Daily Manufacturing News Digest – the industry stories you should be aware of today

Posted on 18 May 2023 by The Manufacturer

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.

Autonomous vehicle specialist Aurrigo lays foundations for growth with encouraging post IPO results

The company behind the driverless Auto-Pod and a new autonomous luggage/cargo dolly for aviation has posted a promising first set of results since it listed on AIM.

Aurrigo International plc saw revenues reach £5.3m for the year ending December 31 and has immediately set-out ambitious expansion plans to maximise new contracts in its automotive division and an exciting multi-year partnering agreement with Changi Airport Group (CAG) in Singapore. Read more via The Manufacturer

Best first quarter for HGV fleet renewal since pandemic

UK demand for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) grew by 17.1% to 11,517 registrations in the first three months of 2023, according to the latest figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The fourth consecutive quarter of growth, driven by high demand from the haulage, construction and distribution sectors as well as an easing of long-term global supply chain disruptions, means the market is now just -2.9% below Q1 20191. Read more via SMMT

UK to join Biden’s emissions challenge as it forges closer energy security links with US

The UK will back President Biden’s drive to remove and store global carbon emissions as it forges ever-closer links with the United States on energy security.

Grant Shapps said the UK will join the President’s Carbon Management Challenge on a 4-day visit to the US this week. The Challenge encourages countries to rapidly cut emissions and develop removal technologies to capture CO2 and store it deep underground. Read more via GOV UK

MAS Precision Engineering invests £600k to expand into new markets

A family-run engineering business in Warwickshire has invested over £600,000 to expand into new markets after receiving grant support.

MAS Precision Engineering was awarded a grant of £20,000 through the Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This was on the back of a £236,000 investment in 2019 for a Nakamura WT150-T CNC turning machine. Such was the success in 2022, a further £239,000 was spent on yet another Nakamura CNC turning machine. Read more via The Manufacturer

BAE Systems and Iveco Defence Vehicles celebrate Amphibious Combat Vehicle’s debut

BAE Systems and Iveco Defence Vehicles (IDV) celebrated the international debut of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) at the FEINDEF international defense and security exposition. The ACV family of vehicles, developed and delivered by the strategic partnership between BAE Systems and IDV, supports the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) expeditionary mobility capability and is the only truly amphibious combat vehicle in full-rate production today. The vehicle on display at FEINDEF is the personnel variant (ACV-P), which is the base platform for the family of vehicles. Read more via BAE Systems

Ricardo supports development of hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger ships

HYdrogen powered Shipping consortium (‘sHYpS’) to design and develop hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technologies to power the next generation of zero emissions passenger ships.

The project involving 13 partners in six European countries will accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as a renewable fuel in the maritime industry. The work has been funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK Government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee. Read more via Ricardo

Erodex celebrates 50th anniversary with £400k automation investment

Erodex Group, UK leaders in the design and manufacture of graphite electrodes, tooling and fixtures is celebrating 50 years in business by investing £400,000 in automation at its state-of-the-art graphite machining facility in the West Midlands.

This year marks 50 years in business for the family-owned firm, who is looking to the future with the purchase of an automated pallet loading system to work in coordination with existing high speed machining centres. Read more via The Manufacturer