July/August 2020

| EdITor’S coMMEnT | Talking Industry arrives L ike manufacturers across the UK, publishers are also having to adapt to a COVID-19 world. This has presented challenges but also great opportunities to engage closer with our readers and understand your needs better. As part of this Smart Machines and Factories and its sister magazines Drives & Controls and Plant & Works Engineering, have launched Talking Industry, a new series of live digitally broadcast panel discussions with leading experts from the industrial, automation and manufacturing sectors. These digitally broadcast panel discussions present a unique opportunity to discuss strategies, technologies and issues within both the industrial digitalisation sphere and the wider engineering community. They will reflect the ongoing global transformation to the smart manufacturing era and provide a fascinating insight into the potential plants of the future, covering all aspect of the digital transformation across the manufacturing spectrum. Leading expert will address the vast array of information around 4IR plus much more, discussing the practicalities, technologies and issues surrounding transition and implementation of digitalisation in UK manufacturing. The first in the series, Talking Industry – Manufacturing, will take place at 10am on Tuesday 14th July and will focus on three broad areas: increasing productivity and efficiency; reducing downtime and costs; and future technologies. Our panel of experts will explore a wide range of subjects and topics, and viewers will benefit from hearing their opinions on strategies, technologies and other aspects of the topic. Each topic will be discussed for about 30 minutes, and will be followed by an interactive Q&A session with input from the viewers. Attendees can tune in for all or part of the broadcast. The event is 100% free to attend. For those who are unable to login to the live event, it will be made available afterwards for download from our websites. Readers can register to attend for free by registering online at: https://tinyurl.com/talkingindustry-1 This additional resource for readers is a particularly exciting development especially at this challenging time, and we hope you will take advantage of it to help you keep up-to-date with the engineering issues of the day. www.smartmachinesandfactories.com July/August 2020 | 0 3 | Editor Aaron Blutstein e: aaron@dfamedia.co.uk Contributing Editor Tony Sacks Director of Sales Damien Oxlee damien.oxlee@dfamedia.co.uk Sales Manager Andy Wyle andy.wyle@dfamedia.co.uk Designer Chris Davis e: chris.davis@dfamedia.co.uk DFA Direct Ian Atkinson e: ian.atkinson@dfamedia.co.uk Operations Manager Ewa Hodden e: ewa.hodden@dfamedia.co.uk Project Liaison Manager Emma Floyd e: emma.floyd@dfamedia.co.uk Eastern USA Sales Karen C Smith-Kernc t: +1 717 397 7100 – f: +1 717 397 7800 e: KarenKCS@aol.com Western USA and Canada Sales Alan A Kernc t: +1 717 397 7100 – f: +1 717 397 7800 e: AlanKCS@aol.com German Sales Office Victoria Hufmann t: +49 (0) 911 939 76442 e: victoria@hufmann.info Commercial Director Ryan Fuller e: ryan.fuller@dfamedia.co.uk Publishing Director Ian Atkinson e: ian.atkinson@dfamedia.co.uk Official Media Partners of: www.primaryengineer.com www.profibus.com Head Office: DFA Media Limited, 192 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1BE UK t: +44 (0) 1732 370340 f: +44 (0) 1732 360034 e: info@dfamedia.co.uk Printer: Warners Midlands PLC, UK © Copyright 2019, DFA Media Ltd ISSN 2516-8770 Smart Machines & Factories is a controlled circulation magazine, published 6 times a year. Please contact DFA Media with any subscription enquiries. Paid subscriptions are also available on an annual basis at £90.00 (UK), £120.00 (Europe) or £150.00 (Rest of the World) P+P included. The content of this magazine, website and newsletters do not necessarily express the views of the Editor or publishers. The publishers accept no legal responsibility for loss arising from information in this publication. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced or stored in a retrieval system without the written consent of the publishers. Editor Smart Machines & Factories