Machinery Update July / August 2020

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