Each day The Manufacturer compiles the top manufacturing news stories from around the web. To make your life a little easier, we trawl through all the major trade publications, broadsheets and business magazines to find you the most important manufacturing news each morning. Don't forget to bookmark this page and check back daily.
At Autodesk University this week, Autodesk, Inc. announced Autodesk AI, technology that unlocks creativity, helps solve problems, and eliminates non-productive work across the industries that design and make the world around us.
Available in Autodesk products and native to its Design and Make Platform, Autodesk AI provides intelligent assistance and generative capabilities that allow customers to imagine and explore freely while producing precise, accurate, and innovative results. More via The Manufacturer
Alexander Dennis has announced that it has been chosen in a competitive tender by Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation to supply 35 battery-electric Enviro500EV double deck buses.
MTR Corporation provides Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway urban rail system including a network of feeder bus services, for which it operates a fleet of 172 buses. Most of them have been supplied by Alexander Dennis from its Enviro200, Enviro400 and Enviro500 vehicle ranges. More via Alexander Dennis
Aluminium maker Hydro and Watt Electric Vehicle Company said on Wednesday they will explore using recycled and low-carbon aluminium to help meet the climate goals of the UK commercial electric van startup’s potential customers.
Hydro’s low-carbon aluminium is produced using renewable energy and has a CO2 footprint of 4.0 kg per tonne compared with a global average of 16.7kg. Hydro and WEVC will also evaluate using recycled aluminium in the manufacturing process. More via Reuters
Team of UK companies secure contract to trial 5G infrastructure from the sky
A team of UK companies led by Stratospheric Platforms Limited (SPL), a Non Terrestrial Networks telecoms developer, has won a significant contract trialling advanced airborne 5G connectivity from a Britten-Norman Islander.
Aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman will be providing key design and trials support for the project, with Marshall Futureworx providing important cooling systems technology.
SPL is pioneering the concept of using a High-Altitude Platform (HAP) with airborne antenna to provide widescale coverage of high performance 5G from the stratosphere. More via The Manufacturer
More than 1,300 jobs have been put at risk at the UK’s largest rail assembly factory.
Alstom is consulting on job losses at its Litchurch Lane site in Derby, which has no confirmed workload beyond the first quarter of 2024.
Work on trains for HS2 is scheduled to start at the plant in late 2026 but there is a gap in orders from early next year.
The BBC understands 550 permanent jobs and 780 temporary jobs are at risk. More via BBC News
Hundreds of small- to medium-sized manufacturers (SMEs) in Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull are set to receive a major investment readiness boost with the launch of a new support package.
Oxford Innovation Advice has been contracted by Business Growth West Midlands to deliver an Investment Readiness programme across three of the region’s leading industrial areas.
Utilising over £1m of funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), the initiative will help manufacturing SMEs demystify the world of business finance, covering topics such as debt and asset finance, grant funding opportunities, equity and the increasingly popular crowdfunding route. More via The Manufacturer
SpaceX is pushing hard to launch the second spaceflight of its Starship rocket this week.
CEO Elon Musk claimed the company will receive its federal launch license in the coming days, the final hurdle before a second attempt. The company has been waiting for the completion of a federal environmental review led by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More via CNBC
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