Free admission to the "˜Future Manufacturing Event', Sheffield

The event - part seminar, part exhibition, part live demonstrations - will look at the big topics of today that are most likely to have a lasting effect on industry including energy, Industry 4.0 and new technological innovations. The event is being hosted by AMRC, organised by Mitsubishi Electric Industrial Automation and sponsored by gear specialist Radicon, electric motor maker Brook Crompton, vibration monitoring group Schaeffler, specialist energy management company Rumm, power quality experts PQM, and Copadata, a prominent developer of process control software.

Seminar papers will include sessions dedicated to the key subjects of the day. For instance, the energy solutions session will include the new ESOS legislation, the G5/5 Harmonic regulations, strategies for effective energy management and meeting the requirements of ESOS, and a review of the IE motor legislation that is driving manufacturers to refine motor designs for better efficiency.

Industry 4.0 has been one of the buzz topics for industrial exhibitions and similar gatherings for a year or two. This topic introduces other similar terms such as the Industrial Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. In the industrial automation world, data gathering is not new but engineers are beginning to understand that new and advanced technologies now make it possible to collect huge amounts of data related to machine and process control, process it in real time so that production efficiency and quality can be improved significantly, and then integrate that information within a wide variety of related systems.

Key technologies

The seminar sessions covering Industry 4.0 will discuss this topic in industrial automation terms, looking at multi-vendor integrated systems and introducing key hardware and software technologies such as Mitsubishi's new iQ-F and iQ-R platforms.

The exhibition part of the event will include displays from companies such as:

• Mitsubishi Electric
• Rittal (control cabinets and wiring)
• Lutze (automation)
• Cognex (vision)
• CLPA (CC-Link open communications)
• EPLAN
• P&F
• Wittenstein

The event will be an excellent opportunity to learn about the main technologies that will be driving the development of manufacturing and processing in the coming years. Garry Lewis, who has been one of Mitsubishi Electric's main organisers, says: "The seminars and papers will be the formal and structured part of the day, but networking opportunities and spontaneous discussions are always very important at days like this. They give people an opportunity to float ideas to experts or to find possible solutions to issues they have been mulling over for a while. The range of topics will appeal to system integrators, machine builders and end users alike - there really is something for everyone here."

There is ample parking and plenty of local transport and accommodation options. Anyone wanting more information about the Future Manufacturing Event or who wishes to register to attend should go to gb3a.mitsubishielectric.com.