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In 2024, a joint survey from the RAeS and digital manufacturing experts, Protolabs, revisited a 2023 questionnaire on the top concerns and issues for those in aerospace manufacturing. One year on, what were the fresh findings of this updated industry snapshot? TIM ROBINSON FRAeS reports.

Intellegens CSO, Dr Gareth Conduit, is an organiser of the OPTIMADE project, which aims to promote collaboration and accelerate R&D in materials design by making it easier to access key sources of materials and crystallographic data. The project team has published a paper summarising progress.

As we navigate the ever-evolving business landscape, it's crucial to stay ahead of the curve in managing our most valuable asset - our people.

As the GreenTech market gears up for remarkable growth, technology hubs globally have a chance to seize the moment and influence the future. Esther Ford, Partner at Marks & Clerk, notes that in this dynamic landscape Cambridge has already established itself as a formidable technical powerhouse.

A new study commissioned by digital manufacturer Protolabs highlights the challenges senior manufacturing professionals face under increasing pressure to innovate. The study, ‘The Balancing Act: Unlocking Innovation in Manufacturing’, was carried out in partnership with B2B thought leadership agency FT Longitude and reveals that the most innovative executives excel in recognising the areas of business that require urgent attention, such as retaining talent, enabling creativity and avoiding burn-out.

This is the first of a series of five technology briefings for, in which we will be reviewing the fastest moving and most exciting fields to equip business leaders to identify trends that they can leverage in their own business and technology development plans. The series will cover AI, sustainability, security and eHealth, but we start with the critical and frequently overlooked role of sensors. By John Bowman, Marketing Director, Anglia Components and Andrew Pockson, Divisional Engineering Manager, Anglia Components

In the last 2 decades the lighting world has seen a revolution as lighting systems have transitioned from using incandescent and fluorescent light sources to solid state LEDs, this has led to increased reliability, lower power consumption and improved quality of light. A similar revolution is now beginning in the UVC market, LED replacements are now available offering benefits vs. traditional mercury based lamps. David Pearson, Technical Director at Anglia, looks at some of the main considerations when specifying UVC LEDs along with an overview of some typical use cases and key technology advantages of Bolb Inc. LEDs.

As the world becomes more interconnected, entrepreneurs and inventors face unique challenges in bringing their products to market. From ideation to manufacturing to marketing and beyond, the process can be daunting and complex. Anglia Unicorn has been set up to assist you in overcoming these challenges by offering end-to-end technical support to help turn your vision into a reality. Whether you need support for the whole journey to market, or just with specific challenges, we are here for you.

Is the UK government’s Security & Investment Act and aggressive semiconductor/technology strategy against China killing the UK tech industry’s global future? Ting Zhang, CEO & founder of Cambridge-based crayfish.io certainly thinks so. And, you could argue, she should know. For the last 30 years, the UK-based business has been focussed on enabling businesses to succeed in China, working, predominantly, with UK tech startups wanting to scaleup and do business with China.

This is the fifth in our series discussing how to take a new product from proof of concept into full production and by this stage your product is in the market. You’ve got sales. Revenue. Customer reviews. And maybe some returned units from the field. What’s the next step?

This fourth article in our series following the progress of a new product from inception to delivery in the marketplace, focuses on the move into volume production. Selecting a partner for this step is a decision that warrants detailed research and your commitment to travel and meet candidate companies to be sure of getting the right team on your side. The partner is likely to carry out the full assembly, not just the PCBA so it is imperative for the hunt to start early in the process. A good time might be the point at which the first design is going to prototype. At this stage, you will have a fair idea what the finished product is going to look like, and hence what manufacturing skills are going to be required. The manufacturing partner for the production volumes would likely be the same as the one chosen for the pre-production volumes, so the decision would need to be made by then. The pre-production batch will also then provide an opportunity to validate the relationship.

The second annual edition of the Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report 2022, from leading intellectual property firm Appleyard Lees, analyses patent filings across several key environmental issues facing the world, including electric vehicle batteries.

This is the third in our series tracing the progress of a start-up's first new technology product from detail design through to volume production. In the previous article, we suggested that having a working prototype puts you about 30% along the road to completion: the point where you can start volume production and shipping units to customers. And, perhaps more importantly, to receiving the revenue that represents the well-deserved return in exchange for your ingenuity and efforts. Now that you have the funding to move forward, what comes next?

The second annual edition of the Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report 2022, from leading intellectual property firm Appleyard Lees’, analyses patent filings across several key environmental issues facing the world, including alternative protein.

This is the second article in our series taking technology StartUps through the process of developing a new product. This time we’ll focus on the second step leading into full production. Your team has been busy developing the hardware and software as well as the aesthetic aspects, the overall look and feel, the user experience. You are now ready to build a prototype before doing final checks and pushing the button to start manufacturing.

After two years of unparalleled business uncertainty, there’s finally a hint of blue skies ahead and wise technology start-ups are already putting out the feelers to ensure that a weak supply chain won’t hamper their businesses’ rapid growth. Supply chain isn’t their core expertise though, and distributors need to help to ensure that they can get their products into the hands of customers quickly, in line with their business plan.

David Pearson, Technical Director at Anglia provides an insight into the key application trends and some of the innovative products and solutions from Analog Devices which can help developers meet the requirement and scope of Intelligent Motion Control designs for Industry 4.0.

Starting any business involves more than an element of risk, and for high-tech startups these risks are often amplified by extreme technical complexity. The original team is usually small, maybe even just a group of university friends, with combined competencies that cover just a subset of what’s needed to get their product idea to market. These are usually quite narrowly focused, so completing the product development using in-house resources alone is not feasible.

Antenna selection is often one of the most challenging parts of a design even for the most experienced RF engineers. It will be no surprise that it is also fundamental to the performance of any wireless connection and hence one of the most important aspects. Without a well-functioning antenna, the radio link may not be stable and the user’s experience and therefore market acceptance of the product will likely suffer.

Following record-breaking levels in 2021, consumer adoption of smartphones, laptops, tablets and smart TVs has decelerated in the past year; More than three-quarters (78%) of consumers do not plan on spending more on technology this year compared to last year, with 20% saying their spending on tech will decrease in 2022; · Four in ten wish they spent less time on their devices, with 25-34-year-olds the most remorseful (63%); · 91% of consumers had used their smartphones in the last day, compared to 93% in 2021;  Consumers are ungluing from screens, with three-quarters (78%) of people preferring to meet friends in person compared to virtual socialising and meetings