In a hall in a big aerospace plant near São Paulo, four yellow robots perform a series of snake-like manoeuvres as they clean and paint the exterior of giant fuselages being made by the Brazilian aerospace producer Embraer. The robots are among roughly 400,000 of the machines installed worldwide by Fanuc. The Japanese company is the […]
Goodbaby is a Chinese manufacturer of children’s “utility” products – push chairs, infant car seats and the like – with a growing reputation. With 11,000 employees and seven research centres in Asia, the US and Europe, the company dreams of establishing a name that resonates as strongly as Coca-Cola or BMW. Much the same is […]
A group of companies has come together to start a pioneering training centre to support manufacturing in the Midlands and to act as a broad advocate for engineering in education by linking up with local schools. The Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, is a joint venture between three engineering companies in the region […]
Escorting his visitor past an array of expensive machine tools, Damon de Laszlo explains why he has avoided seeking a public listing for his engineering company. “I’d have to start justifying my spending on investment and innovation to a board of directors,” he says. “And they might be a pain in the neck.” Mr de […]
Britain does a poor job in conveying modern views of engineering to young people and encouraging more of them to choose it as a career, according to a hard hitting assessment of the decades-old struggle in Britain to update public perceptions of the discipline. “The lack of engineers in positions of influence in society is […]
Muggi is a small Kent-based company that makes plastic drinks trays for use in places as diverse as ocean-going yachts and old people’s homes. “I’m patriotic,” says David Trotter, Muggi’s founder. “I want to make things in Britain and to export.” These sentiments are behind Muggi’s membership of Made in Britain, a business organisation promoting […]
Made Here Now is getting the chance to deliver its message on an international stage with the project’s founder Peter Marsh invited to give main speeches at two prestigious conferences in Brazil and South Africa. Among other topics he will discuss the way Made Here Now is informing the younger generation in Britain about industry […]
A US manufacturer of ultrafast telecoms equipment, a South African group making animal feed from fly larvae, and a German pioneer in high-tech building components – three businesses with little in common but for one thing: their willingness to invest in new UK manufacturing capacity despite the prospect of Britain’s imminent departure from the European […]
Britain has improved its position among the world’s top manufacturing nations, moving up the league table to its strongest position since 2008 The UK was the world’s eighth-biggest nation by manufacturing output in 2015 – the most recent year for which internationally comparable data are available – with just over 2 per cent of total […]
Geology graduate creates devices that can sniff out explosives Tom Stone Age: 26 Occupation: Product developer for Cobalt Light Systems (analytical equipment) Location: Oxford Understanding the structure of matter is a challenge that has occupied people for hundreds of years. Tom Stone works on some of the newest machines in this field as a product developer at Cobalt […]
Industrial apprenticeship showed university is not the only option Pav Bhogal Age: 24 Occupation: Propulsion development for BAE Systems (aerospace and defence) Location: Warton, near Preston “I would have been bored out of my mind if I had gone to university straight after leaving school,” says Pav Bhogal. Rather than follow this route, he joined BAE Systems on […]
Engineer works on machines that could one day produce nuclear fusion Greg Brittles Age: 26 Occupation: Magnet engineer, Tokamak Energy (nuclear fusion equipment) Location: Oxford The products that Greg Brittles is working on can fairly be described as out of this world. Brittles is among the 25 employees of Tokamak Energy, a company attempting to develop “compact tokamaks”: […]
