Energy and safety debates top of the agenda at Drives & Controls

With only weeks to go, the NEC is set to become the focus of the largest manufacturing  and engineering event of 2012. The Drives and Controls Exhibition – co-located  with the International Fluid Power Exhibition (IFPEX), Air-Tech, and The Plant  and Asset Management Exhibition – taking place between 17-19 April  2012, at the NEC Birmingham will form part of the manufacturing and engineering  series of shows alongside MACH.

A highlight of this year’s Drives & Controls, Air-Tech, and IFPEX Exhibitions, is the new  free-to-attend Energy and Safety seminar theatre, where themed panel  discussions chaired by industry organisations including GAMBICA, The  British Fluid Power Association (BFPA), and The British Compressed Air Society (BCAS), will focus on key energy management and safety topics, including panel debates surrounding issues such as the use of software and programmable safety.

Panel experts will look at how functional safety  depends not only on selecting the right function in the first place and  associated components, but increasingly on the use of software and software  configurable components and networks. There are clear benefits to OEMs and end  users, but what issues are faced by the person or persons responsible for implementing safety functions and what do they need to do?

In addition, at a time when UK industry is looking for ways to save money and fund new Capex purchases to invest in the future a panel discussion on government incentives will help to guide you through the application process and give you experienced advice on how to make the most of  the incentives available.

Other key panel debates will include helping visitors to know about the direct replacement for EN  954-1 – EN ISO 13849-1. The replacement of EN 954-1 is causing some confusion and an experienced panel will take you through the changeover.

The seminar will also discuss saving energy through intelligent control. When applied to electric motors, the potential for energy saving is significant, simply by stopping or reducing speed whenever possible. The seminar will look at different strategies for controlling motor driven systems,  across a range of applications and control technologies.

There will  also be important panel discussions surrounding key energy and safety related issues for the compressed air industry lead by The British Compressed Air Society (BCAS), that will help visitors re-examine their compressed air procedures. While the British Fluid Power Association will chair a panel along with important industry consultants to offer an opportunity to ask pressing fluid power industry and related questions.

For detailed information on the Energy and Safety seminars or the Exhibitor Forum programme and to register please click here.