Category: Trends & Technology

The automotive industry is in the middle of a shift towards conventional vehicles with internal combustion engines. The move towards hybrid vehicles has rapidly picked up pace over the last few years and plug-in hybrids are becoming even more popular. The future is battery electric or fuel-cell electric vehicles, referred to as NEV – New […]

The way to sustainable warehousing is through automation, says Craig Whitehouse, Managing Director of Invar Integration. Creating more sustainable logistics operations is a priority for businesses, governments and increasingly, consumers. The warehouse is the beating heart of the supply chain, but it may not be immediately obvious that investment in warehouse automation can significantly contribute […]

One industry, countless applications. Plastics technology not only requires a wide range of machines, but also drive components that can be flexibly adapted. Benjamin Mönnig, Head of Application Sales at KEB Automation, explains what is important in plastics technology and why increased sustainability and plastics processing can work together in practice.  In which areas of […]

Why staying in control is important on the road to autonomy   For the public to fully accept driverless vehicles, they will need to be one hundred times safer than ordinary cars. That’s according to a recent report from the UK Government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI), which provides expert advice to inform the […]

The warehouse is undergoing a huge transformation, from repository to fulfilment powerhouse, but there are risks to growth that need to be addressed. Robotics, AI and digitalisation could hold the key to boosting capacity.  By Craig Whitehouse and Tim Wright, Managing Directors at Invar Group. What is the shape of modern warehousing and where is […]

Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT) and digitalisation – whatever you want to call it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is here and moving at a great pace. With the dawn of a new age upon us, nobody can fully calculate the impact and benefits the new world of industrial connectivity will have upon us. […]

Half of technology investment focussed on data and system integration, analysis by Made Smarter’s North West adoption programme reveals SME manufacturers in the North West are using data and system integration technology as the driving force behind their digital transformation and growth ambitions, new analysis from Made Smarter reveals. More than half (159) of the […]

The UK’s aluminium industry has a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to drive sustainability, the circular economy, and the transition to Net Zero according to a leading sector expert. Tom Jones, CEO of the Aluminium Federation (ALFED), made the rallying call after the release of the organisation’s latest report reveals more than 39,000 people are […]

Frazer Watson, VP-Sales UK/Ireland at Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) designer and manufacturer iFollow, explains how mobile robots offer agile organisations the flexibility required to come through unpredictable times with an advantage over the competition. We have entered a new era of intralogistics, one were flexibility is paramount, giving companies the agility they need to deal […]

Jim Witherspoon, Product Manager, Machine Vision, Zebra Technologies The interest, innovation, and buzz around various types of artificial intelligence (AI) — machine learning, neural networks, and computer vision (CV) is well recognised. What is less recognised is the renewed interest and application of modern machine vision (MV) systems by warehousing operators and manufacturers. MV and […]