The food and drink sector is not, on the face of it, an obvious candidate for the attentions of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network, thanks to its traditional reliance on manual labour and the large number of SMEs involved. But Ken Young, Technology Director at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), believes the sector is ripe for a digital revolution.
An advanced teaching and research facility which engages directly with industry and provides students with real-world experience on live, engineering-related projects has been officially launched at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
“The devil might be in the detail – but God is in the system.” Dr Paul Stead interviews Hugo Spowers, founder and CEO of Riversimple Movement - the 18 year-old Anglo-Welsh mobility start-up with ambitious plans to change the world.
The British company behind the cutting-edge wheels fitted to some of the world’s leading performance vehicle brands, including Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche, Lamborghini and the Jaguar F-Type, is embarking on an ambitious growth and development strategy:
How can manufacturers develop sophisticated customisable products at scale, such as printing electronics onto large curved glass surfaces, that are affordable both for the manufacturer and for the consumer?
From long-distance ‘fabric handle’ to radical shortening of bespoke production schedules, it’s clear that in this age of digital transformation, manufacturers’ ambitions are limited only by their own imagination
Innovative businesses creating green alternatives to plastic bottles, cosmetic beads and synthetic materials are being backed by new funding from the government and Sky. Simon Edmonds reports on these and on new funding opportunities for UK manufacturers.
The rush into new fuels has intensified research into new ways to transmit energy, with the possibility of brand-new powertrains and engines very much on the table.
One of Yorkshire’s most traditional industries, textiles and clothing, is joining the drive to digitalise, and in the process changing the way clothes are designed and made.
Even if Brexit didn't exist, the UK automotive sector would be dealing with a number of serious challenges, from EU CO2 emissions penalties designed to force carmakers towards switching to electric vehicles (EV)s), to global trade tensions between the US and China, and China's determination to become a dominant global carmaker in its own right.
