Beckhoff UK will exhibit at
Smart Manufacturing Week at the NEC in Birmingham, from 3-4 June, 2026. The company, an automation and control technology specialist, is a platinum partner for the event.
Visitors will be able to see demonstrations of cabinet-free automation and advanced transport technologies for machine builders and manufacturers on stand M140.
Smart Manufacturing Week brings together the people, technologies and ideas shaping the future of UK manufacturing and engineering. Beckhoff’s stand will focus on how PC-based control, EtherCAT communication and integrated motion can help engineers design more adaptable machines without adding unnecessary complexity.
A key highlight will be the MX-System, Beckhoff’s modular automation platform for control cabinet-free machine design. Alongside this, visitors will see the XTS linear transport system and a compact two-tile XPlanar demonstration, showing how flexible product handling can be integrated into one scalable control architecture.
“MX-System brings industrial PC, I/O, drive technology and system components into a pluggable baseplate that can be mounted directly onto the machine,” said Neil March, MX-System product specialist at Beckhoff UK. “It removes much of the cabinet work that slows projects down, while giving machine builders a cleaner and more modular route to automation.”
Beckhoff will also sponsor one of the robots taking part in FightFest, which will be located next to its stand. The live robot combat competition will give visitors a high-energy example of engineering, motion and control in action.
“FightFest is going to be a brilliant addition to the show,” said Mark Richards, UK sales manager at Beckhoff UK. “It is competitive, technical and a lot of fun, but it is also a great reminder that exciting engineering still comes down to good design, with robust control and reliable motion.
“It should bring plenty of energy to the hall and give us a really natural way to start conversations with engineers about what high-performance automation can achieve.”
Beckhoff will also monitor the condition of its robot throughout FightFest using a condition monitoring and interaction system, designed by one of its engineers, Dominika Stachowska. The system will monitor temperature before and after the fight to indicate stress and provide a vision-based comparison to detect visible changes. Sound monitoring will also be integrated to visualise crowd reactions during each round.
Beckhoff’s technical team will be available throughout Smart Manufacturing Week to discuss new machine designs, retrofit projects and control cabinet-free automation.