At 7 am on Wednesday 11th April, IDC students Tim, Rob, Tom and Lisa bundled themselves into a Peugeot 3008, full of enthusiasm (and croissants) for the MACH 2018 trade show… 3 and a half hours of M1 and M42 later, a quick coffee stop was needed to revive us.
The first thing that struck us was the extraordinary scale of the show. Having not been to the NEC before, I don’t think I’d quite realised how big (a small fraction of the place) was. As there was so much to see, in so little time, we split ourselves up and explored separately. Tim and I watched a demonstration of a robotic arm, before stopping to look at an enormous milling machine which at £1m seemed like a bargain for its size.
Our first networking experience was with Fuchs Lubricants, where we made the mistake of taking a great interest in the company name. However, we ended up having a useful conversation about how to make the most of trade shows.
Afterwards, Tim caught up with his sponsor and I went to speak to Rainford Precision (distributor of our micro mill) and our colleagues at the ever-helpful Optimax. I then spent an enjoyable few hours exploring the various state-of-the-art microscopy software from various manufacturers including Alicona.
Finally, we reconvened to discuss our experiences before returning to 91Ö±²¥ – this time before rush hour. A productive day was had by all.