The Drives & Controls Show and the cluster of allied events held at the Birmingham NEC last month, set an all-time attendance record. Over three days, the shows attracted 11,146 visitors – an increase of 29% over the previous event in 2010, and substantially higher than the previous record attendance of 9,568 visitors, achieved in 2008.

The acquisitive California-based Ametek corporation is buying the German motion control specialist, Dunkermotoren from its private equity owner, Triton, for an undisclosed sum. Triton itself acquired the business for €145m from Alacatel-Lucent in 2010. The new acquisition, which is subject to German government approval, is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2012.

At the recent Hannover Fair, igus unveiled a system for splitting the outer jacket of control cables to reveal their inner cores quickly and easily, without needing special tools. It claims that the CFRIP system can halve the time needed to strip cables – especially those with gusset-filled extruded jackets – without damaging the cores.

At the recent Hannover Fair, Rittal announced a range of easy-to-install fuse bases designed to be mounted on 5 and 10mm-thick busbars. The bus-mounting fuses offer a cheaper alternative to motor circuit-breakers in cost-sensitive applications.