PE News in Brief

Safety tech company Draeger Safety UK has been awarded a contract extension with Ineos UK until 2029 for its portable gas detection and Rental Robot services. The Blyth-based firm has worked on maintenance and related areas for the chemicals giant since 2018. Its updated agreement will include new product supplies for individual monitoring of personnel and installation of a new digital safety guard.

Process industry software developer eschbach has been awarded Best of Industry Award 2024 in the artificial intelligence special category for its Shiftconnector@Smart Solutions module. It marks the second successive win in the category for the company; previously it won for its Shiftconnector@Smart Search module.

Canadian process engineering firm specialising in the life sciences, GMP Engineering, has opened new premises in the north of England as headquarters for its European growth plans. Its new 1,000 sq ft site is located at The Globe in Slaithwaite near Huddersfield will initially serve a US$1.3 billion cancer treatment project in North America.

Mettler-Toledo’s product inspection technology has been featured in the popular BBC process engineering-focused show Inside the Factory. The recent episode focused on the Walkers factory in Lincoln responsible annually for producing 500 million packs of Quavers. Mettler-Toledo’s checkweighers, providing weight control and real-time data analysis appeared during the visit by presenter Paddy McGuinness.

Dr Peter Williams (top left), group technology director and head of investor relations at INEOS, has been appointed the new chair of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC). Williams is a member of the UK's Building a Green Future Advisory Board, and was  a council member of the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He originally served as CEO of INEOS Technologies from 2006 and previously worked for more than 20 years with BP.

HVM Catapult (main pic) officially opened its new digital factory facility at Baglan, South Wales. While manufacturing contributes nearly one fifth of the Welsh economy’s output – worth £11.3 billion annually  and supporting 147,000 jobs, R&D investment in the principality is just 40% of the UK average, it says.

Large increases in food production made the Q4 of 2024 the best on record for UK manufacturers, It delivered output worth £155.6 billion in the three months to December, according to an analysis of ONS data by FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics. Previously, the best quarter record was Q2 2023, amounting to £153.9 billion.

Specialty chemicals firm PennWhite’s Indian subsidiary Penn White India has acquired the defoamer business of Sicagen India’s specialty chemicals division. CEO of parent company Penn White UK Tobias Tasche said the purchase marked the start of longer term plans to invest in the Indian market.

Heriot-Watt University’s Dubai campus and Expo City Dubai have joined forces to launch the first National Robotarium in the Middle East, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It will be based on the UK’s National Robotarium, located at Heriot-Watt’s Edinburgh base. Expo City Dubai will support new PhD positions in Robotics and AI at the Dubai campus.

BEP Surface Technologies (bottom left), a leader in surface finishing solutions, has finished a £0.5 million refurbishment of its Radcliffe, Greater Manchester facility. It said the four month project overhauling its electroplating activities will future-proof its operations and reinforce its sustainability effort. More than 31,500 litres of chemical solutions, including hazardous waste, were extracted and safely disposed.