Northern Manufacturing & Electronics returns to Manchester’s EventCity this week (2-3 October).

Following a similar format to the annual Southern Manufacturing Show, which took place in Farnborough in February, it will feature a broad spectrum of components, production hardware and engineering services and is aimed at designers, procurement professionals and engineers in the North of England.

Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to see live demonstrations, including five-axis machining and 3-D printing.

The previous show (in 2017) attracted over 3,000 visitors from a wide range of industries; this time around, over 250 companies are expected to take part, ranging from major global brands to highly skilled local engineering firms with specialist knowledge in areas such as automotive, aerospace and process engineering.

For the first time, Northern Manufacturing is being supported by the two key regional aerospace and automotive business organisations, the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) and the Northern Automotive Alliance (NAA), plus several other national organisations, such as Composites UK, the SMMT, the GTMA, the BGA and the CBM.

Each brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience to the event, providing a highly accessible industry resource as well as knowledge-sharing opportunities via the show’s free technical seminar programme.

Aerospace and automotive manufacturing are hugely important to the North’s economy, and around a quarter of the UK’s £32 billion aerospace business is located in the region, directly employing some 25,000 people and supporting a substantial supply-chain network.

The North West automotive cluster employs around 16,200 people and directly produces around £9 billion of sales revenue (or 12% of the total UK automotive manufacturing output), positioning it as the second-largest region for automotive manufacturing in the UK. The show attracts a good number of machinery manufacturers and vendors, keen to tap into this highly active market.

Also taking part in Northern Manufacturing 2019 is the Made Smarter North West programme.

This Government-backed initiative has been set up to provide funding, advice and support to drive manufacturing growth in the North West.

It helps businesses to boost their productivity and profitability through improved operational efficiency and digital technologies.

A range of services is available to support manufacturers in every business area, from operations and shopfloor processes through to digitalisation.

Exhibitors

Haas Automation Ltd (www.haas.co.uk) returns to Northern Manufacturing 2019 with live cutting demonstrations on a selection of machines from its range of over 100 models (Stand C46).

The firm’s expertise spans all engineering disciplines including automotive, motor-sport, aerospace and general sub-contracting.

Oxfordshire-based LVD UK Ltd (www.lvdgroup.com) will showcase its Dyna-Cell — a robotic bending cell incorporating a high-speed Dyna-Press Pro 40-tonne electric press brake and a Kuka robot (Stand C55).

The press brake and robot function as a compact integrated unit to automate the bending of small to medium-size parts in varying batch sizes at bending speeds up to 25mm per sec.

A patent-pending universal gripper allows users to bend on three sides of a part without regripping.

The press brake has a 1,500mm working length and a five-axis back-gauge, with the whole system designed to offer maximum bending productivity from a compact footprint of 5 x 5m.

When bending a large volume of small parts, no operator intervention is required for up to 8hr of automated production.

Additive manufacturing is also well-represented at Northern Manufacturing 2019.

Laser Lines Ltd (www.laserlines.co.uk) returns with its wide portfolio of over 20 plastic and metal 3-D print and rapid-manufacturing solutions.

The company is a Stratasys and Desktop Metal Platinum Partner — and the sole distributor for the OR Creator in the UK & Ireland.

In addition, it offers systems for laser marking, welding, cladding, hardening, cutting and micro-machining for a variety of industries.

Another Stratasys and Desktop Metal Platinum partner exhibiting this year is Stoke-based Tri-Tech 3D (www.tritech3d.co.uk), which offers the complete range of Stratasys PolyJet and FDM, and desktop metal systems alongside expert advice and training services, maintenance support contracts and competitive lease and finance schemes.

Staff from Tri-Tech 3D will be on hand to discuss additive manufacturing, and there will be live demonstrations on a Stratasys F370 FDM machine.

Autodesk consultants from sister company Cadspec will also be available to chat about its latest CAD/CAM technology.

China’s Bodor Laser (www.bodor.com), makes its Northern Manufacturing debut, showcasing its range of fibre and CO2 industrial laser equipment, including laser engraving cutting and marking machines.

Meanwhile, Elland-based HPC Laser (www.hpclaser.co.uk) will showcase a sample of the 100 or so CE-certified and HSE-inspected machines that it holds in its Yorkshire warehouse (Stand B26).

Leamington Spa-based Technifor UK (www.technifor.co.uk), another well-established name in laser marking and traceability, will be exhibiting at the show (Stand C14).

The company offers a range of lasers, dot peening and scribing machines, with all technologies available in bench-top configuration or integrated into a production line.

Specialising in power transmission, clamping fixtures and remote control systems, first-time Northern Manufacturing exhibitor Ringspann (UK) Ltd (www.ringspann.co.uk) has over 75 years’ experience in development, design and manufacturing (Stand G56).

Its motto is ‘quality without compromise’, and in addition to a comprehensive programme of standard products, the modularised components allow the company to provide customised solutions.

Customers include well-known companies in the machine-building, material-handling, energy and aerospace industries.

Ringspann provides industrial gears and geared motors, precise clamping for milling and turning, brake releasing for trains, as well as drives, door operation and unlocking, and balancing equipment for train wheels.

For aerospace customers, services include the production of engine parts,mounting devices for aircraft construction, and actuating and unlocking devices.

It also supplies power transmission components for wind turbines and hydro power plants.

Universal Fabrications (Coventry) Ltd (www.universalfabrications.com) specialises in precision fabrications, sheet metalwork and machined parts (Stand H37).

The family-run business was established in 1971 and serves the automotive, aerospace, defence, rail and commercial-vehicle sectors, using the latest in 3-D CAD/CAM manufacturing technology and CMM inspection equipment.

It provides engineering solutions for difficult-to-manufacture parts and tricky long-term and short-term projects. The company continues to invest in people and precision machinery, as well as inspection technology.

It is ISO 9001:2015-accredited and is working towards ISO 14001:2015 accreditation.

Derbyshire-based Hydro Extrusion UK Ltd (www.hydro.com) — pictured below — is an aluminium company with 35,000 employees in 40 countries, combining local expertise, world-wide reach and unmatched R&D capabilities (Stand C79).

The company specialises in developing profiles to create innovative solutions for a wide range of industries.

It provides non-corrosive value-added extrusions and turn-key solutions for low-maintenance and lightweight design.

It offers its extensive knowledge of aluminium extrusion technology and other techniques to a range of industries to achieve weight and production savings that improve performance, enhance quality and increase cost efficiency.

In addition to extrusion, Hydro offers machining, welding, forming, fabrication, assembly, thermal break, anodising and surface finishing.

Workshop essentials

Alongside the wide range of machinery on display at Northern Manufacturing 2019 is a selection of production hardware and workshop essentials.

Rugby-based Faro (www.faro.com) will show its integrated portable 3-D visualisation and rendering system, the eight-axis Design ScanArm 2.5C (Stand H68).

Capable of measuring in full colour, this is used for 3-D modelling, reverse engineering and CAD-based design applications across the product lifecycle management (PLM) process.

Faro’s Prizm laser line probe delivers high-resolution colour point-cloud data, says the company, giving more insight into an object’s design and creation, geometry, surface composition and visual differentiation between materials.

Other metrology providers at the show include Nikon Metrology and Zeiss.

Sheffield-based Royal Tool Control Ltd (www.royaltool.co.uk) manufactures setting gauges, storage systems and 5S quality systems, including bespoke 5S style workbenches and foam drawer liners, tool handling and tool transportation units, together with assembly stations and component delivery systems (Stand C73).

The firm holds BSI certification for quality to ISO 9001:2015, and environmental certification to ISO 14001:2015.

Workplace storage equipment from Bude-based Bott Ltd (www.bottltd.co.uk) — pictured above — will include the heavy-duty Cubio range, which can be combined to create tailored and versatile working solutions that can be seamlessly expanded as the user’s needs change (Stand C27).

It can be integrated with the company’s wide range of CNC and tool storage options, incorporating Lean, 5S and Six Sigma initiatives, promoting efficiency and productivity.

Another storage system provider exhibiting this year is Industore (www.industore.co.uk), agent for the Hänel automated storage and retrieval systems in the UK and Ireland (Stand D52).

Derbyshire-based Carbolite Gero Ltd (www.carbolite-gero.com) is an expert in the development of customised equipment for complex heat treatment processes (Stand L81).

The company has 80 years’ experience in thermal engineering in the design and manufacture of laboratory and industrial ovens and furnaces ranging from 30 to 3,000°C with a focus on vacuum and special-atmosphere technology.

Sharmic Engineering Ltd (www.sharmic.co.uk) will showcase its comprehensive range of vibratory-finishing machines and consumables (Stand B32).

It has customers in the automotive, marine, aerospace, medical, plastic and ceramic industries. Machines perform component deburring, degreasing, radiussing and polishing on all types of materials, using vibratory-finishing techniques.

The company also offers an efficient, low-cost and reliable sub-contract service.