As 2011 begins to draw towards its close, thoughts
inevitably turn to the New Year and what it will bring for the
British economy and the recovery of the country’s
manufacturing sector. A key event for 2012 is MACH, as
Graham Dewhurst, director general, of the Manufacturing
Technologies Association explains

One way to keep abreast of
developments is through MACH
2012, an exhibition that unites the
industry under the NEC roof from16th to
20th April.

MACH has been known as a place to see
Machine Tools for the past 100 years and
2012 promises to be no exception with the
big players taking bigger stands and
promising to put some real
metalworking behemoths –
many new to the UK and
indeed world markets – on
them. The show’s traditional
role as a showcase for the
tooling industry is back with
a vengeance too with all the
big companies represented
on showpiece stands.

But it is perhaps some of
the innovations that make
MACH 2012 a landmark
event which is looking well
into the future of British
manufacturing. Areas of
technology that are new not
only to MACH but even to manufacturing
will be represented. On display will be the
latest kit in welding, robotics and additive
manufacturing and 3D printing. The need to
keep up with what is new has never been
greater. You need to know what the future
holds for you and your company just to keep
in the game
And it is not just the technologies that
are new. For the first time MACH will have a
distinctly sector-specific feel with key areas
such as aerospace, automotive and power
generation presented in such a way as to help
visitors find easily the products they are
looking for.

There are innovations too in terms of the
size of company that will be showing. Of
course in the past the danger has always been
that a small company’s stand, of maybe 9m2,
might get lost in an exhibition with stands
nearly 100 times bigger. So, to guard against
that happening, companies can boost their
impact by joining a zone based either around
their sector or their Trade Association;
BTMA, MMMA, CBM, AWD, BAF, GTMA
are on board and more are in the pipeline.

Confidence high
I’ve just returned from EMO the
Manufacturing Technology industries big
European show in Germany. The confidence
there with visitor numbers well into six
figures, and hundreds of millions of Euro’s
worth of business being done gives me great
hope for the immediate future of the
industry.Manufacturing’s needs are greater
and more complex than ever before and I was
heartened by the sorts of projects I learned
about from the ‘Best of British’ that I met
while I was over there. The manufacturing
world is turning on its axis; geographically as
Asia rises and technologically as new
products come on stream.Manufacturing’s
potential is huge and we need to make sure
that we here in the UK are part of it.