helping young people fulfil their potential and its commitment to making amazing happen for a better world.

Alongside rider Storm Stacey – who joined the team last year at 16 years of age, remains the youngest rider in the championship – the team welcomes back Joe Francis, who has a strong track record and who helped the team win in 2013 in the British Moto 3 Championship.

RS’s support will be through the provision of quality RS PRO mechanical tools, to help the team keep the bikes in race-ready condition throughout this season at race events including Oulton Park, Snetterton, Brands Hatch and Silverstone.

RS Managing Director UK & Ireland, Emma Botfield, said: “RS is in a unique position to provide support in the way of high quality mechanical tools, which are a vital requirement for the GR MotoSport team in keeping their bikes in top condition for each race. The aim of the GR MotoSport team is to promote young riders through to title glory, and we wholeheartedly support that, which is why we’ve decided to continue as tool partner for the third year running.” 

The RS PRO range of tools available to the GR MotoSport team is from the selection of more than 60,000 quality products which are tested, inspected and certified to international quality standards before receiving the RS PRO seal of approval.

Brent Gladwin, Managing Director for the GR MotoSport team, added: “We’re thrilled that RS has decided to continue supporting the team, as the RS PRO tools are a key element in our repair and maintenance programme for the bikes – which can reach speeds of around 200mph. Safety is paramount, and we are confident in the RS PRO high quality tool offering and know from experience we can rely on these mechanical tools for our maintenance needs.”

The GR MotoSport team was present, along with GR MotoSport team rider Storm Stacey – with his racing superbike – at the recent RS Connect event, where more than 100 suppliers attended to network with the RS team and helped to promote the need for businesses to be more involved in helping young people achieve their potential in sport.

The Bennetts BSB Championship was founded in 1988 and is the leading road racing superbike championship in the UK. The season started at the end of March and will continue through to October 2022. For the full race event calendar, visit https://www.britishsuperbike.com/calendar.

Lane Electronics, a leading franchised distributor for many of the industry’s major electrical and electronic connector manufacturers, is pleased to announce it has once again been awarded the industry standard Cyber Essentials Certification. This is a mandatory requirement for companies who supply to the UK Defence Industry and has equal importance for its commercial and motorsport customers.

Cyber Essentials Certification ensures that a high level of cyber security measures are in place to protect against the vast majority of common cyber-attacks. All customers can be assured that Lane Electronics are constantly working to improve security across their IT systems to secure them against all types of cyber-attack. Certification requires compliance to a number of IT-related control parameters including firewalls, user access control, malware protection and patch management.

Cyber Essentials is a Government-backed and industry-supported scheme that helps businesses protect themselves against the growing threat of cyber-attacks and provides a clear statement of the basic controls organisations should have in place to protect themselves. It is the UK Government’s answer to a safer internet space for organisations of all sizes, across all sectors. Developed and operated by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Cyber Essentials is considered the best first step to a more secure network, protecting companies from 80% of the most basic cyber security breaches.

Gaining Cyber Essentials certification also enables organisations to showcase their credentials as trustworthy and secure when it comes to cyber security.

Lane Electronics are the preferred connector source across many industry sectors including defence, avionics, motorsport, marine, communications, medical, test and measurement, general industrial solutions and geophysical. A major source for all key connector types, Lane Electronics have a multi-million-pound connector and piece-part stockholding and can offer next-day delivery.

For more information call +44 (0) 1403 790 661, email sales@fclane.com or visit https://www.fclane.com/

From May 3 to 6, 2022, leading non-contact measurement manufacturer, Third Dimension attended Control 2022 in Stuttgart, Germany. At the event, existing customers, visiting manufacturers and distributors visited the Third Dimension stand to see demonstrations of the Vectro2 and GapGun systems. The stand also showcased how manufacturers can easily integrate the Vectro2 and software into operations, demonstrating to automotive manufacturers how they can automate their measurement processes.

To encourage a wider discussion around integrating software with non-contact measurement tools, software experts from G2Metric France joined Third Dimension on the stand to showcase its CoPiloT software. The software, created in collaboration between G2Metric and Galixia, was built to adapt to a variety of applications across a manufacturing site. Visitors learnt how to effectively integrate software with metrology devices to automate and streamline the data analysis process. Highlighting the simplicity of integrating the Vectro2 with the software and wider manufacturing system showcased how easy it is to create an accurate and traceable measurement process.

Third Dimension’s products are built to streamline gap and flush measurement, so the team tailored the stand to showcase how it supports the automotive industry. The highlight of the stand was a Vectro2, mounted on a Cobot to automatically take measurements on a car during the event. Third Dimension had discussions with large automotive OEMs to better understand their production processes and specific requirements, such as limited downtime and high repeatability. Visitors were also interested in the laser light feature on the Vectro2 and how it specifically improves the accuracy of measurements on complex automotive surfaces, such as reflective surfaces on cars.

“At Control, we have met so many new connections, rekindled existing relationships and learnt more about new upcoming technologies in the wider metrology industry,” explained Francois Froment, CEO at Third Dimension. “It is great to see Third Dimension being able to showcase its two most recent innovations that integrate the 14 different products we have showcased at past trade shows. We are looking forward to returning to Control again next year to learn more about our customer’s requirements and the new innovations entering the metrology industry.”

The GapGun was also a focal point, with many visitors testing the hand-held non-contact measurement device out on the car and aerospace parts on the stand. Discussions around how to connect it with software using Wi-Fi and testing the practicality of using the lightweight tool regularly on a factory floor were important learning points for a large number of visitors.

Control is an international trade show that brings together current innovative and emerging technologies in the quality assurance industry. The event allows manufacturers to hone their competitive edge by remaining as traceable and compliant as possible with the current technologies on the market.

If you missed Third Dimension at Control 2022, set up a meeting with them by getting in touch on the website https://www.third.com/contact.