A strong line-up of leading names in the machine tool industry will be displaying their latest machines and technologies at this year’s Northern Manufacturing & Electronics exhibition, taking place 28-29 September at EventCity, Manchester.

The show’s convenient location has helped it to rapidly establish itself over the last four years, as the leading engineering exhibition in the North — not just for machinery, tooling and production hardware, but also for the region’s sub-contractors wanting to showcase their services and capabilities.

Entry to Northern Manufacturing & Electronics 2016 is free to business visitors (EventCity has 3,000 free on-site car parking spaces available), and there is easy access to the event by road, rail or air. To register for tickets on-line visit the ETES Web site (www.industrynorth.co.uk).

A central feature of the show will again be the RoadRailAir zone, which highlights the region’s considerable supply-chain strengths in the automotive, public transport and aerospace manufacturing sectors.

Indeed, 22% of the UK’s aerospace industry — the second-largest in the world — is located in the North West, generating billions of pounds of revenue every year. Supporting this industry is a supply chain of hundreds of firms, many of whom will be at the show, either as exhibitors or visitors.

The free seminar programme is another major attraction for visitors to Northern Manufacturing & Electronics.

Over a two-day programme, presenters from trade organisations and commercial enterprises will address a wide variety of technical and operational themes via a series of free hour-long sessions running throughout the show.

Last year’s exhibition attracted nearly 3,000 engineering professionals from across the region. For over 40% of those visitors, it was the show’s line-up of machinery manufacturers and vendors that was the main attraction.

This year will be no different, with the likes of XYZ Machine Tools, Yamazaki Mazak, Haas Automation, Amada, Bystronic, HPC Laser, Unison, CMZ and Trumpf providing an opportunity for visitors to evaluate the latest machinery and technologies at a single event.


Trumpf Ltd (www.uk.trumpf.com) on stand D74, will be showing the new TruBend Series 5000 in the UK for the first time (the machine has already broken records as the company’s fastest-selling press brake world-wide). The new model, which is optimised for maximum productivity (from programming and tool set-up through to the bending of work), also features two new angle-measuring systems designed to increase both accuracy and repeatability. The machine also features a totally new control that Trumpf says is “revolutionary in its simplicity and intuitiveness”; and because it consumes power only during the bending cycle, the machine is particularly eco-friendly.
Trumpf will also highlight laser welding with the five-axis TruLaser Station 5005 — a space-saving easy-to-operate machine for welding a wide variety of materials. Laser marking is another technology that Trumpf offers. To demonstrate its capability in this field, the company will be demonstrating its TruMark Station 3000 with a TruMark 5010 beam source.


Amada (www.amada.co.uk) will launch its award-winning Ensis AJ fibre laser cutter on stand F38. The machine, which can accommodate a range of thin and thick materials, features a 2kW oscillator but can process material generally associated with a 4kW machine with both the speed and quality, saving energy, time and costs.


Haas Automation Ltd (www.haas.co.uk) will be demonstrating its popular UMC-750 universal machining centre on stand E26. The firm says its three-plus-two and simultaneous five-axis machining is a big hit with SMEs aiming to make a cost-effective switch to five-axis machining. The UMC-750 was designed and manufactured following consultation with prospective users of universal machines. Haas says the result is a cost-effective high-performance CNC machine.


XYZ Machine Tools (www.xyzmachinetools.com ) will highlight the versatility and diversity of its machine tool range on stand E14. On display will be mills, lathes, machining centres and turning centres. Taking centre stage will be three machines that benefit from XYZ’s ProtoTrak control system: an XYZ SMX 3500 bed mill, an XYZ SLX 355 lathe and the innovative XYZ 2-OP vertical machining centre.
These will be accompanied by the Siemens-controlled XYZ 710 VMC and CT 52 turning centre.
The ProtoTrak control system on the SMX 3500, SLX 355 and 2-OP provides ease of use, thanks to a wide range of conversational cycles, making it ideal for one-offs and small batch quantities.
The control can be operated without any knowledge of CNC, with operators producing parts with minimal training. XYZ bed mills and SLX lathes provide a robust machining platform with substantial Meehanite cast bases, a coating of Turcite-B on milling machine bedway, and extra wide Vee-flat bedways on the SLX lathes.
Meanwhile, the XYZ 2-OP is changing the way that companies can operate. This vertical machining centre is designed to be portable, thereby allowing companies to bring cellular manufacturing to virtually any machine shop. The cycle time savings offered by the XYZ 2-OP are significant, as is the benefit of freeing up capacity on more-costly machines.


Visitors to Renishaw (www.renishaw.com) on stand D14 will see the Equator gauging system, as well as examples of parts made on its additive manufacturing systems. Renishaw will also be showcasing its traditional metrology focused products; these will include its family of machine tool products as well as a range of co-ordinate measuring machine probe heads.
Renishaw’s Equator is a versatile alternative to custom gauging that can inspect a wide variety of manufactured parts, having been developed and tested in a shopfloor environment in collaboration with industry-leading companies in a variety of industry sectors. It is a light-weight, fast and highly repeatable gauge that operators can use with a “push button” simplicity.
Visitors to the stand will also be able to see a variety of complex 3-D printed metal parts made on one of Renishaw’s additive manufacturing systems. Renishaw is the only UK manufacturer of this equipment and has recently released its new RenAM 500M.


As industry leaders in the ‘micro’ machine tool and cutting tool technology arena, Rainford Precision Machines Ltd (www.rainfordprecision.com) will have all its latest innovations on show on stand F80. For manufacturers looking for material-specific tooling solutions, Rainford will be displaying the Louis Belet range of Swiss manufactured cutting tools designed specifically for machining aluminium, brass, stainless steel, titanium and composite materials.
The cutters include solid-carbide and PCD end mills, drills, circular saws, threading tools and gear-cutting tools, as well as a number of special tooling lines. Also on display will be the Samurai Series of end mills from Union Tool SA. This extensive range incorporates a complete line of two-, three- and four-fluted cutters with square or ball-nose variants for machining all material types.
The solid-carbide Samurai range provides up to 59 tool types from 1 to 12mm in diameter. There will also be tooling lines from Iwata, Xactform, Hobe and Osawa, as well as hand-held or machine-mounted high-speed spindles from the US company Air Turbine Tools.


Schunk Intec Ltd (www.gb.schunk.com) will be showing a number of new products alongside some of its established market favourites on stand F2. A highlight will be the Tendo E Compact hydraulic expansion tool-holder.
Capable of reducing set-up times by up to 60% while generating 2000Nm of torque, it delivers micron precision for a host of machining applications. With this precision tool-holder, even demanding applications with tight tolerances relating to form, position and surface finish can be rapidly and reliably machined.
For work-holding applications, Schunk will demonstrate a number of products, including a manual Rota-S chuck (pictured left) with optimised wedge system and improved lubricating system, to ensure consistent and high clamping forces. The chuck accommodates high rotational speeds for shorter manufacturing time. For visitors interested in robotics and gripping applications, Schunk will be showing just a few of its products, including the MPG-plus miniature parallel gripper.


Ajax Machine Tools International Ltd (www.ajax-mach.co.uk), a leading supplier of both conventional and CNC machine tools, will be exhibiting on stand F20. Ajax serves a wide range of British-based companies and institutions— and exports to over 40 countries world-wide. Its diverse range of machines includes lathes, milling machines, drilling machines, grinding machines and metal-forming machines — plus a range of workshop equipment.


Faro Technologies UK Ltd (www.faro.com) will be presenting a wide range of metrology products on Stand D8. Included in the line-up will be the Laser ScanArm HD with the light Laser Line Probe for non-contact measurements and the Laser Tracker Vantage for large-volume measurements. A relatively new addition to the Faro range, the Factory Array Imager system will also be on display. This is a metrology-grade non-contact scanner that uses ‘blue light’ technology to capture millions of high resolution 3-D co-ordinate measurements in seconds (pictured above).


Quickgrind Ltd (www.quickgrind.com) will be joining forces with its distribution partner, Alliance Tools, on stand A110. The team will be demonstrating to customers how they can reduce their overall cost of round-shank carbide cutting tools without compromising performance.
Off-the-shelf and bespoke tooling is only one part of the Quickgrind approach to high-performance tooling; the company also offers a remanufacturing service and tool management system. These services are backed by strong distribution partners, such as Alliance Tools, as well as efficient direct sales — and the supply assurance given by its ISO 9001:2015 accreditation. At Northern Manufacturing & Electronics the team will be giving manufacturers an insight into its approach to the design, manufacture and production support of solid-carbide cutting tools. Also on display will be a Quickvend, the company’s award-winning vending machine for cutting-tool stock management.


Bott Ltd (www.bottltd.co.uk), a leading manufacturer and supplier of workplace storage equipment, will be highlighting the functionality and flexibility of its heavy duty Cubio range on stand D43. Products in this range include drawer cabinets, cupboards, workbenches and mobile storage units — all covered by a 10-year guarantee. Bott will also be demonstrating its project management service and workspace-planning software.


Aqueous parts washing specialist MecWash Systems Ltd (www.mecwash.co.uk) will be exhibiting at the show for the third year running. Taking centre stage on stand F55 will be the company’s best-selling Mecwash Duo machine. A natural progression from its Solo machine, it has the added benefits of rotational flood/immersion washing; this provides higher standards of cleaning via full solution contact with all component surfaces. Duo machines also feature a rotational spray rinse, which provides higher standards of surface finish by removing detergent residues left by the wash solution (this stage can also be used to apply a longer-term corrosion inhibitor for ferrous components), all finished off with a hot-air dry. The variety of sub-contract services on display will be equally comprehensive, making the show the place to locate new suppliers. The range of services on offer includes precision engineering, laser cutting, laser marking, electronic assembly and specialist coating.


Alongside the RoadRailAir zone are a number of Technology Trails designed to guide visitors around the show and make the most effective use of their time. Some of the well-known sub-contractors exhibiting include Orbital Fabrications, JJS Manufacturing, B&B Coatings, Universal Fabrications, Hammond Manufacturing and Jenks & Cattell.


MES (NW) (www.mesnw.co.uk), exhibiting on stand G13, is a professional engineering services provider and has the electrical and mechanical resources to deliver a variety of projects and services. The company aims “to strive to exceed customer expectations through planning, compliance professionalism and team work”. Services include electrical and mechanical engineering, machine relocations, bespoke engineering, welding and fabrication, materials handling projects, project management and facilities management.

Business management and service providers are also well represented at Northern Manufacturing & Electronics. Examples include training providers such as STEGTA and asset finance specialists Close Brothers and Finance for Industry.

Machinery Market (www.machinery-market.co.uk) will be attending the show for the second year running and distributing free copies of the weekly magazine on stand J25. Visitors will find out why Machinery Market is the best place to source new and used machinery (www.machinery-locator.com) and how it can promote UK manufacturers, machine tool companies and suppliers of related production equipment to a world-wide audience — in print, digital and on-line.

Visitors can follow all the latest news from the show at linkedin.industrynorth.co.uk, or on its blog page at blog.industrynorth.co.uk.