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Steve Rogerson looks at some of the recent news that may have missed the front page. I didn’t have far to go for Medicity Innovators’ Week, a medical technology event in Nottingham. However, it didn’t get off to the best start as they announced at the beginning that one of the keynote speakers had cancelled due to ill health. 

Every year in Louisville, Kentucky, hackers and security experts gather for DerbyCon. While a get-together of hackers may sound troubling on its own, what’s truly disturbing is what came out of last year’s conference. Medical cyber crime is on the rise, and there are thousands of critical medical devices which can currently be located online and hacked directly. By Rob Phillips, sales and marketing director of Accutronics.

The cost of production downtime varies significantly from one industry sector to another, but without a doubt, when it occurs, downtime is a troublesome and expensive inconvenience for all manufacturers. More often than not, halts in production could be avoided, so imagine just how much manufacturers could save if machine data was available to anticipate breakdowns.

As the industry that introduced the traditional six-axis robotic arm to its production lines in the early 1960s, the automotive sector has, in some cases, stayed surprisingly stagnant when it comes to innovation. However, in the past few years the race to design and build self-driving cars, augmented reality windscreens and additive manufactured parts has started to gain speed.

Over the past 20 years, technology has developed so quickly that many of us are struggling to keep up. When endeavouring to use the latest operating system or smartphone, we often reminisce to a time when the most advanced form of technology was the floppy disk. However, the generation entering the workforce this year is already accustomed to rapid technological developments, as it has never known a world without them.

Ahead of SMT Hybrid Packaging 2016 (26 to 28th April 2016), Erhard Hofmann, MD AdoptSMT, explains what the company is showcasing in Nuremberg. The company’s promise: “We keep your production running” is strengthened with investments for customer support and new introductions for industrial identification, PCB assembly and hand soldering.

According to a report by the British Chamber of Commerce, the final quarter of 2015 witnessed exports fall to below pre-recession levels. Experiencing its poorest performance since 2009, the UK needs companies to focus more on overseas markets if it wants to see exports pick up again. Here Simone Bruckner, Managing Director, Cressall Resistors, shares his three top tips for UK manufacturers considering exporting.

We can all agree that, while not the sexiest of gadgets, wireless routers are very important: you need to select the right one for your requirements. Whether you work from home, spend lots of time playing online games or just stream a lot of Netflix, a good router is essential to ensure you have a fast and reliable internet connection.

The world’s first industrial robot was an idea conceived after a conversation about science fiction novels between inventors George Devol and Joseph Eagleburger in 1954. Six years later, Unimate had secured its place in the robotic hall of fame as the world’s first industrial robot. It was then put to work on the General Motors assembly line in 1961.

Kettles that release red hot steam onto their handles, cupboard drawers that don’t quite slot in and of course, those pesky USB sticks that take three or four attempts to insert before realising you had right the first time. These niggles are part of everyday life and albeit annoying, their poor design is usually pretty easy to ignore. But in industry, the bad design of manufacturing environments and equipment is much more significant than ...