A company in North Somerset has completed a £1.8m project to automate the production of wire harnesses used in aircraft, medical appliances and cars.
Portishead-based robotics firm Q5D has said its tech could allow manufacturers to develop products with more complex wiring, and to ‘reshore’ production and be “less reliant on low-cost overseas labour” or exposed to supply chain disruption. The business said its ‘LiveWire’ product combined the knowledge of the world’s largest aerospace companies and the technical capabilities of UK SMEs and academic institutes, to make “lower cost, higher quality and lighter components”.
It comes after Q5D opened new state-of-the-art facilities to bring together its core operations, from design and engineering to manufacturing and testing. Chief marketing officer Simon Baggot said: “Wire harnesses are critical in many designs, from electric vehicles to aircraft to consumer electronics, but most of this production is manual and labour intensive.
