Members’ News
19 Sep 2018
On September 5, 2018 – Aventics was awarded the prize for outstanding performance in collaboration with the Bosch Group. The pneumatics specialists have delivered an exceptionally competitive level of performance in the production and supply of products or services in a specific material field over an extended period. Malte Ihlenfeld, Corporate Lead Buyer Machine Components & Services at Bosch, and Patrick Eberwein, Strategic Purchasing at Bosch’s packaging technology division, presented the certificate to Dr. Peter Saffe, Vice President Strategic Sales and Dieter Michalkowski, Global Account Manager at Aventics GmbH. Aventics is a member of the BFPA in the UK.
Camozzi Automation’s Purchasing Manager Mark Ludbrook is celebrating 35 years with the company.
Mark started work with Camozzi’s predecessor in the UK, Automatic Valve Systems (AVS), in June 1983, the company being somewhat smaller back in those days, comprising a dozen staff, one computer, a telex machine and a dog! Mark’s engineering background stood him in good stead to advise customers with technical queries, though with such a small team, job roles were undefined and he could find himself doing everything from answering the phone, to unloading deliveries from Italy.
As Camozzi expanded, Mark’s role grew and he soon became a key member of the sales team, later moving into purchasing. When asked about his most memorable time with the company he recalls an incident in the mid 90’s when Camozzi’s sponsorship of the hugely successful McLaren Formula 1 team was at its peak and he was asked to collect an urgently needed F1 engine from the team’s Brackley headquarters and drive it over to Hannover in time for an exhibition.
Webtec, the specialist manufacturer of hydraulic measurement and control products, has appointed Mark Ambelang as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Mark will join Webtec’s existing team in Milwaukee, WI, USA, working closely with them to develop new and existing markets in North America.
Bringing both sales and strategic business experience from over 25 years in the hydraulics market, his focus will be to find customers in new markets and applications and help Webtec to achieve its corporate strategic growth plans in this region.
“Joining Webtec offers me the ideal opportunity to use all of my knowledge of sales, distribution and global key account management in the hydraulics market and I feel that it’s a great fit for all of us”, commented Mark on this appointment. “Webtec has an outstanding reputation for offering quality hydraulic measurement products, but is less well known in North America for its customised hydraulic control products and I am looking forward to expanding the business in this key area for the company” he added.
Industrial automation specialist Festo has developed an online tool to help companies assess their readiness for Industry 4.0 adoption. Called Industry 4.0 Quick Check, it enables companies to identify their current Industry 4.0 maturity level and what their next training and development priorities should be.
Festo has also released a press statement entitled: A Fish Caused Wonder: new swimming robot inspired by nature The undulating fin movements of marine animals such as the cuttlefish have provided the inspiration for a new Bionic concept swimming robot from industrial automation specialists Festo. Called the Bionic FinWave, its ability to negotiate pipework while transmitting valuable data about parameters such as temperature and pressure was identified during research within the Bionic Learning Network – demonstrating that the technology has further development potential in process industry applications.
Festo Bionic projects like FinWave are proof-of-technology demonstrators. Using lessons from nature combined with the latest ideas from Festo’s research departments, they present complex technology in a graphic and interesting way, generating discussion and engagement with customers and future partners.
The Bionic FinWave features a fin drive unit that is particularly suitable for slow, precise motion and causes less turbulence in the water than, say, a conventional screw propulsion drive. With this form of propulsion, the underwater robot can manoeuvre itself autonomously while communicating wirelessly with the outside world and transmitting data to the cloud or a local tablet.
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRNq55EbnZc
News of the passing of NFPA Advisory member Alex Bogges
John R Savage NFPC Director recently informed us at the BFPA of the very sad news that Alex Bogges had tragically been fatally killed some two weeks earlier in a motor cycle crash. John was quoted at a recent meeting as saying: “Alex had been an active member of the NFPC Advisory for many years whilst employed at Caterpillar, JLG, Ricardo and Wakerneuson. He was an outstanding Engineer and will be sadly missed and our condolences and sympathy go to his family.”
Do you have a company news story we could feature?
BFPA would like to help publicise our BFPA and BFPDA members’ company news (free of charge to members) in our newsletter and / or on our website news page and want to feature more news stories from our BFPA and BFPDA members. Each news item will be set alongside a photo / logo / image (which you would ideally supply) and archived by date. We may also be able to publish on our news pages or send out to a wider media list as well on your behalf.
We would love to hear from you if you have any suitable UK fluid power industry news stories such as:
- Senior staff appointments
- New buildings being opened
- Awards being won / presented
- New industry sales partners announced
- New acquisitions / alliances etc.
- Innovative or unusual projects or case studies
Please send any news items to Sarah Gardner sarah@bfpa.co.uk – we look forward to hearing from you soon!