Smart Factory Expo’s ‘Best of British’ exhibition is exactly that - a host of new and well-established UK firms showcasing a range of industry disciplines that The Manufacturer deems the cream of the crop.
Foreign buyers clearly trust British-made products and that’s why we at The Manufacturer are championing UK manufacturers
Along the atrium that lines the Exhibition Centre in Liverpool for the largest and most rigorous digital manufacturing show of the year, visitors are given to an assortment of innovative products from within the UK all celebrating what’s good about Digital Manufacturing Week.
Statistically, four out of ten international customers are willing to pay more for a product if it displays the iconic Union Jack flag, according to research by Barclays International Bank.
The same data of more than 8,000 people across eight key markets, also found that customers from Asia and the Middle East are the most likely to be swayed by the power of ‘Brand Britain’.
To that end, The Manufacturer is keen to carry on this winning tradition.
Niftylift is one of the largest manufacturers of mobile elevating work platforms (also known as cherry pickers) in Europe
2019 became something of a bumper year for The Manufacturer MX Awards, with a significant number of new companies entering the race to be named Manufacturer of the Year.
Among the nearly 50 top finalists who clinched the title, International Trade and Product Innovation & Design winners, Niftylift ltd, was certainly one that stood out to The Manufacturer as a worthy Best of British exhibitor deserving pride of place.
Niftylift is one of the largest manufacturers of mobile elevating work platforms (also known as cherry pickers) in Europe with customers throughout the US, the Middle East, Far East, Australia and South Africa.
It’s Niftylift’s innovative approach to service-based product supply with minimal environmental impact that gives the company a leading edge and surely contributed to it receiving the coveted The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Innovation 2019.
At SFE, Niftylift proudly states its “super-efficient, all-electric” battery technology enables the unit to work twice as long as conventional alternatives from a single charge, and the emission-free boom also means that work can be carried out indoors, unlike other non-electric mobile platforms.
Its electric motor also means “booms are quiet to operate, making them ideal for environments where noise is prohibited, such as residential areas or during night shifts”.
The Niftylift is designed using super-lightweight composite materials for low-cost transportation purposes and durability, and its hybrid technology engine design combines diesel and electric with a catalytic converter for reduced emissions output.
The Nissan Leaf EV on display during Smart Factory Expo
Nissan, another favourite among The Manufacturer team, is proudly on display at the Smart Factory Expo’s Best of British exhibition and a golden example of innovation with EV and automotive industry.
The Nissan Leaf was the carmaker’s top selling electric vehicle throughout Europe in 2018 and this year Nissan brought out the e+ Tekna model currently on display at SFE, which boasts more than 70 extra miles in drive range capability.
The Sunderland manufactured Tekna features advanced Nissan Intelligent Mobility technology, delivering 217PS performance capacity and up to 239 miles of emission-free driving from a single charge.
All Nissan Leafs can store more than 10GWh of electricity combined and the e+ 62kWh lithium-ion battery offers 55% more capacity than previous iterations, while retaining a similar shape and size.
A government subsidy of £3,500 is currently available to customers buying the e+ Tekna model.
Adding to the range of leading UK manufacturers at the Smart Factory Expo, is 3D additive manufacturing solutions provider and TMMX Operational Excellence finalist, Renishaw PLC, and high-speed high shear mixer manufacturers, Silverson Machines Limited. Silverson was an International Trade finalist at The Manufacturer MX Awards ceremony in 2019.
Silverson has been a world leader in this industry for more than 70 years, serving a broad range of customers from food and beverage, to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, to chemicals and lube oil industries.
“Part of the key to our success – and that of our clients – is the accuracy with which we can predict the performance of our production scale mixers based on laboratory trials” said Silverson.
Last, but by no means least in the Best of British line up, is the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing RB15 F1 car situated in front of each and every SFE visitor as they file into the main exhibition hall in Liverpool – a shining example of innovation and automotive ingenuity at its best.
The Manufacturer has long been enamoured by the way the race Team readily adapts to the pace of change within the sport, implementing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that centralises critical data on remote servers, improving data control, mobility and overall efficiency – to the use of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) consolidating multiple functions into a single server, making it easy to deploy and operate.
It’s gamechanger technology like VDI that enables Aston Martin’s remote workforce to be fully productive from any location, using any device – and the understanding that IT can scale virtualisation to every employee in a safe, cost-effective manner, which in turn encourages collaboration and accelerates decision-making and product innovation.
The Red Bull sponsored supercar qualified for the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at Autodromo di Monza on September 07, 2019.
Foreign buyers clearly trust British-made products and that’s why we at The Manufacturer are championing UK manufacturers, acknowledging their international prestige during the Smart Factory Expo and putting to bed that tired old trope that nothing is made in Britain.
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing RB15 at the Smart Factory Expo 2019
