Despite reports that Britain's food and drink manufacturers are laggards in the international automation and robotic system stakes, one message to emerge from last month's Processing & Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA) show held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham was that things are changing.

Last year, Britain's food and drink companies installed around 100 robots. That's a sixth of the total number sold into the UK in 2007, says Dr Ken Young, head of the British Automation and Robots Association (BARA), which compiles the figures. "That is quite a large percentage compared to what it used to be. The food industry is doing quite well for robots at the moment."

TM Robotics (Europe), the European robot sales partner of Toshiba Machine, has announced a new machine vision partnership agreement with UK firm PCS Industries. The arrangement offers customers an array of vision equipment and software products as well as the integration skills of PCS.

Schubert's new generation of automated packaging machines feature the latest vision systems which are specially designed to undertake a wider range of quality control checks. The company has developed scanners that can verify the pattern, colour and surface decoration of products, in addition to inspecting product height and position.

Ferdar, the Holland-based supplier of robotic automation systems, has opened a UK office in London. In over 20 years, Ferdar has completed 850 projects involving over 1,600 robots, with particular expertise in the food, dairy and beverage markets. Ferdar has also gained expertise in the cheese industry.

ABB Robotics will give the European premier of its second generation FlexPicker delta robot at Interpack in Dusseldorf in April.