Production

The Royal Mint has announced plans to build a world first plant in South Wales to recover gold from UK electronic waste. The pioneering facility will help address a growing environmental issue, support jobs and skills in Britain, and create a new source of high quality precious metals for the business.

A small-scale trial of 3D-printed parts is helping Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions and mining company Boliden explore the potential of additive manufacturing.

A software release that speeds up the development and debugging of boundary scan setups has been released by XJTAG.

AlixLabs is developing its method for manufacturing semiconductors in ways to make them cheaper, faster, and with a half of the energy consumption required. The work is being carried out at the RISE testbed ProNano in Lund, Sweden. AlixLabs’ innovation will contribute to a lower environmental impact in semiconductor manufacturing.

Universal Robots, the Danish producer of collaborative robots, has announced its Machine Tending Masterclass event on Tuesday, the 26th of April at the AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) in Sheffield. Attendees can access government funding and all of the expertise required to automate machine tending tasks and transform their operations.

CUI Devices’ Interconnect Group have announced the addition of circular connectors to its connectors product portfolio. Available in M12 connector types, CUI Devices’ CDM12 family offers a range of male or female versions with contact position options of 3, 4, 5, 8, and 12 pins.

It is a sobering truth that – to every entrepreneur in every industry – a new product developer has to learn from difficulties, unexpected pitfalls, and trial and error before they can see their product (or, in fact, any venture) come to life. As the IoT-focused trade show Hardware Pioneers Max (HWP Max) in 2021 made clear, for engineers and other industry professionals, such experiences are no different.

The global pandemic has had a major knock-on effect within the electronics industry, with worldwide component shortages and logistics challenges just some of the storms companies have had to weather. Here, Chris Breslin, President of Farnell discusses the company’s strategic priorities for this year.

The PILOT AOI system software from GÖPEL electronic is the interface for operating 3D AOI and SPI systems, both for SMD and THT inspection.

3DGBIRE has announced a partnership with CMG Technologies to bring UK-based de-binding and sintering capabilities for parts which have been 3D printed with BASF Ultrafuse 316L and 17-4PH stainless steel filaments.