Machinery Update July / August 2020
The July / August 2020 issue of Machinery Update.
The July / August 2020 issue of Machinery Update.
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News<br />
www.machineryupdate.co.uk JULY/AUGUST <strong>2020</strong> MACHINERY UPDATE 9<br />
Engineer at PA Tanya Westenraad<br />
Supporting women<br />
in engineering<br />
every day…<br />
In honour of the International<br />
Women in Engineering Day in<br />
June, Packaging Automation (PA)<br />
says it likes to think that it is<br />
playing its part in demonstrating<br />
that the engineering role can<br />
be a great rewarding career for<br />
women, even though it is still<br />
dominated by men.<br />
Tanya Westenraad, for<br />
instance, joined the company<br />
nineteen years ago as an<br />
apprentice and she is now<br />
team leader mechanical design<br />
engineer. Responsible for the<br />
mechanical design of the Rotofill<br />
machine, she is the company’s<br />
pot filling expert. She is now<br />
keen to support and mentor new<br />
engineering apprentices at PA<br />
and encourage other women to<br />
consider a career in engineering.<br />
Could this pandemic<br />
help the UK to finally<br />
automate its factories?<br />
The feature on<br />
automation,<br />
robotics and<br />
vision systems<br />
that starts on<br />
page 28 of this<br />
issue could not be<br />
more prescient as<br />
COVID-19 rips<br />
through food<br />
processing plants<br />
that traditionally<br />
see lots of humans<br />
standing close<br />
together to handle<br />
foodstuffs in harsh<br />
environments.<br />
Pork processors,<br />
chicken plants,<br />
canning factories,<br />
sandwich sites and<br />
general meat processors were<br />
all hit with the virus in June.<br />
On page 34 of our 30 page<br />
feature, you’ll find a new<br />
robotic meat processing cell<br />
that has been designed to suit<br />
the specific requirements of<br />
the primary meat processing<br />
sector. It has been created by<br />
CME for orienting and placing<br />
meat products such as chicken<br />
portions, steaks and burgers<br />
Meat processing has seen many COVID-19 issues<br />
into primary packaging.<br />
And all this while achieving<br />
the highest hygiene standards<br />
combined with lower costs.<br />
We also report on one<br />
area that the UK seems to<br />
be leading the robotics pack<br />
which is in the installation of<br />
autonomous mobile robots<br />
or AMRs (see page 30) and<br />
the adoption of Industry 4.0<br />
delivering technology.<br />
In brief<br />
SUCCESSFUL UKIVA HUB<br />
When the UKIVA had to postpone<br />
this year’s Machine Vision<br />
Conference & Exhibition (MVC) to<br />
spring next year, it launched a new<br />
Technology Presentation Hub that<br />
went live on 14 May. And on the<br />
day of its launch, the online event<br />
saw over 1,000 presentations<br />
viewed and in total, the seminar<br />
programme has since been<br />
viewed nearly 5,000 times.<br />
“Our speaker programme has<br />
always proved popular for those<br />
attending previous MVC events,<br />
and we wanted to continue to share<br />
this industry insight via this new<br />
online hub,” says Allan Anderson,<br />
chairman of the UKIVA.<br />
VIRTUAL PACKFORUM<br />
Issues such as sustainability,<br />
reducing food waste, enhancing<br />
food security and extending shelf<br />
lives topped the agenda at Sealed<br />
Air’s European Packforum event<br />
in June. The ‘Power of Vacuum’<br />
included presentations and<br />
interactive question and answer<br />
sessions on the increasingly<br />
critical role of vacuum packaging<br />
in protecting food.<br />
Delegates heard form Denise<br />
Mathieson, senior UK technical<br />
packaging manager – fresh and<br />
packed quality at Tesco.<br />
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