May 2020

Rockwell Automation has announced that it is cutting the salaries of its non- manufacturing employees temporarily by 7.5%, with chairman and CEO Blake Moret taking a 25% pay cut, and all senior vice-presidents losing 15% of their salaries, as part of the steps that the company is taking “to align its costs with anticipated market conditions in light of the Covid-19 pandemic”. However, Rockwell’s manufacturing workers will not be affected by the pay cuts and are, in fact, receiving one-off additional payments in recognition of their work in serving the company’s customers “during this difficult time”. “Our first priority is the well-being of all our employees, and we are taking significant steps to keep our people healthy and safe at this time,” says Moret. “The Covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges, and I have never been prouder of the efforts of our employees and partners. “Rockwell Automation operates from a strong financial position,”Moret adds. “While our fiscal second quarter sales held up well despite significant pressure from China in the quarter, we expect that as Covid-19 impacts more countries and economies, we will face lower demand in many of our served industries for a period of time. “As a result, we are taking pre-emptive actions to align the company’s cost structure with this environment. We are doing so in a way that minimises workforce reductions and enables us to continue making strategic investments in technology and domain expertise that are important to Rockwell Automation’s success over the long-term.” THE ENHANCED Capital Allowance (ECA) tax scheme designed to encourage the use of energy- efficient technologies, including high-efficiency motors and VSDs (variable-speed drives), has ended, almost 20 years after it was launched. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the scheme was ending in October 2018, and this has now come into force. The Energy Technology List (ETL) of eligible equipment will continue to be published, but will now function as a source of information for organisations seeking independently-verified energy-efficient equipment. Although businesses will no longer be able to claim an ECA on new purchases of ETL equipment, they might be able to benefit from another form of accelerated tax relief called the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA), when buying new equipment. The AIA was increased temporarily from 1 January 2019 for two years. The ETL Web site is moving to a new digital platform, with more news and content. ECAs allowed businesses to write off the capital cost of purchasing new plant or machinery against their taxable profits. They were originally a key part of the Government's programme to manage climate change, incentivising businesses to invest in energy-efficient equipment. As well as VSDs and high-efficiency motors, the ECA scheme covered other technologies such as HVAC equipment, industrial and commercial refrigeration, air compressors, heat recovery systems, and UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies. The ECA scheme was managed by the Carbon Trust. In 2013, it reported that more than 50,000 products had been assessed since the scheme’s inception, with more than 38,000 being listed on the ETL. The scheme had supported an estimated £7bn of sales of high-efficiency industrial equipment, delivering a net economic benefit of more than £4bn. The Trust had also conducted more than 300 market studies into energy-saving technologies that had the potential to be supported by the ECA scheme. BEIS has published a series of updated guides covering the various ETL technologies, which remove references to the ECA scheme. These include a 13- page document on high-efficiency motors and drives. www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-technology-list n NEWS 6 May 2020 www.drivesncontrols.com ECA tax relief scheme for efficient motors and VSDs ends after 20 years Rockwell CEO takes a 25% pay cut, but factory workers get a bonus p Bournemouth-based Motion Control Products (MCP) which was UK distributor for Israeli-based Elmo Motion Control for more than 10 years, is suing Elmo in an Israeli court, demanding compensation of 8 million shekels (£1.8m) and claiming that it was treated unfairly by Elmo. MCP says that after establishing a relationship with Elmo in 2005, it boosted Elmo’s UK sales by 700%. But Elmo started to contact MCP’s customers directly and offer them products at a lower price than it was selling to MCP. This continued after Elmo opened a UK subsidiary in 2016. MCP alleges that Elmo treated it unfairly, hurting its relationships with its customers and causing commercial damage. Elmo says that MCP’s lawsuit “is no more than a collection of baseless and groundless claims, and it would have been better if it had not been filed”. Elmo is confident that the suit will be dismissed. p The AEMT (Association of Electrical & Mechanical Trades) has announced that its annual awards ceremony is going ahead as planned in Coventry on 26 November. It is calling for entries in seven categories, covering people, companies, products and applications. Details can be found on the awards Web site. www.aemtawards.com p The global market for cobots (collaborative robots) was worth just $650m in 2018, but will soar to $12.48bn by 2026, according to a new forecast from AlliedMarket Research . The growth is equivalent to a CAGR of 44.8%. Allied says that material-handling applications accounted for almost a third of the cobot market in 2018, and will remain the biggest application sector, but value-added processing is the fastest-growing with a predicted CAGR of 47% from 2018–2026. Europe accounted for almost 40% of the global market in 2018 and will continue to dominate, although Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region with a CAGR of 47.6%. www.alliedmarketresearch.com p Following the postponement of this year’s UKIVA Machine Vision Conference & Exhibition (MVC) until the spring of 2021, the UK Industrial Vision Association has launched a Web site where people registered for the 2020 event have free access to presentations by speakers who were due to speak at the event. The Technology Presentation Hub is offering 20– 30 minute presentations on topics including deep learning, robotic vision, and optics and illumination. www.machinevisionconference- 2020.reg.buzz The updated guide explaining the types of motors and drives included in the Energy Technology List removes references to the ECA scheme Moret: never been prouder NEWS BRIEFS