Southern Manufacturing & Electronics returns to Farnborough from 11 to 13 February 2020. As in previous years, the 2020 event will host an impressively diverse exhibitor list encompassing a wide array of engineering activities, from high-tech machine tools and automation to components and subcontract services. Firms from across the UK will be participating, together with a substantial variety of exhibitors from across Europe, Asia and the Far East.

igus has commissioned an assembly line at its UK facility in Northampton for rapid manufacturing of readycable. Representing another significant investment for company, this time worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, the new assembly line uses fully-automated machines and lean manufacturing methods to streamline the manufacturing process and deliver fully-harnessed drive cables that can be shipped within 24 hours of order placement. In contrast, other suppliers of cables for applications such as servo drives quote lead times of weeks - one customer recently told igus they had been quoted 16 weeks.