Southern Manufacturing & Electronics returns to Farnborough from February 6th to 8th 2018 for its 20th anniversary event. A landmark in itself, but made even more significant by the show’s move into a brand new permanent venue currently under construction on its Farnborough site. The £30m Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre development is the largest exhibition venue to be built in the UK for 20 years. The 20,000m² Hall 1 complex, designed by award-winning architects Terence O’Rourke, offers world-class facilities, easy access and panoramic runway level views. The Southern Manufacturing Show will be the first major event to be held in the new building, and will herald a new era of development for one of the UK’s best-supported and most popular engineering shows as it moves into its third decade.
A key element of the show’s success over such a long history is its diversity of exhibitors, which gives the show an extremely broad appeal across every branch of the engineering community. Divided roughly equally between electronics and manufacturing production, and covering subcontract services as well as hardware, visitors get to experience an impressively wide range of products and services during a single visit. This makes Southern Manufacturing one of the best shows to address multiple sourcing issues in one go. Another appealing aspect of the event is that, while it is big enough to attract major manufacturers and vendors, it also remains very accessible to smaller, more specialist suppliers. Taken together, this rich mixture of the familiar and less well know virtually guarantees visitors will encounter companies previously unknown to them. This is especially true as, in recent years, the show has become more and more popular with overseas exhibitors, giving visitors a unique opportunity to encounter products and services they wouldn’t normally see at a domestic show.
With around 800 companies expected to take part in Southern Manufacturing 2018, there will be plenty to see. The ever-popular Production Machinery area hosts numerous top machinery vendors, such as Matsuura, Yamazaki Mazak, Bystronic and XYZ Machine Tools, all running live demonstrations of their latest machines. There’s welding solutions from TPS Weldtech; workholding from AMF Andreas Maier and HCL Clamping; cabling machinery from Automated Cable Solutions; tooling from Dormer Pramet, Wilson Tool, Berger Tools and many others.
The selection of production hardware vendors includes nitrogen generation from BCAS, airtools from Total Airtool Services, laser marking from Laser Lines, labelling solutions from Brady and Rebo, and handling systems from Yaplex. There’s also a vast selection of consumables, including adhesives and sealants from Henkel Loctite, Ambersil, Lohman Adhesive Tapes, and engineering oils and coolants from Wyse Oils amongst thousands of other products on show.
The show is also a great place to source components and OEM parts for process engineering applications. Major suppliers present for 2018 include bearings and energy chains from igus UK, cable and hose management systems from Kabelschlepp Metool, specialist power supplies from Cosel Europe and Luso Electronics, and sensors from MagDev, Variohm Eurosensor, ESI Technology and many others. Fuji Electric Europe will showcase its range of energy-saving inverters and AC drives, and there’s a huge selection of connectors from firms such as ODU, Yamaichi and Lemo UK, together with specialist cabling manufacturers such as Sweden’s Habia Cable.
Along with all the hardware on display, the show is a great place to acquire new knowledge thanks to its comprehensive free technical seminar programme, which runs over all three days in two separate seminar rooms. Covering both specific technical issues and more general business management topics, the programme offers something for everyone. Some of the topics to be discussed for 2018 include Lean implementation, ERP strategies, CE Marking and manufacturing best practice. The implications of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0, a look at the latest developments in 3D Print technology, automated storage and retrieval and the role of “cobots” in manufacturing. A full list of sessions is available at http://seminars.industrysouth.co.uk, together with the all-important pre-booking form, as popular sessions fill-up very quickly.
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.
