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Triple Eight – also known as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team – is an Australian motor racing team that competes in the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship, Australia’s premier motorsport category. Parts inside Triple Eight cars need to be structurally fit-for-purpose and durable enough to endure the harshness and vibration that come with racing. High temperatures inside the cars can exceed 65 degrees Celsius. During racing, these cars reach speeds in excess of 300kph and generate g-forces up to 2.5 times gravity. In early 2017, EVOK3D, a Melbourne-based 3D printing solutions company and HP partner, visited Triple Eight’s workshop to show HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) parts. “We were blown away with the part quality and strength, compared to what we were used to,” said Mark Dutton, Race Team Manager at Triple Eight. “We realised we needed to have access to this technology to improve a whole host of components”. This aligned with a broader discussion with HP and resulted in a joint partnership with EVOK3D, HP, and Triple Eight. The team…

ProtoSpace is unique in offering access to both high-end equipment and technical advice and expertise beyond the reach of many manufacturing businesses. It encourages direct, hands-on experimentation, and offers training and consultation alongside access to AM capabilities supported by operational and engineering teams. “We want to collaborate with industry partners by providing access to cutting-edge expertise in 3D printing technology, software, engineering and design,” says Hervé Harvard, Director of both ProtoSpace and UTS’ Rapido facility. “We have assembled a highly advanced suite of printers, with eight individual AM machines on-site, and provide guidance on how AM technologies will best fit a business. And we can bring together multi-skilled teams from across UTS drawing on specific discipline areas including artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and automation to work closely with businesses to develop their best solution.” As AM has matured from design/prototyping and tooling, a new era in bespoke 3D printing promises great potential for further innovation, says Hervé.…

AMT: What is the Tonsley Manufacturing Innovation Hub and what are its objectives? CT: Well there are two ways of looking at that. You can look at it in the small scale, which is that on the ground floor here, we have our cyber-physical factory, which we established with the South Australian Government and the Innovative Manufacturing Co-operative Research Centre (IMCRC), which is a showcase of Industry 4.0 technologies, interconnectivity of devices, augmented reality, RFID technologies, and also collaborative robots and industrial robots. So in the lab itself is a demonstration of advanced technologies. But you can also look at the Hub as a bigger hub, with all of the resources of Flinders University and the Tonsley Innovation Precinct – all of those resources collaborating to assist manufacturing. Collaboration in the Tonsley precinct is enjoyable and advantageous, with innovative companies like Sage, AZZO, Phoenix Contact, Micro X and Zeiss based here, and TAFE SA as well. So when you find an issue, you’re…

Vibrations always accompany a cutting action, and have a forced or self-excited nature. Machining vibrations are referred to as “chatter”, highlighting their specific nature, which inheres in every processing where chips are formed. Even if cutting is considered as stable, it does not mean that vibrations do not take place. In this case, the vibrations simply remain on a level that provides the required machining results and the task is considered as a “no vibration” operation. In fact, vibrations in cutting are a damaging factor that reduces performance. Manufacturers make every effort to diminish vibration and, ideally, bring them to a level that does not affect machining results. Chatter is a subject of serious research that has already provided manufacturers with ways to model vibrations in machining which, despite their complexity, can be very effective in finding a way to reduce chatter. However, this modelling takes time and requires various input data, including sometimes additional measurements. In most cases, when manufacturers face vibrations…

If you were to ask almost any business in Australia which relies on imported or exported goods to comment on their supply chain costs, the resounding groan and corresponding eye-roll should provide a fairly good indication of the pain being felt by many. Let’s not beat around the bush, moving freight globally and even domestically can be downright expensive. We’ve all heard the horror stories of freight costs equalling or exceeding the actual value of the goods being transported – whilst that’s a terrifying scenario, unfortunately it’s nothing new. The real question is ‘why?’ – Why does it cost so much to move something from point A to point B? Surely it can’t be that complicated, right? The truth is, it kind of is complicated. Correction – it can be complicated. The sheer number of parties that may be involved in any one shipment can knock the uninitiated about – seller, buyer, shipper, consignee, consignor, notify party, manufacturer, shipping…

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to study the Sun up close. The Solar Orbiter space probe is equipped with 10 measuring instruments, and scientists hope that the mission, which will last several years, will provide them with new insights into phenomena such as the solar wind, as well as the complex dynamics that are responsible for solar eruptions. Solar Orbiter will fly to within 45 million kilometres of the Sun – closer than Mercury, its nearest planet. At this distance, the side of the probe facing the Sun will be exposed to intense heat: more than 500°C. A heat shield will protect the important instruments on board the probe, equipped with shutters to provide a view of the Sun only when measurements are being taken. The same applies to the spectrometer-telescope for imaging X-rays (STIX), whose purpose is to study solar eruptions more closely, possibly enabling large-scale eruptions to be predicted in future. STIX was developed at the University…

As our country locks down and migrates indoors to flatten the curve, our consumer-based economy is suffering. We could be heading into a worldwide COVID-19 recession with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) expecting more than 80% of Australian businesses to be adversely impacted before the end of April. That’s 80% of businesses impacted in the first four months of a crisis that could last anywhere from six to eighteen months with the economic downturn possibly continuing beyond that. It is this uncertainty that makes implementing business strategies a long-term challenge, with many of the businesses experiencing a decline in sales and future concerns on cashflow, redundancies and potential closures. So, what can you do to ensure your company thrives and not just survives in the following months? Re-purpose products and services First, businesses can repurpose their products and services to meet the changing market. We’re sure you’ve already seen some examples in the last month as distilleries start…

The Ai Group’s Australian Performance of Business Index (Australian PBI) fell a further 12.6 points to 27.2 in April – the lowest monthly result in the Australian PBI and the largest single-month drop since the series commenced in 2005. The Australian PBI is a weighted composite of Ai Group’s indexes for Manufacturing, Services and Construction. The news regarding the Australian PBI came on the back of last Friday’s announcement that the Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) dropped by 17.9 points to 35.8 in April. This represented the largest month-to-month fall in the 28-year history of the index as Australian manufacturing contracted at its worst pace since April 2009. amtil.com.au/australian-pmi-march2020-amtil-2 The Safe Work Australia website has been updated to provide a central hub of work health and safety (WHS) guidance and tools to help Australian workplaces manage the health and safety risks posed by COVID-19. The website gives users easy access to guidance that is directly relevant to their…

With 80 years of experience, Tecalemit has become a name synonymous with lubrication equipment, fluid transfer, fluid measurement and workshop equipment for the automotive, transport, agriculture, industrial and mining industries around the globe. Customers include well-known companies such as Caterpillar Underground, BHP and Rio Tinto. Tecalemit has a long-standing relationship with John Hart, a testament to the longevity and reliability of the first Mazak machine the company purchased. Nobin Thomas, Production Supervisor at Tecalemit, comments: “We bought our first Mazak in 2001, and it’s still going strong today due to the world-class service and spare parts from John Hart.” Tecalemit recently purchased a new Mazak, a Quick Turn Compact 100MY CNC turning centre. The machine features milling capability and Y-axis functionality and is equipped with a high-rigidity integral spindle/motor for unsurpassed machining performance. It is equipped with a 12-position turret with high-speed indexing and minimum tool interference. High-accuracy positioning is ensured by the high-rigidity linear roller guides…

Founded in 1984 and located in southern Maine, Arundel Machine has evolved into one of New England’s leading CNC manufacturers of precision-machined components. The company has built a fantastic team of manufacturing engineers that produce more than 1,500 CNC programs each year while also designing many custom fixtures and tooling. Arundel Machine manufactures products to support clients including the US Department of Defence and the US Navy – all with stringent level one and safety critical requirements. It also serves the oil & gas industry, with level one subsea components that sustain the extreme pressures and temperatures of the ocean floor. A third major industry is aerospace, providing parts for engine and propulsion components, actuation, landing gear, and sensor components. Finally, the company provides flow and pressure components for the semiconductor sector, which requires a deep understanding of…

Tooling manufacturers offer a wide variety of tool holder styles, with each engineered for optimum performance in certain machining applications. A machining shop, therefore, should base its choice of tool holders on its specific operations as well as on the parts it produces. Nevertheless, while shops seek to acquire the most advanced machine technology and cutting tool materials, they often place minimal importance on selecting, applying and maintaining tool holders that best fit their specific production needs. All holders are not created equal No one tool holding method is appropriate for all possible applications. A tool holder engineered to carry out high-speed finishing operations typically will lack the rigidity and strength needed to be effective in, for instance, deep roughing of raw castings. Conversely, a holder meant for rough machining usually will lack balance qualities that would allow it to run smoothly at high speeds in finishing operations. Addition, the robust design and bulk of a roughing…

The sharp spike into positive conditions in March, on the back of the unusual surge in demand for manufactured food and groceries, was more than completely reversed in April. All activity indices plunged, with activity levels now reminiscent of the falls of 2009 during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Manufacturers cited a range of COVID-19 issues in April, with the most prevalent including: no new sales due to shutdowns; major customers cancelling orders; supply chain problems with inter-state freight movements and delays; and increased prices for raw materials. “April 2020 was devastating for Australia’s manufacturers and their employees,” said Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox. “Sales plummeted, new orders fell precipitously, production was culled and employment fell more steeply than at any time since the Australian PMI was first launched in 1992.” All…

The Federal Government has launched a new voluntary coronavirus tracing app, COVIDSafe, that will speed up the process of identifying people who have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with coronavirus. For more information on the app, visit: health.gov.au/resources/apps-and-tools/covidsafe-app The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), peak industry body for innovation technology (IT), backed the app after receiving a detailed briefing from Government. AIIA CEO Ron Gauci said: “Based on this detailed briefing, and understanding that the app does not track your geo-location and that personal data and cyber security concerns have been designed into the app and through government regulations, the AIIA therefore supports the government tracing app and strongly recommends that all Australians download it.” As Australian manufacturers look for ways to assist with COVID-19 equipment and supply needs, many are facing the regulatory challenges of working in the medical sector for the first time. The Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) has published a set of FAQs…