News

sensemetrics, a global Industrial IoT (IIoT) and cloud technology company transforming sensor data into real-time business intelligence, has been acquired by Bentley Systems, the infrastructure engineering software company.

“Since our founding in 2014, we have advanced our vision to simplify connectivity and standardise industrial sensor data to bring active risk management and safety solutions to infrastructure, mining and construction markets,” said Cory Baldwin, CEO, sensemetrics. “The acquisition is a tremendous accomplishment for our team and an exciting milestone for us as we join the Bentley family to take our vision to the next level. We would like to thank X2 Equity, sensemetrics’ largest investor, for their unwavering support, guidance, and mentorship in navigating the challenges of developing and delivering disruptive technologies to the markets we serve.”

In its news release about the acquisition, Bentley Systems credits sensemetrics for making “widespread infrastructure IoT deployments feasible by providing simple and reliable means to connect, store, and stream sensor data from a wide range of sensor devices for continuous and automated condition monitoring.”

The acquisition follows sensemetrics’ recent expansion of its IIoT sensor automation portfolio, with the January 2021 launch of the Thread X3, a next-generation broadband IIoT sensor connectivity device, and the March 2021 introduction of the Strand, a cost-effective narrowband solution. Both solutions are designed for organisations seeking to reduce risk, improve safety, and increase visibility to key insights in complex infrastructure, mining, geotechnical and environmental sectors.

sensemetrics’ technology and talent will be leveraged to add intrinsic IoT capabilities to the Bentley iTwin platform, enabling infrastructure digital twins to incorporate real-time sensor data and ultimately, advance asset performance and mitigate environmental risks. More information on how sensemetrics will help accelerate Bentley Systems’ infrastructure IoT strategy can be found here.

“The acquisition brings us closer to our goal to effortlessly connect decision makers with condition monitoring data and insights that are critical to the safe and efficient operation of their assets,” said Baldwin. “The synergies enabled by extending infrastructure digital twins through infrastructure IoT are compelling, and we are excited to play a pivotal role in this advancement.”

X2 Equity CEO and Founder Marc Sperschneider added, “Cory leads a first-class team, and we thank them for what has been a great partnership since we invested. We have built significant value in the business together, investing in the technology platform and launching several new products while transforming the sales and go-to-market strategy – all enhancing the customer experience. On behalf of the entire board, I wish Cory and the team all the best for their partnership with Bentley going forward.”

sensemetrics, with global operations and offices in both San Diego and Denver, will add a staff of approximately 25 to Bentley Systems, including Baldwin and his leadership team.

Since taking over LCA Group in 2017, Managing Director Alan Sheppard has always maintained a focus on innovation, and the use of cutting-edge technology to further the firm’s manufacturing and assembly capabilities. The primary focus was on the investment in technologies that would speed up client approval processes and improve communication between departments. Since then, EPLAN and Rittal have worked closely with the Hawarden-based electrical engineering firm, supporting the company’s industry-leading turnkey service for electrical engineering projects.

Thanks to this trusted relationship, LCA was chosen to trial the new EPLAN eVIEW solution, which is part of EPLAN’s rapidly growing portfolio of ePULSE cloud-based services. To complement its EPLAN software, the firm has also invested in Rittal’s laser Perforex, Assemblex and Secarex machines.

LCA is a leading engineering company and was recently named the most innovative business in North Wales. From their state-of-the-art facility in North Wales, they provide electrical engineering services to businesses across the country, including project design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and maintenance. LCA also operates the UK’s first Rittal Automation Systems 3D laser machining centre, which makes it possible for them to provide industry-leading 3D design and manufacturing capabilities for its customers.

Versatile software

Underpinning LCA’s engineering and manufacturing operations is EPLAN’s Pro Panel software, which provides all necessary data for manufacturing like BOMs, drawings and flat projection drawings and integrates automation technologies perfectly in the processes of product development and manufacturing. This applies to the mechanical processing of the cabinet housing components and copper busbars, as well as for the control of machines in the cable and wire assembly. Even future-oriented automation technologies such as automated assembly of terminal strips or the robotic wiring of equipment are supported with the EPLAN Pro Panel package.

LCA also uses EPLAN Smart Wiring, a system that visualises the wiring and makes all wiring data 100% digitally available. Users benefit from a significant drop in the error rate and substantial time savings. This applies to last-minute changes in particular, as the software handles the sometimes complex task of comparing a project’s new state with its previous baseline. EPLAN Smart Wiring’s digital representation refers to the virtual model’s 3D layout in EPLAN Pro Panel.

Efficient processes and smart machines

At LCA, the EPLAN software interfaces directly with Rittal’s advanced manufacturing systems. These include the Rittal Perforex LC 3015 3D laser machining centre, a revolutionary system for the construction of sheet steel panels which automates processes previously done by hand. Using the facilities provided by EPLAN Pro Panel software, which has integrated 3D modelling, the Perforex LC 3015 can be programmed to perform measuring and machining to an extremely high degree of accuracy while processing panels in a fraction of the time previously required for these operations.

A Rittal Secarex cutting centre to cut DIN mounting rails, C rails and cable ducts is also used by LCA. This machine offers considerable cost savings thanks to improved quality and reduced waste rates and is far more efficient than manual cutting. The Secarex centre includes a state-of-the-art operating station with an industrial PC, a 18.5 inch monitor and a keyboard with trackball. It also features pre-defined templates for various sizes of DIN rail and has an integrated label printer for project-related labelling of support rails and cable ducts.

LCA also uses the Rittal Averex system, which is the world’s first robotic wiring centre. This is an automated solution for machinery, control enclosure and switchgear manufacturers that saves time and money by eliminating the need to wire mounting plates manually. The Averex system cuts the wires to the correct length, before stripping them and crimping them with wire ferrules. Then it feeds the wires through the cable duct and attaches them to components such as terminal blocks, contactors and motor circuit breakers.

On average, it takes around 180 seconds to complete this wiring process manually – but Averex finishes the same task in approximately 40 seconds. What’s more, it is exceptionally reliable, using lasers to identify the parts and check their dimensions against the assembly tolerances. Automation reduces the number of required working hours by around 15 per enclosure compared to manual wiring, based on a panel with 300 wires.

The combination of EPLAN and Rittal systems currently being used by LCA significantly accelerates the company’s design and production processes, providing efficiency and productivity that are close to those achieved in mass production environments – even in batch sizes of one!

Cloud-based solutions

Further to this, LCA was recently invited to trial EPLAN’s latest cloud-based products. The new cloud-based collaboration tool, EPLAN eVIEW, makes it easy for designers and customers to work closely together on projects, helping to speed up the design review process as well as reducing the need for design revision and reworking, resulting in substantial cost savings.

With EPLAN eVIEW, engineering projects generated using the EPLAN platform can be accessed directly via the cloud. This means that project data can be viewed anytime, anywhere, by anyone who has been granted access. One of the key features is a red-lining function that lets customers, employees on the shop floor and maintenance engineers add their suggestions for changes. These changes are then instantly accessible to the design engineers.

For LCA, EPLAN eVIEW is already making lengthy design reviews a thing of the past. Unlike most of its competitors, the company’s customers can mark-up drawings online and send their comments back to LCA within minutes rather than hours. In addition, using eVIEW means all drawings are accessed online, reducing the need for physical print outs, which not only saves money but also helps to protect the environment. Another benefit is that it provides a full audit trail showing previous versions, and a full history of change requests including who initiated, approved and made them.

New opportunities

“Working with EPLAN has created new opportunities for our business and has sharpened our focus on implementing innovative technologies, allowing us to situate ourselves as market-leading within our industry” said LCA Managing Director, Alan Sheppard. “EPLAN’s technologies help us maintain our competitive edge and grow, allowing us to deliver projects more efficiently. They also bring important benefits for our customers, which is always a prime consideration for us. We are confident that working with EPLAN will help us achieve even greater success in the coming years, especially as the ePULSE platform continues to develop and expand.”

Industrial automation enables the optimisation of machine performance, with equipment designers always looking for ways to reduce cycle times without compromising safety at little or ideally no increased cost. Pneumatic systems are a typical challenge to engineers where they are commonly used to move parts between workstations using an optimal combination of cylinder size, travel speed and air consumption.

The maximum piston travel speed for a given load is generally known, but optimising the rate of acceleration and, particularly, deceleration at each end of the travel brings additional factors into play. Stopping too suddenly generates high internal forces that may overload the cylinder, while insufficient deceleration results in a sudden impact when the load reaches the limit of the allowed travel.

Cushioning, where an internal damping mechanism is designed into the cylinder, enables an optimum level of deceleration to be achieved, but requires an application-specific adjustment during commissioning. As a cylinder wears during service, its set-up becomes suboptimal, necessitating readjustment. Process engineers require a monitoring capability that identifies deviations from the specified deceleration profile; ideally, this should utilise existing sensors to avoid increased complexity and cost.

CUSTOMER SOLUTION

The designers identified and specified a highly versatile, cost-effective solution to the problem, namely Contrinex’s SMART Sensors. The multiple sensing modes offered in a single inductive sensor provide all the answers in a compact and robust package, ideally suited to the demanding environment.

A sensor is embedded at each end of the cylinder to provide high-resolution, real-time measurement of piston displacement and also provide a cumulative data store that allows process drift to be monitored. Designed with the needs of OEMs and system integrators in mind, Smart Sensors provide an unobtrusive fit-and-forget solution.

As the piston approaches the deceleration zone, engineers use the Smart Sensor’s inbuilt one-shot timer feature to trigger a rapid succession of displacement measurements. Taken at known time intervals and recorded in the sensor’s data store, these measurements provide a velocity gradient during the deceleration phase that, plotted over multiple process cycles, identifies deviations from the piston’s optimal deceleration profile. Consequently, readjustment is scheduled only when necessary, minimising maintenance costs.

Mounted immediately adjacent to the piston travel path, these embeddable, metal-cased M12 Smart Sensors, which have a nominal 6-mm sensing distance for carbon steel, are highly robust and resistant to vibration and mechanical shock.

Capable of measuring both lateral and axial displacement directly, these devices also offer process engineers the option to monitor temperature, vibration and process cycle count.

IO-Link connectivity, standard across the range, provides an industry-standard interface to the machine control system; the Smart Sensor’s dual-channel capability also enables a local alarm to be triggered by an event-based exception, for example, over-temperature or excessive piston travel. During initial calibration, each sensor’s configuration is stored automatically on the local IO-Link Master; this allows plug-and-play replacement of sensors should the need arise, without any loss of functionality and without any need for recalibration.

PLUS Automation is the Master Distributor for Contrinex in the UK. Find more information and read other application examples go to www.PLUSAx.co.uk

Paragraf continues to push performance boundaries with its graphene Hall Effect sensors. Oxford Instruments, a leading provider of high technology tools and systems for research and industry, have employed a modified version of the Paragraf GHS09CC sensor device to carry out measurements at temperatures and magnetic field strengths far beyond the scope of any other sensing solution.

The test set-up saw the modified Paragraf GHS09CC device exposed to a 14T magnetic field. This was applied via an Oxford Instruments’ superconducting solenoid magnet. The temperature level was taken down below 100mK, using the newly released Proteox dilution refrigerator.

Normally under these harsh operating conditions, acquisition of field strength data would be impossible. The low temperatures involved would lead to quantum effects that would saturate the sensor. Even before reaching these extremes, other anomalies would impact upon sensor linearity, thereby making accurate measurements very difficult to achieve.

As Ellie Galanis, Product Owner at Paragraf, explains: “Though there are huge opportunities to carry out fundamental research at these temperature levels, Hall Effect sensors have not been able to offer mK operation until now. The tests conducted by Oxford Instruments underline the quality of the graphene substrates we can fabricate for cutting-edge electronic systems, as well as our innate ability to tailor them as customer requirements dictate. There is no other cryogenic temperature Hall Effect sensor that is rated to these operational parameters, showing that we can really differentiate ourselves here.”

“High-resolution field measurement at ultralow temperatures and high magnetic fields has always been a challenge” adds Benjamin Bryant, Senior Development Engineer at Oxford Instruments. “Conventional Hall sensors can suffer carrier freeze-out at mK temperatures, and even if they could still function their heat dissipation is much too high. Graphene sensors give us and our customers the opportunity, for the first time, to monitor high magnetic fields in-situ in ultra-low temperature experiments.”

High energy physics labs and other fundamental research establishments have previously had to rely on off the shelf cryo-rated Hall sensors (rated to 1.5K at the lowest) or expensive custom NMR probes. These generate a considerable amount of heat, and this has a detrimental influence on the ability to maintain a mK environment and therefore the results obtained.

In contrast, the Paragraf sensor generates 6 orders of magnitude less heat (dissipating nW rather than mW figures). Through optimisation of the constituent graphene, it can support linear operation – presenting customers with a ground-breaking sensing solution that is unmatched in terms of performance, data reproducibility and ease of calibration.

The Oxford Instruments Proteox dilution refrigerator was pivotal in these tests. It has the capacity to support precisely controlled temperatures over an expansive 10 mK to 30K range, even when subjected to very high magnetic fields. Competing dilution fridges, by comparison, can only cope with much narrower temperature ranges. It provides a flexible platform for addressing the scaling up of advanced quantum hardware solutions.

Paragraf’s mK capable sensors will pave the way for more advanced scientific instruments, with Oxford Instruments set to become one of the first customers in this exciting new area.

Farnell invites customers to participate in a free two-day technical webinar series hosted by Rohde & Schwarz. The webinars will cover a variety of topics around modern digital oscilloscopes with presentations from test and measurement experts at Farnell, Rohde & Schwarz and Wurth Elektronik. The sessions will be streamed on Tuesday, 18^th May and Wednesday, 19^th May.

The Oscilloscope Days 2021 webinar series will combine practical and theoretical learning principals to help electronics engineers overcome real-world application challenges and understand the methodology required for electronic design and test. The webinars are designed to enable participants to sharpen their knowledge of the fundamentals and extensive test features found in modern digital oscilloscopes.

The schedule for the webinars is:

Day 1 – Tuesday, 18^th May 2021

Two 90-minute sessions at 08:00am and 12:30pm BST

The first of the Oscilloscope Days 2021 will be split into two sessions. Session one covers the basics of how to choose a measurement setup. Participants will learn how to estimate the required bandwidth of their equipment and how to select the right instrument for specific applications. The operation of VNA, an oscilloscope, SPA and EMI receiver will also be covered. The second webinar will focus on the analysis of power integrity and DC/DC converters. Some of the key topics covered in this session include the importance of power integrity, the impact of switching semiconductors on a DUT and how to test a DUT’s power conversion and distribution parts. Day 1 will conclude with a look at the requirements of using high differential probes and filtering for digital transmission systems.

Day 2 – Wednesday 19^th May 2021

Two 90-minute sessions at 08:00am and 12:30pm BST

On Day 2, Rohde & Schwarz experts will dive deeper into how to achieve signal integrity and Bus analysis using oscilloscopes. Attendees will gain understanding of the influence a transmission line, filters and protection circuits can have on signal integrity while learning how to practically apply eye diagrams, protocol decode and USB trigger and decode. The second session will cover how to debug EMC from a device, including what instruments and accessories can be used for EMC debugging and how to qualify EMC during the development cycle using an oscilloscope.

Participants can register online now for the free Oscilloscope Days 2021 webinar series, hosted by Rohde & Schwarz in partnership with Farnell, in English, German or French.

Rohde & Schwarz is a leading supplier of solutions in the fields of test and measurement, broadcast and media, aerospace, defence, security, networks and cybersecurity. The technology group’s innovative communications, information and security products help industry and government customers ensure a safer and connected world.

Farnell offers a full range of products to support electronic design and test and available for delivery from stock, with no minimum order value and an educational discount programme. Customers have free access to online resources, data sheets, applications notes, videos and webinars with excellent customer and technical support available 24/5 in local language.

Farnell stocks a broad range of Rohde & Schwarz products including oscilloscopes, RF test equipment, signal generators and more.

CG Godfrey Ltd in Spalding is one of the region’s leading independent civil, mechanical and electrical engineering contractors, specialising in vacuum sewerage systems and deep drainage. With a directly employed and highly-skilled team, they have delivered projects for nearly 50 years.

CG Godfrey were early adopters of telemetry, keen to offer their strong customer base of District Councils, utility companies and private landowners the benefits of connected-sensor technology. They researched the remote monitoring market and came to Powelectrics, looking for an affordable pump monitoring solution that could deliver better customer service and differentiate them from competitors.

Following a successful assessment trial at South Holland District Council, Powelectrics‘ IIoT kit was approved and rolled out to other customers. There are now around a hundred Metron telemetry devices installed at District Councils, including Fenland District Council.

Devices are powered via the central pump station panel and have battery back-up in case of mains failure. They report hourly via GSM/GPRS to Powelectrics MetronView cloud, which generates alarms to indicate that a user-defined high level has been reached, there has been a mains power failure, Pump 1 has failed and, where appropriate, Pump 2 has failed.

Data and alarms can be received by unlimited authorised individuals. Members of the CG Godfrey team receive alarms and decide on appropriate action, ensuring that timely maintenance visits are made when necessary and that customers receive the highest standards of service. Customers also have access to data and alarms if they wish.

Karl Royce, Senior Quantity Surveyor at CG Godfrey told us, “We have used Powelectrics Metron kit for several years now. It has been reliable and robust from the outset. Our initial trial demonstrated that the kit was a great fit for this application. Installation is intuitive and there is great tech support from Powelectrics whenever we need it. Telemetry allows us to offer exceptional service to our customers and has helped us develop long-term partnerships.”

Metron4 can use external power or be battery or solar powered for use in remote and rural locations. Metron4 telemetry hardware supports 2G & 4G, offers operational temperatures – 25 to +65°C for global deployment and comes in an IP67 enclosure.

MetronView is a secure, scalable, intuitive and customisable cloud delivering sensor data & alerts on any web-enabled device. It also offers a common API to allow data to be drawn into other platforms.

Powelectrics offer 30 years’ experience in sensing and remote monitoring.

The company’s ‘connected sensor’ solutions are employed in many industries including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, Adblue, fuels, oils, LPG, lubricants, food and beverage, waste & recycling, landfill & leachate, agriculture, utilities, pumping and environment, rail and security.

For further information or to discuss your application, please call Powelectrics on +44 (0)1827 310 666, use this contact form or send an email – sales@powelectrics.co.uk

While the term Industry 4.0 was firstly coined in 2011, few companies have effectively implemented such technologies. However, as turbulent circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerate the need for digitalisation, should manufacturers sprint to invest in new automation tools? And if so, which ones? Here Neil Bellinger, head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation, answers these questions considering the latest automation trends.

A recent study by McKinsey reveals that businesses have vaulted five years forward in digital adoption in just eight weeks.

The costs and risk associated with early-stage technologies meant that traditionally, most manufacturers have taken a marathon-like approach to digitalisation — slow and steady. However, in an attempt to stay safe and remain efficient during the pandemic, businesses are suddenly sprinting forward, increasingly investing in automation tools that deliver fast and impactful results. So, what are the technologies that have had the most impact so far

Cloud services

The pandemic brought restrictions under various lockdown plans. These have emphasised the need to create resilient conditions for remote working and strengthened the necessity to invest in cloud solutions. While it is unclear for how long people will be forced to work from home, it is certain that cloud usage will rise.

Businesses that already have a cloud infrastructure in place, especially a multi-cloud one, are the most prepared for the effects of the pandemic. For those who don’t, cloud services can be a saving grace to allow them to serve their customers and protect their assets. Remote work increased the surface for to cyber-attacks, meaning that employees need to be more careful with their data. Cloud services can protect encrypted data, constantly monitor it and create automated backups. Nevertheless, cloud services will also be crucial in the digital-led recovery after the pandemic. The sooner companies adhere to cloud services, the more prepared they are for an uncertain future.

Digital warehouse automation

The pandemic has also generated the need to quickly respond to sudden spikes in demand, as well as be prepared for the possibility of disruptions in the supply chain. To do that, manufacturers have had to optimise their warehouses to ensure they operate as efficiently as possible. Not only are warehouses growing in size to meet market demands, they are also becoming smarter and safer.

For example, the usage of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) has grown significantly. The market for AGVs was already growing at a brisk pace of 30 per cent before the pandemic and has now skyrocketed. AGVs can connect to 5G networks and are imperative for optimising warehouse operations such as picking, transport and store products without human intervention. A industry that will particularly benefit from AGVs is food and beverage, due to the crucial need for picking and grasping technology.

Automated order picking systems are also growing in popularity. Until a year ago, 90 per cent of warehouse picking was manual. Smart warehouses today require systems such as pick-to-light, voice picking or mobile collaborative robots. For small and medium-sized businesses, a hybrid solution like pick-to-light, which requires the installation of LEDs and barcode scanners on racks and shelves, might be best.

The Forth Industrial Revolution might have started as a marathon, with manufacturers worldwide joining at their own pace. However, winning the race against changing markets mean that manufacturers should now take a leap forward and digitalise for good.

At EU Automation, we understand the pressure that falls on manufacturers and business owners and we can help them keep their production up and running by  providing the automation parts they need in the shortest period to avoid downtime.

To find out more about how we can help, visit www.euautomation.com.

To encourage young people to consider STEM careers, global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, held three virtual science workshops for school children. During one of the workshops, attendees made CD spectrometers using a cereal box, a CD, scissors and different light sources. The spectrometers helped the students learn about the different properties of light, such as refraction and reflection, and understand how Renishaw applies this to real life situations, such as non-destructive quality testing and medical applications such as the detection of cancer cells.

The workshop, run by Jennifer Ferguson, Applications Scientist at Renishaw, was Renishaw’s first outreach event that was specifically advertised as a science workshop focused on applications in engineering. Renishaw will continue this format in the future by running outreach events that focus on one specific STEM area – science, technology, engineering or maths – to encourage a wider range of children with different interests to engage with the events.

“The workshop took place when children were predominantly in virtual lessons, so we wanted to encourage them to do practical science experiments at home,” explained Ferguson. “We used materials that are commonly found in the home, instead of the spectrometer kits that we would normally provide during an in-person workshop. This adaptation encouraged more interaction from the children, and we had a very captive audience who asked great questions and engaged well through Microsoft Teams emojis and the comments box.”

“I felt privileged to see so many children, especially young girls, showing real passion for the sciences during the workshop,” commented Ferguson. “As a child, I always loved the diversity that science subjects gave, so it was great to help inspire a younger generation of future scientists, engineers and physicists to think about science and how it impacts the world we are living in.”

Renishaw is committed to bringing clear and positive messages about science, technology, engineering and maths into schools and colleges throughout Gloucestershire, Bristol and South Wales using its education outreach programmes. To find out more about the educational opportunities at Renishaw for local schools visit https://www.renishaw.com/en/education-outreach.

There was a time when prototypes for bespoke industrial enclosures were expensive and took weeks to produce. Thanks to advances in 3D printing, today’s prototypes are not only faster and less expensive to develop, but the increased possibility to make design tweaks creates a better final product. Chris Lloyd, Managing Director at Spelsberg UK, explains the advantages of 3D printing for industrial enclosure development.

3D printing was developed in the 1980s to speed up manufacturing development through the creation of rapid prototypes. Since then, 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing) has progressed to the extent that it has now taken over part, or even all, of the manufacturing processes for some operations. However, for the majority of applications, prototype development remains the most focussed use of the technology, driven by the increasing need for faster time to market.

For the development of new or bespoke industrial enclosures, 3D printing has significantly reduced prototype development time. For the OEM, the faster the time to make, test and approve a prototype, the faster their time to market and the quicker they can see a return on their investment. This is an ever-increasing trend, especially for industries where profitability is squeezed and the cost of labour and expertise is high. For some projects urgency is critical, and a prototype might be needed in a matter of days. This is what 3D printing can provide.

The capability of 3D manufacture itself means that a prototype can be created that is extremely similar to the final product, both aesthetically and based on the desired properties. Using conventional manufacturing techniques, the cost of developing a prototype is significantly higher, which can sometimes make new product developments unviable. Alternatively, 3D prototype production is faster and as the printer is usually segregated from the main manufacturing process, it doesn’t impact normal manufacturing flow in the way that a small run of prototypes would if they were constructed on the main production line.

Since taking on its first 3D print capability in 2008, Spelsberg has harnessed the technology to develop more advanced bespoke enclosure projects, doing so in much quicker time. Spelsberg can either work from supplied design files or collaborate with the customer to create the design. Print manufacturing is then achieved via the Polyjet process.

Using a digital drawing as the basis for production, the Polyjet printer applies extremely thin layers of plastic until the design is created to the given dimensions. Liquid polymers are jetted onto the printer bed and UV light is used to cure the plastic, hardening it. It’s also possible to design in features such as impact or heat resistance and in addition the prototype can be adhered, printed or metalised with aluminium.

This means that the enclosure prototype can undergo functional testing, such as IK impact resistance, and can also be assembled with components and electrical distribution to ensure that it meets the application requirements.

As the polyjet printing process takes place by applying very fine layers, it creates an extremely smooth surface, even for curves or joints, which means a highly realistic final product finish. Another benefit of the polyjet process is the versatility of the types of plastics which can be used, with diverse choice over colour type to aspects such as rigidity. If required, multiple material types can also be blended.

As a result of the flexibility of the development process, design changes can be rapidly implemented with new prototypes manufactured quickly. 3D printing can also be combined with additional customisation techniques such as CNC machining, all of which can be planned and implemented at Spelsberg UK’s Telford site. Crucially, this means not only a tailored design of enclosure, but a fast service which can be delivered in a matter of days.