Southern Manufacturing & Electronics celebrates its 20th anniversary event from February 6th to 8th 2018 with a move to a brand new home on its traditional Farnborough site. The ultra-modern two-storey Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre offers world-class facilities and easy access. Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2018 will be the first major exhibition to take place in the new 20,000m² Hall 1 development, and the move to a permanent home marks an important step forward for the show as it enters its third decade in the top league of UK engineering shows.
With around 800 companies expected to take part in 2018, Southern is hands-down one of the best marketplaces for industrial hardware and engineering services in Europe. A great selection of well-known UK exhibitors, sprinkled liberally with a variety of overseas firms which rarely, if ever, frequent these shores, gives visitors the opportunity to experience a much wider range of products and services than they would normally expect to find at a domestic event. The ability to address multiple sourcing issues at one show has always been one of Southern’s strongest features, and it’s one that remains top of the list for the majority of visitors.
The show is divided roughly equally between Electronics and Manufacturing Production. Southern Electronics is the longest-running and largest annual electronics show in the UK, offering an extremely broad cross section of components, production hardware and manufacturing services. Some of the UK’s largest component distributors will be present for 2018, between them offering a vast range of products. Some of the names to look out for include Easby Electronics, G English Electronics, Midas Components, Variohm Eurosensor and Optimas Components. Also worthy of note is Transfer Multisort Elektronik, one of Europe’s largest distributors of electronic and electromechanical components. Electronics production and test is similarly well-represented with top name suppliers such as Blundell Production Equipment, Ingun, PACE Europe and Pillarhouse International.
Southern Electronics is also one of the country’s most important marketplaces for production services. PCB makers include European Circuits, Corintech, DJ Assembly, EC Electronics, Active PCB and Eurocircuits. Among the CEMS firms exhibiting are JJS Manufacturing, SouMac, Trojan Electronics and many more UK and overseas suppliers. One new supplier for 2018 is Romanian contract manufacturer CICOR, part of the Swiss CICOR Group – an international network of manufacturing service providers.
Southern Manufacturing is a key event for big-ticket technologies such as machining centres. As usual, the show will host a wide selection of top marques offering live demonstrations of their latest products. Companies offering live demonstrations in 2018 include Matsuura, Yamazaki Mazak, Bystronic, C. Dugard, XYZ Machine Tools and Emco UK. There’s also an excellent selection of tooling solutions from top suppliers such as Wilson Tool and Dormer Pramet, and all manner of workshop and metrology equipment from names such as Faro Technologies, Nikon, Aberlink, Blum Novotest, Heidenhain, Renishaw, Igus and many more.
Systems integration is yet another aspect of the event, and here too the show offers a comprehensive selection of suppliers and expertise. Regular exhibitor HepcoMotion will be highlighting its comprehensive range of solutions to practically any motion requirement from linear to circular, and heavy duty to XYZ systems. Hepco’s DTS system will be in action with an Omron Delta robot. The ‘spider like’ robot will be picking up chocolate bars and, at speed, moving them to the other side of the track system, demonstrating how the two leading technologies can be combined to reduce process time and increase efficiency. HMK Automation, will showcase its new TM5 Cobot, which merges systems that usually function separately in conventional robots. According to the firm, the TM5 is the only collaborative robot to incorporate simple programming, a fully integrated vision system and the latest safety standards in a single unit.
The subject of cobots will also be explored in depth as part of the show’s free technical seminar programme, which runs over all three days in two separate seminar theatres. The comprehensive programme explores an extremely wide range of topics, from technical sessions covering areas such lithium ion batteries, CE Marking, 3D Print and Industry 4.0, to more management-oriented themes such as best practice in manufacturing, implementing Lean and how to market technical products effectively. There is also a compelling look at the implications of the forthcoming GDPR regulations for manufacturers and the latest outlook for manufacturers post-Brexit. A full list of sessions and the all-important pre-registration form are available at http://seminars.industrysouth.co.uk
More details on this and the other 33 sessions of the 2018 programme can be found at http://seminars.industrysouth.co.uk
Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2018 opens from February 6th to 8th. Admission to the show is free. More information and tickets are available from www.industrysouth.co.uk. Farnborough Exhibition and Conference Centre offers free on-site car parking and is easily reached by road, air or public transport.
