NEWS
investment in young people. As official training provider partner, Make UK will help to promote
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and develop the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme - an initiative designed to support firms to overcome skills challenges and build talent for future success. The programme equips manufacturers with the tools they need to
better plan for, attract and retain apprentices. It provides a host of best practice resources and peer to peer discussion forums to enable engineering and manufacturing firms of all sizes to replicate proven methods adopted by others that have successfully run apprenticeship schemes for some time. Make UK welcomes over 400 apprentices every year to its
Technology Hub in Aston, Birmingham, from customers including Jaguar Land Rover, Severn Trent, Ishida and Ibstock.
COMMENT
This month’s issue spans the whole arena of process-related technology where data plays a crucial role, including articles on Industry 4.0 and 5G, and the increasing prevalence and use of data in the water & waste treatment industry. Domino Printing Sciences
examines how Covid-19 has accelerated the digitisation of modern production lines (p8), while West Midlands 5G (WM5G) explains how it supports enterprises in the region to implement Industry 4.0 and 5G (p10). In the world of water & waste
treatment, Aiimi says the road to intelligent maintenance in the water industry starts and ends with data (p29), and SolutionsPT outlines what information silos are, and how contextualising data benefits this industry (p36). Data really is king!
Michelle Lea - Editor IMPROVING YIELD
available a new report for the dairy sector that includes valuable and practical operational information for engineers. ‘How to improve production yield in the dairy industry: an applications guide’, is essential reading for anyone tasked with delivering cost efficiencies in this sector. Many suggest the dairy
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sector is currently at turning point due to factors such as slow growth, shifting consumer tastes and growing price pressure. So how can dairy producers make advances in production yield? WMFTG’s report provides the
answers. “Intended as a ‘best practice’ guide, our new white paper reveals the technologies that can make a real difference,” explained Steffen Knoedler, senior business development manager at WMFTG. “And no, this is not about complete processing line reconfigurations, but simple, modest investments that offer significant returns over a short payback period.”
www.wmftg.com
atson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG) has made
MAKE UK BACKS INITIATIVE TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN YOUNG TALENT Stephen Mitchell, director of apprentices and technical training at
ake UK is backing a new initiative by support platform Next Gen Makers to help manufacturing and engineering employers retain apprenticeship talent and maximise their
Make UK said: “We know through our members that retaining young talent is just as much of a challenge as attracting them in the first place - and when a business has invested time and money in a young person, they want to see the long-term benefits, as well as helping the sector bridge the skills gap we currently face.” Adam Tipper, managing director at Next Gen Makers, added: “We
are delighted to have an organisation like Make UK endorsing and partnering with the programme. As the leading national manufacturing representative body and a Training facility, their insight and experience of apprenticeships is unparalleled and invaluable. Our first cohort of 20 manufacturers who’ve signed up to the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programmemet for the first time online last month, and we had very positive feedback from attendees - the future is bright.” Make UK:
www.makeuk.org E:
asrecruitment@makeuk.org Next Gen Makers:
nextgenmakers.co.uk/best-practice-programme
ROBOTS HELP PALLETISE SOFT DRINKS A
BB robots are being used as part of a palletising solution supplied by ABB Value Provider RMGroup to soft drinks company Radnor Hills. Enabling fast palletising of multi-packs
in a variety of combinations, the move has enabled the manufacturer to benefit from improved process efficiencies throughout their production. Manufacturing a wide range of spring waters, flavoured waters,
fruit juices and own label brands, Radnor Hills first approached RMGroup in 2018 to investigate automating an end-of-line palletising operation with a robot arm. On the line, packs of bottles needed to be palletised at a rate of 14
packs per minute. Given the throughput and pallet stack formats, RMGroup needed to ensure that the robotic solution could multi pick packs up to four at any one time, and then place them onto a pallet in one’s, two’s, three’s or four’s, to keep up with the production line throughput. Using ABB RobotStudio, RMGroup’s mechanical design and
technical department devised a solution utilising a bespoke gripper, enabling the robot to stack the packs onto pallets at the desired rate. By allowing RM Group’s engineers to experiment with different options, RobotStudio also helped to identify which ABB robot would be best suited for the project, optimising ROI. Following the success of the initial installation, RMGroup supplied
another two ABB end-of line palletising systems at the site. A second was installed on Radnor’s Tetra Pak line to palletise cardboard cartons from dual production lines at a rate of six cases per minute; a third line was installed on Radnor’s canning line, involving a much higher output of 24 packs, 12 of which needed to be palletised on euro pallets, at a rate of 20 cases per minute. “One of the key benefits of working with RMGroup is that they listen
to us,” said David Pope, Radnor Hills’ general manager. “They take on board our requirements and come back to us with solutions to make it happen. The whole team has been a pleasure to work with, especially the engineers, who have been extremely knowledgeable and helpful throughout the whole process.”
www.abb.com/robotics
4 SEPTEMBER 2021 | PROCESS & CONTROL
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