Southern Manufacturing & Electronics returns to Farnborough from February 6th to 8th 2018 for its 20th anniversary event, and the first to be held in the new £30m Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre. Hall 1 at Farnborough is the largest exhibition venue to be built in the UK for 20 years, and offers world-class facilities, easy access and on-site parking for 3000 cars.
The show is divided roughly into two halves – manufacturing production and electronics, and within those areas exhibitors are grouped loosely within categories such as Machinery, Production & Test, Aerospace & Automotive, Subcontracting etc. But these areas are not rigidly defined in order to encourage exploration. Consequently, it is extremely common for visitors to encounter the new and surprising and this, again, is part of its unique appeal to engineers. 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 engineering activity.
Covering subcontract services as well as components and production hardware, visitors get to experience an impressively wide range of products and services during a single visit. 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 taking 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. 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 for sourcing components and parts. 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.
Along with all the hardware on display, the show is a great place to acquire new knowledge. The free seminar programme at Southern Manufacturing & Electronics draws hundreds of delegates each year. The programme is a complementary blend of technical and business topics covering a wide range of issues facing manufacturing businesses today. 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.
