Robotics, artificial intelligence, big data: welcome to the Canadian high-tech transformation

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As for Roger Holden, Canada and his native Britain have much more in common than a shared head of state.

“Canada and the UK are both industrial countries that have a similar demographic challenge,” says Holden, director of True Position Robotics in Nottingham, UK. “Young people don’t want to go to work on manual drilling and riveting in the shop; they want to work in front of a computer screen and convince a robot to do it, and they themselves do a job with higher skills, and that’s where our technologies are. “

Canada’s manufacturing sector is aggressively rotating towards what’s known as advanced manufacturing – companies bringing cutting-edge industrial processes to the shop floor, including advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, IoT-enabled factories, and additive manufacturing. (e.g., 3D Printing). Holden’s company, founded in 2018, focuses on what he calls “intelligent robotics,” including high-precision robotic drills, largely aimed at the aerospace market.

True Position is one of eight UK advanced manufacturing firms participating in a four month ‘virtual residence’ led by Innovate UK, the UK government’s in-house innovation agency, and MaRS. The idea? To transform Canada into North America’s premier foothold for innovative and expansion-ready British advanced manufacturing companies by helping them learn the basics of local laws, corporate regulations, key market players and potential partnerships.

This perfectly matches Canada’s overall ambitions for advanced manufacturing, which aim to grow manufacturing sales to $ 1 trillion by 2030, as well as build Canada’s talent pool and overseas connections.

The transatlantic connection makes sense. Both countries have seen a surge in the growth of the advanced manufacturing sector in recent years. In Ontario alone, half of all factory jobs created since 2010 are in advanced manufacturing, helping to drive a 16% increase in factory production. The federal government expects at least 60,000 new advanced manufacturing jobs to be added to the Canadian economy over the next 10 years.

There are, however, challenges facing Canada’s advanced manufacturing sector, most notably the shortage of skilled labor, the erratic adoption of new technologies by manufacturers, and a relatively slow rate of foreign investment.

Yet the new technology is rapidly changing the nature of manufacturing in both countries, which Holden and others hope opens up new opportunities for international trade and collaboration.

This is especially true in fields such as aerospace. This is a sector in which small and medium-sized producers form a fundamental part of the manufacturing chain and often experiment with the most innovative new processes. It is also one where both Canada and the UK are global leaders. (Canada has more than 700 companies in the aerospace manufacturing sector, ranking third globally in civil aircraft manufacturing.)

“Historically, aerospace is quite conservative and for very logical and necessary reasons,” says Moira Harvey, executive director of the Ontario Aerospace Council. “Of course everything has to be safe when we are transporting people.” But, he adds, this means that startups, rather than large established players, are often the ones who come up with the most innovative and creative new production processes.

This type of innovation is exemplified by other participants in the MaRS residency.

Loop Technology, based in Dorchester, UK, and founded in 1998 by the team of husband and wife Alun and Samantha Reece, focuses on manufacturing composites, robotics and “machine vision” (as it sounds, essentially). It also works in high-speed preforming, a process in which carbon composites are layered to build objects such as airplane wing skins.

“Our systems have been designed primarily with the aerospace industry in mind, where construction tolerances for components are very, very tight,” says Alun Reece. The company hopes to transform these technological innovations into an entry point into the Canadian aerospace ecosystem.

There’s Wayland Additive, a company that essentially uses a beam of electrons to fuse and fuse fine metal powder together into complicated free shapes. This technology is particularly suited to building structural parts for aircraft, says Will Richardson, CEO of Wayland Additive.

“One of the major technological innovations we have introduced is a technology that effectively neutralizes the negative charge created by the electron beam,” says Richardson. “Without getting too technical, this means that the process is much more stable, much more productive and much more possible to work with a wide range of materials.”

According to Richardson, doing business in Canada is an easy step when coming from Britain, making it an easy entry into North America in general. “They are both Commonwealth countries, with many high-tech and resource industries and a shared culture in many ways,” he says. The company made its first Canadian sale last year, selling its Calibur3 additive manufacturing system to a Calgary-based company called Exergy Solutions, which develops engineering solutions to reduce the oil industry’s carbon footprint and of gas.

“We also received some additional introductions from the residency,” says Richardson, “and early interest from potential new clients.”

Harvey, of the Ontario Aerospace Council, is not surprised to see foreign companies seeking opportunities in the Canadian aerospace industry. “We have 15 of the top 25 aerospace companies in the world with an operational base in Ontario alone,” he says. “And if you talk to them, nine times out of 10, they’ll tell you it’s because of the talent pool. So, there is a great customer base and a great talent base to build on here for companies looking to expand. “

Aerospace took a hit during the pandemic, he adds. But as it recovers, “we’re looking at how to bring that talent pool back to life in 2023, ’24 and beyond.”

Loop focuses on expanding into North America for one simple reason. “We have designed our capabilities for single aisle platforms such as Airbus A320 or Boeing 737,” says Reece. “Boeing accounts for 50% of that market, and Boeing’s homeland is North America, and then there’s the entire supply chain and production levels below them.”

But Reece also aims at “urban flight mobility”: drones, small electric helicopters and, looking to the future, the potential development of commuter planes and air taxis. Canada is home to a number of small players in this space, and North America in general is the global hub for that emerging sector, the aerospace world. “We want to be where these kinds of emerging opportunities are,” says Reece.

And it is: the residency has already led to new connections and opportunities, including a potential deal with a Canadian aerospace company. More proposals, more customers, and more deals are likely in the future, he says.

For Richardson of Wayland Additive, Canada is a foothold in North America that presents an easier cultural bridge than breaking into the United States. “There is a real opportunity for something in Canada that is easier and more comfortable,” he says. . “Thanks to those historical ties between us, our legal structure, our culture, our shared understanding, we just met and it’s natural to do business here.”

Matthew Halliday is a freelancer who writes about technology for MaRS. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.

Disclaimer This content was produced as part of a partnership and therefore may not meet the standards of impartial or independent journalism.

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