Each day The Manufacturer compiles the top manufacturing news stories from around the web. To make your life a little easier, we trawl through all the major trade publications, broadsheets and business magazines to find you the most important manufacturing news each morning. Don't forget to bookmark this page and check back daily.
DS Smith invests €13m in innovative packaging solutions and significant production boost in Romania
DS Smith is increasing its innovation footprint in the Romanian market with an investment of over €13m in its Ghimbav production site.
The work at Ghimbav is expected to be completed by the end of 2023 and will support customers’ sustainability goals as well reducing carbon emissions on site.
This investment will support ongoing plastic replacement with customers, increase capacity by over 20%, and significantly boost productivity. With a continued focus on innovation, the investment will further differentiate DS Smith in the market by supporting customers to reach environmental targets. Find out more at The Manufacturer
Japan’s Marubeni and partners to invest $12.3bn in UK clean energy
Japan’s Marubeni Corp has pledged to invest 10 billion pounds ($12.3bn) with partners over the next decade in clean energy in the United Kingdom, according to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Wednesday.
Marubeni and the UK government signed the MoU, which includes Scotland’s floating offshore wind power business, in Tokyo. Find out more at Reuters
British electric van maker Arrival cuts a quarter of jobs in fight for survival
A British electric van maker once valued at $13bn (£10.6bn) is cutting one in four jobs as it scrambles to avoid running out of cash.
Arrival, which had planned to make electric vans in Oxfordshire and be a champion for UK vehicle manufacturing, said it would cut around 25pc of its staff to “optimise the deployment of its current cash resources”.
It comes as the company searches for a buyer and faces an end-of-month deadline to file delayed accounts to avoid being delisted from the US Nasdaq exchange. Find out more at The Telegraph
Unilever launches internal app with Google Cloud to support over 53,000 factory colleagues
Google Cloud and Unilever have partnered to launch a new app for employees, My Unilever. The app has been designed to digitally connect Unilever’s factory-based colleagues across the globe, enabling them to tap into Unilever’s digital resources from any location or device.
Built on Google Cloud, and delivered in partnership with Accenture, the My Unilever app unlocks the opportunity for Unilever’s 53,000+ factory-based colleagues to have easy and secure access to key Unilever systems. Find out more at The Manufacturer
Nissan Formula E Team demonstrates improvements in cognitive function with bespoke brain training program
Nissan reveals the results of its innovative and ground-breaking Brain to Performance program. The findings of this initiative, which studies driver brain function and anatomy, show how brain training protocols can successfully improve the cognitive functions of Nissan Formula E Team drivers.
Furthermore, the data indicates that racing drivers who participated in the Nissan Brain to Performance training experienced enhancements in complex decision-making, stress and fatigue resilience, and quicker reaction times. These improvements can help reduce on-track errors and maximize drivers’ pace and consistency.
Continual training could enable the Nissan Formula E Team drivers to reach the maximum potential of their brains in terms of clarity, which relates to their ability to perform in high-pressure environments, and speed, measuring how quickly they can process information. Find out more at Nissan
Plans for UK medical glassware manufacturing site submitted
A medical glassware group has submitted plans for a new production site in St Helens, UK.
SINA Medical Glass wants to change the use of an industrial site on land near to the recently constructed Glass Futures building.
The plans state that SINA will take over the building occupied by the J K Philips Group Plans which which operates a storage and distribution facility.
SINA Medical Glass will use the site to manufacture and supply medical glassware such as vials and test tubes to the UK healthcare industry. Find out more at Glass International
Velocity Composites gains £1.5m investment boost
Aerospace composites manufacturer Velocity Composites (Burnley, U.K.) has received an additional £1.5m from Seneca Partners (Newton-le-Willows, U.K.) as part of a successful £6.6 million funding round. This latest investment will enable the company to accelerate its growth in the U.K. and overseas following the opening of its plant in Alabama, to add to its U.K. sites in Burnley and Fareham.
Seneca Partners is an existing shareholder in AIM-quoted Velocity through its £50m EIS fund. It is an award-winning specialist SME investment business and the founding member of a network of companies which operate across the North of England. Find out more at Composites World
BAE Systems, Inc. names Dan Sallet to lead its Finance team
BAE Systems, Inc. has named Dan Sallet as its senior vice president for finance.
Dan Sallet is BAE Systems’ new senior vice president for financeIn his role, Sallet will be responsible for the financial operations of the company’s U.S.-based businesses, which employ more than 35,000 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden, and generated 2022 sales of nearly $12.6bn.
Sallet will report to BAE Systems, Inc. President and CEO Tom Arseneault, and serve as a member of the Inc. senior leadership team. Find out more at BAE Systems
Innovate UK-backed start-up to launch ground-breaking digital marketplace for 3D-printable car parts
An Innovate UK-backed start-up will launch a ground-breaking digital marketplace for 3D printable car parts.
Autentica Car Parts, based at Sci-Tech Daresbury, has developed a platform that allows OEMs, such as car designers and manufacturers, to sell spare parts designs to authorised dealers, distributors, and repair centres.
The first-of-its-kind solution enables Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) backed blockchain-protected and certified design assets to be 3D printed on-demand locally. Find out more at The Manufacturer
Airbus successfully tests A330 MRTT flight campaign for F-15 fighters automatic refuelling
Airbus and the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) worked together to successfully complete the automatic air-to-air refuelling (A3R) flight test campaign with the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and F-15 fighter, ahead of its certification in the first half of 2024.
Over the course of three weeks in August, a RSAF A330 MRTT made more than 500 automated wet and dry contacts with the air force’s full fleet of receiver aircraft, including the F-15SG aircraft, a customised variant of the US-built F-15E Strike Eagle air-to-ground fighter jet. Find out more at Airbus
