October 2020

n NEWS NEWS n October 2020 www.drivesncontrols.com 8 THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced a £65m cash boost for three key technologies that could transform people’s lives – robots, high-tech batteries and advanced healthcare treatments. The funding will come from its Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, managed by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). Announcing the funding, science minister Amanda Solloway said “we want to build back better by putting the UK at the forefront of new technologies to create high- skilled jobs, increase productivity and grow the economy as we recover from coronavirus”. She added that the funding “will strengthen the UK’s global status in a range of areas … helping us develop innovative solutions to some of our biggest global challenges and creating jobs in rewarding careers right across the country”. Some £15m of the funding will be used to develop to develop robots that can be used to inspect, maintain and repair nuclear power stations, satellites and wind turbines. The technologies will also be used for applications in areas such as agriculture, logistics and healthcare. The funding, part of the Robots for a Safer World challenge, will also address needs resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, such as contact-free deliveries, drones, driverless vehicles, and robots that can move hospital beds. The Robotics for a Safer World initiative has already created almost 300 jobs in the UK and elsewhere. The new funding is expected to boost the number of skilled roles and attract more businesses to the robotics sector Andrew Tyrer, director of the initiative, says the funding will help businesses and academics to bridge the gap to deliver the challenge, and to apply the knowledge they have gained in sectors such as agriculture, construction, logistics and healthcare. Almost £44m of the new funding will be allocated to the government’s Faraday Battery Challenge which aims to develop a new generation of high-performance batteries for electric vehicles and wind turbines. The batteries could also be used in emerging applications such as electric planes. In addition, the funding will help to complete the £108m “first-of-its-kind” UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, being built in Coventry, which is expected to create 100 skilled jobs. It will also enable the Faraday Institution to continue funding research and advances in battery technology. The Institution predicts that the workforce in the UK automotive and electric vehicle battery sectors could grow by 29% from 170,000 in 2020 to 220,000 by 2040. Tony Harper, director of The Faraday Battery Challenge, explains that “for batteries to play their full environmental and economic role in achieving net-zero, we need to deploy at scale and build supply chains for today’s technology, shift from strong potential to commercial dominance in a new generation of batteries and continue to build world-class scientific capability to sustain us into the future”. The past month has been marked by a flurry of takeover and investment announcements affecting the automation industry. We summarise some of them below. p Rockwell Automation buys Spanish OT cybersecurity specialist, Oylo Rockwell Automation has acquired the Spanish industrial cybersecurity services provider, Oylo , saying that the acquisition will accelerate its global delivery capability in this rapidly developing market, and expand the cybersecurity services that it offers. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Barcelona-based Oylo, founded in 2017, provides OT (operational technology) cybersecurity services for industrial control systems. It will report as part of Rockwell’s Lifecycle Services business. Rockwell says that Oylo’s OT expertise will complement the IT cybersecurity capabilities that it gained when it bought Avnet Data Security earlier this year. p Lika’s acquisition of German encoder- maker Bogen is made tomeasure The Italian optical and magnetic measurement specialist Lika Electronic has bought the German encoder-maker, Bogen Electronic , for an undisclosed sum. Both companies offer products for magnetic position, rotation and speed measurements, and automation control tasks. They say that their merger will combine their strengths in the market for magnetic sensors. Lika’s CEO, Marco Calabrese, says the companies’portfolios“complement each other perfectly”. Together the companies will employ around 140 people and have a combined turnover of about €17m. Bogen’s Berlin headquarters will operate under the new Bogen Magnetics name. Bogen, which started life in 1951 manufacturing magnetic heads for tape recorders, now specialises in magnetic heads for reading and writing data, as well as magnetic systems for position, rotation and velocity measurements. Lika’s portfolio includes rotary and linear encoders, incremental and absolute sensors, rotary actuators, displays, signal converters and encoder interfaces. p Merged Benshaw-AuCom soft-start business will offer more choice Earlier this year, the US motor control specialist Benshaw acquired the New Zealand soft-start pioneer Aucom . More details have emerged about how the merged business – described as “the world's largest owner-managed supplier of soft-starters”– will operate. The AuCom brand will serve IEC markets, while Benshaw will replace the AuCom brand in North America. AuCom’s global headquarters and its central location for r&d will stay in New Zealand. AuCom’s management team for the EMEA region remains unchanged, with Thomas Zirk as managing director. Benshaw has also acquired the US drive systems and automation integrator, Excel Industrial Electronics . It will add PLCs, PC systems, networking and HMI capabilities to Benshaw’s portfolio. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS BRIEFS The £108mUK Battery Industrialisation Centre, being built in Coventry, is intended to keep the UK at the forefront of advanced battery technologies. Government injects £65m into robots, batteries and healthcare @ D r i v e s n C o n t r o l s FOLLOW US ON TWITTER