Editorial

 A team of engineers in company INDUSTROPLAN Ltd. from Rijeka for municipal company Čistoća Rijeka designed and developed the Mini line for baling, which meets the need for baling plastic, PET and carton packaging. Guided by the principle of minimizing costs while maximizing performance, INDUSTROPLAN Ltd. has developed an automatic line for baling waste, which represents an ideal solution for smaller cities and businesses, and the local community, which wants to solve its problem with waste disposal. 

 For 11 Croatian innovations and products - 11 American gold medals. At the biggest U.S. exhibition of innovations and new products INPEX XXVII held from 13 to 15 June in Pittsburgh, all eleven Croatian innovations won eleven gold medals. This is a great success of Croatian innovators with respect to the total 150 medals in the competition of 1800 exhibits from the USA and 20 countries around the world. 

 After the fifth performance, fair Automatica 2012 with about 31,000 visitors from more than 100 countries has strengthened the position of the industry's most important business meeting of automation and the largest exhibition of robotics in the world. Forecasts for both branches were good, which is also shown in increase of the exhibition floor from four to five halls, where more than 720 exhibitors from 40 countries presented their solutions for the manufacturing industry. Exhibitors and visitors to the fair, which was held from 22 to 25 May 2012 in New fair in Munich (NeueMesse München) gave the fair an excellent rating. Norbert Bargmann, Deputy Managing Director of Messe München GmbH, said that according to the opinion of the exhibitors and visitors this was the best fair up to now, and the importance of it is still increasing. The fair is really a leader of the industry and a platform to introduce new products and solutions.   

 FANUC is now a leading global manufacturer of products in industrial automation: all over the world they have already set up more than 2.4 million CNC control systems and 250,000 industrial robots. FANUC employs 6,500 people worldwide, one third of employees at company headquarters in Japan are young and innovative engineers who are engaged in research and development. One can hardly imagine a product for everyday use in making of which FANUC did not participate in this or another way. FANUC control and drive systems are part of machines that produce components built into products for everyday use of light that corresponds to daylight between 5000 and 10 000 Kelvin. 

 Specialist in manufacturing moulds for extrusion blow molding, the company fhw-moulds GmbH from Bottrop (Germany) presents a special design solution for removing air from mould for extrusion blow moulding, thus strengthening its innovative status. This brand new, optimized product is specially adapted to the requirements of blow moulding processors regarding cycle time reduction. As the mold closes around the extruded preform which is blown and compressed against the wall mould cavity by blowing air into the mold, air remains trapped between preform and two mould halfs. 

 Micro injection moulding may be just a niche, but it also provides a great opportunity to manufacturers willing to invest in the areas of electronics and medicine. Interest in micro injection moulding is steadily increasing, and the processing equipment is constantly improving. However, it is not realistic to expect that one can enter in the area of micro injection moulding without hard work and climbing the curve of knowledge in this area. The company Accumold that produces moulded parts, injection moulds and micro injection machines for over 25 years, has passed this path. Article brings their experience in this field.   

 IBM, one of the most powerful IT companies and one of the largest enterprises in the world, reached 100 years of existence. Except for the acronym and rarely under its full name, the International Business Machine, IBM is more than 50 years known as "Big Blue" because of its distinctive blue logo colour. That colour is today associated with the concept of "smarter planet", that has been in company's focus in recent years. Some analysts, like George Colony of Forrester Research, on the hundredth anniversary of IBM recalled that the "Big blue" among extraordinary achievements and success also experienced a period of great difficulty. Esad Jakupović 

 Solution provider EPLAN has taken over the development and sales rights to Harness Expert, the established 3D/2D software for cable harness engineering. The contract between software developer Linius Technologies and EPLAN Software & Service was signed on 28/06/2012. This extension to its range will allow EPLAN to offer its customers even more comprehensive support for all aspects of cable project management. The strategic purchase of the Harness Expert software will provide considerable potential in the domestic and international markets. It will allow EPLAN to tackle new segments of industry, including apparatus engineering, rail and specialist vehicle technology, aviation, telecommunications and medical technology. 

 In mid-June, Portorož has been "occupied" by engineers, researchers in the field of industry as well as local college students and students from the neighbouring Croatia, who had gathered at the 4th Industrial Forum IRT 2012. Turnout of more than 300 participants showed that the organizer managed to throw an event that fully justified its mission as the most important professional event of Slovenian engineers and researchers in industry. In addition, exhibitors and participants in the forum said that the organizers led by Darko Švetek managed to make another step forward, in a program, the number of participants, as well as in attracting visitors from major economies. In two days, at the fourth Industrial Forum IRT 2012 more than 40 technical papers were shown that presented the situation and developments in the industry and research and development environment. Also, two representatives of prominent and developmentally oriented companies Hella Saturnus Slovenija Ltd. and LOTRIČ laboratorij for metrology Ltd. gave two plenary presentations. The first people of mentioned companies Christof Droste and Mark Lotrič, as respected and experienced managers were actively involved in shaping the round table on engineers as co-creators of successful business stories and brands.