Advanced Engineering organisers, Easyfairs, and Enabling Innovation sponsors, Magna International, have announced the winner of the inaugural Enabling Innovation Award for 2016. Photocentric, the innovative 3D printer manufacturer, was crowned champion after competing against 20 innovative companies who all showcased and pitched their products as part of Advanced Engineering’s Enabling Innovation Zone. As part of the prize, Photocentric is also the recipient of a £5,000 cheque courtesy of Magna International.
Photocentric triumphed with the exciting new technology behind its innovative 3D printer, which operates on daylight sensitive resin, creating the highest definition objects. The technology uses visible light instead of UV, to harden the polymer making custom objects. The printer simultaneously exposes a layer, allowing the possibility of screens of up to 98″ to be used. This allows industrial items to be printed quickly, at low cost and large volume, to start the era of functional custom-made parts.
Paul Holt, Managing Director at Photocentric, said: “Photocentric is delighted to receive this significant recognition from Magna International. The award for Enabling Innovation for our disruptive new type of 3D printer is a great honour. We exhibited at Advanced Engineering thanks to Magna’s support in providing space on their Enabling Innovation stand. It proved a great success for us. We have invented a new technology for 3D printing using visible light emitted from LCD screens as the image generation source. Our intention is to widen the use of 3D printing by producing a range of much more productive printers, creating functional items at lower cost. We plan to make a massive 4-cubic metre build volume printer for industrial parts and look forward to the day when 3D printing can be used by companies such as Magna to make custom parts for use, rather than just prototyping.”
In addition to Magna’s involvement as sponsor of the Enabling Innovation initiative, Advanced Engineering 2016 enjoyed the support of the Knowledge Transfer Network, which provided dissemination among its academic and industry networks, and additional expertise in judging the competition.
Ian Simmons VP of Corporate R&D at Magna International, stated: “Magna continues its open-for-business approach for attracting innovation here in the UK and as part of our global outreach. The need to commercialise inventions into our future products leads Magna R&D to support these types of events and engage with the startup community to help them understand the needs and opportunities within our business. Advanced Engineering provided a good opportunity to interact with a wide range of technologies and spend valuable face-to-face time with their technology leadership.”
Based on the fantastic reception from the industry to this inaugural showcase and awards initiative, Advanced Engineering organisers are now intending to repeat the Enabling Innovation project for next year’s event. Matt Benyon, Managing Director of show organiser Easyfairs said: “We have been thrilled by the response from the industry to our Enabling Innovations initiative, and have been extremely excited to see the scope and volume of innovation that the UK’s SMEs are able to offer. We are thrilled to be able to offer these companies in their infancy the opportunity to present the most ground-breaking technologies and services to our 13,000-strong audience, full of dedicated buyers. It is a match made in heaven, and just shows how much innovation is on offer in the UK engineering sector, and more than that just, how bright the future looks.
We would like to thank Magna International and the KTN for their continued support of the show and for being such a key part of this excellent show feature”
Also competing were several other highly-innovative organisations, each of whom went through a rigorous selection process to secure their place in the Magna-sponsored area of the show. These included:
8power with its patented vibration energy harvesting devices and sensors – an attractive, low-cost alternative to limited lifetime batteries.
Aceleron displayed its technology that transforms end of life lithium batteries into affordable energy storage solutions.
Asap Water Crafts demonstrated its electric powered rescue craft. It is cost effective and can be recharged using renewable energy sources, also perfect in hard to reach locations where boats can’t access
eStress pitched its innovative design and manufacturing solution for wind-turbine blades, which offers weight saving, improved reliability, faster manufacture and lower cost.
Adaptive Moulding showcased its reconfigurable tooling solution, allowing the process of faster and cheaper plastic parts
Crown Hockey displayed its patented manufacturing process and unique dimpled designed sticks, offering a solution to the painful vibrations felt by player when striking the ball hard
3D Innovative Designs exhibited its metallic, ceramic panels that resist all conventional cutting and drilling tools with the focus on security-related applications
Ross Robotics has developed robots that harness automation and reconfiguration to imitate the adaptability of living creatures.
MPMSim displayed its next generation meshless multi-physics simulation software for the engineering industry
Singularity Insight showcased its Expert Teleportation, which allows specialists to see a situation through a technician’s eyes, from potentially thousands of miles away.
Braci – The Smart Ear has created a sound recognition platform that detects and converts sounds in to sensory and visual notifications through smart devices back to the wearer/user.
Neuron Soundware demonstrated its framework of neural networks to understand, learn from and process sounds, allowing the diagnosis and prediction of technical problems in heavy machinery, car engines, turbines and more.
Thermoelectric Conversion Systems, came along with its REHEAT system which can recover energy from exhaust gases with an extremely low weight penalty.
Composite Braiding shared its techniques used to design, prototype and lower volume production to support a variety of industries
Oxsensis exhibited its sapphire/Inconel optical sensor structures which are passive, so do not require an electrical power supply. They are also tolerant to extreme temperatures, and are totally immune to electromagnetic interference
Rotite presented a unique new mechanical fastening and coupling technology relevant to today’s materials and manufacturing methods.
Swie.io showcased its Industry 4.0 factory automation solution which can increase production efficiency and yield by saving 3 hours of setup time for every new product, therefore helping electronics manufacturers transition towards a high-mix environment.
Libertine pitched its high performance linear electrical machines and free piston devices for power and motion, addressing the key remaining challenges identified by free piston engine developers.
For more information about next year’s Advanced Engineering, its Enabling Innovation Showcase and the Awards on 1 & 2 of November 2017 at the NEC, please visit the website on https://www.advancedengineeringuk.com or contact one of the Easyfairs team on +44 (0)20 8843 8800
