The Sugatsune team enjoyed a successful trip to the NEC in Birmingham at the start of this month exhibiting at the Advanced Engineering trade show. Over the two days, we introduced the Sugatsune brand to hundreds of attendees, came away with a good number of strong new leads, and even discussed potential new applications for some of our products.
Advanced Engineering in an annual engineering and manufacturing conference that attracts up to 20,000 professionals every year. This year there were more than 400 exhibitors covering sectors such as Defense & Security, Rail, Aerospace & Avionics, Automotive, Digital Engineering, Composites and Advanced Materials, Machinery & Precision Tools and Test & Quality Control.
In addition to the main show, the event is twinned with LAB Innobvations, which features another 200 exhibitors who specialise in laboratory equipment and supplies.
Our product focus at this year’s event was on showcasing our linear guides range and our Motion Design Tech concept. Our linear guides display proved very popular, attracting a large number of visitors interested in sliding door solutions. In particular, lots of visitors to our stand enjoyed the opportunity to handle the components for themselves, getting to see how the mechanisms work and how simple and user-friendly they are.
The linear glides we had on display included products from our MLG Multi-Roller Linear Slide System. MLG slides provide pull-out, push-in motion for drawers, rack systems and internal machine parts. Unlike most linear guides, MLG slides can move vertically and diagonally as well as horizontally, providing space-saving flexibility without the risk of overload and progressive deterioration.
Similarly, we had several components on display to demonstrate the range of solutions that fall under our Motion Design Tech banner. Motion Design Tech is all about innovating to make the opening and closing motion of doors and flaps easier, safer and more convenient in industrial settings. Visitors were impressed by solutions such as our Lin-X multi-pivot hinges, a lateral opening alternative to slides that reimagines hinge motion in a unique and innovative way.
Expanding our horizons
One the main reasons we attend any trade show is because it gives us a chance to speak to professionals in the sectors we serve, listen to their pain points and the solutions they are looking for, and expand our understanding of where and how motion components are being used. This is all intelligence that helps us meed needs of the market better. We had lots of productive conversations, and had numerous examples of delegates telling us about use cases for moving components that they didn’t feel were well catered for on the market.
Many of the design engineers we spoke for were highly impressed by the flexibility and capability of our range, and talked to us about potential new applications of our components in areas such as:
- Nuclear energy production, where glides that require lubricant and regular maintenance are unsuitable.
- Aerospace systems, military equipment and production of navigation systems.
- An F1 engineer who said our range would be ideal for driver test simulators he manufactures, where guides are used to reset equipment.
- Medical testing equipment. We had interest from manufacturers in both our linear guides and Motion Design Tech solutions, especially unique multiple movements and lift-assist solutions.
All of the above gave us a great insight into the potential for developing our brand’s reach across UK industry, and underlines once again the value of trade shows. Roll on the next one!
