Month: March 2016

Many attacks target email systems that operate as a primary communication tool for manufacturing businesses – but can also be a potential point of vulnerability. These attacks may disrupt the email systems themselves, potentially annoying employees and customers and raising questions in the minds of customers, suppliers and partners about the targeted manufacturers’ resilience and performance. In fact, a recent Mimecast/Galaxy Research survey of IT managers across a range of industries put the financial losses from an email outage anywhere from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, despite the potential cost, only about half of IT managers believed their systems (including email), were highly prepared for outages. Yet the damage caused by email disruption pales beside the damage that email can cause as a vehicle for more sophisticated and nefarious attacks. Viruses and other malware can disrupt core business systems, steal resources and data, and…

Debuting in March 2010 as the flagship facility of Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF)-Victoria, the MCN is a joint venture between six Victorian Universities and the CSIRO and is backed by $50m worth of investment in micro/nanotechnology infrastructure. Located in Clayton, in the heart of the South-East Melbourne Innovation Precinct, the Centre is openly accessible to both academic and industry clientele. In the six years since its launch, the MCN has been involved in a growing array of projects and ground-breaking innovations in areas ranging from renewable energy sources to life-saving medical device breakthroughs. A look at some of the Centre’s more recent projects shows that the business of innovation is in no danger of slowing down. Rapid prototyping to understand particle diffusion A team of researchers from Melbourne University have applied laser-based microscopy techniques to understand the processes that control the diffusion of particles during advanced self-assembly and transport from examples like carbon nanotubes settling…

Since the collaboration between Prodrive and Sandvik began in 2014, Sandvik has provided the team’s machine shop with tooling solutions to manufacture a number of performance parts used in house and distributed to race teams across the country. Sandvik has played a pivotal role in the success of the team to date, assisting with the development of new parts within its manufacturing division, particularly with the introduction of the FG X Ford Falcon. The success of the team and its manufacturing department is not only driven by development, but through the reliability of the product and the speed of production, as well as by maintaining good relationships throughout the business. Prodrive CEO Tim Edwards believes the relationship between Prodrive and Sandvik has played a vital part in the team’s success this year. “While having the right team of people working for us has been the key to our success, it’s important to have the best manufacturing equipment on offer in order to create…

Based in Malibu, California, HRL is a corporate research & development laboratory owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors, specialising in research into sensors and materials, information and systems sciences, applied electromagnetics and microelectronics. HRL’s Senior Chemical Engineer Zak Eckel and Senior Chemist Dr Chaoyin Zhou invented a resin formulation that can be 3D printed into parts of virtually any shape and size. The printed resin can then be fired, converting it into a high-strength, fully dense ceramic. The resulting material can withstand ultra-high temperatures in excess of 1,700 degrees Celsius and exhibits strength 10 times higher than similar materials. Ceramics are much more difficult to process than polymers or metals because they cannot be cast or machined easily. Traditionally ceramic parts are consolidated from powders by sintering, which introduces porosity and limits both achievable shapes and final strength. “With our new 3D printing process we can take full advantage of the many desirable properties of this silicon…

What does production superiority mean to aircraft manufacturers? In a word: billions. In the land of the giants, US-based Boeing beat European rival Airbus in net new orders and deliveries in the first quarter of 2015. While the first quarter is the traditionally slow quarter for new orders, it’s deliveries that generate the most revenue, and Boeing handed over a record number of jets for the period. For manufacturers of all sizes and types of aircraft, and their entire supply chain of components and parts suppliers working in difficult-to-machine materials, production delays can mean order cancellations, and cancellations can mean shifts to better-equipped builders. One technology provider that knows this better than most is Fives Cincinnati, whose plant in Hebron, Kentucky, produces Cincinnati machining centres, composites fibre-placement systems, and multi-spindle Cincinnati profilers. Fives Cincinnati is recognised as a preeminent provider of manufacturing solutions in key industrial markets including aerospace, automotive and truck, heavy equipment, oil and gas, rail, wind energy and general machining. With manufacturing and support operations strategically located worldwide,…

NMW is Australia’s largest, longest-running manufacturing event, bringing the industry together to see, touch and discuss new and innovative manufacturing solutions. This year’s event takes place against a solid backdrop of manufacturing industry growth; the AI Group’s March figures show that Australian manufacturing has grown for eight consecutive months and is now at its strongest point this decade. NMW 2016 will showcase hundreds of products and services from around the world, laid out in 12 Product Zones, ranging from Automation & Robotics to Digital Manufacturing, Intralogistics, Advanced Materials and more. Among dozens of firsts for NMW 2016 will be innovative materials handling systems from Magnet Sales and Millsom Materials Handling, next-generation LED lights from LEDified, as well as new 3D printing technologies – from Konica Minolta, Amaero Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing Systems, 3D Printing Studios, Sydney 3D Printing and more – that can help boost your production capabilities. NMW also gives you the opportunity to…

Pressform Engineering was established by John Worner in 1976. After graduating in metallurgy from Curtin University, Worner had initially seen an opportunity to get into stainless steel fabrication with a couple of partners, together establishing a reasonably successful fabrication business. The partnership ultimately ran into problems and the company was broken up, but John decided to continue with the pressing side of the business. “We went forward with the pressing side because I felt it was a better thrust of a business in that it’s based on niche products,” says John. “And so that’s what we’ve developed over the last 40 years, with more and more customers, more and more products.” Today Pressform operates from a 2,200sqm facility in Bassendean, in north-eastern Perth, with a workforce of around 35. From its beginnings in pressing, the company has expanded its capabilities substantially to include CNC punching and perforating, profiling, rolling, bending and stamping, as well as all forms of welding,…

I’ve been developing new products intended to be made in Australia for more than 30 years. Innovation has always been a topic of interest for me. So let’s dive right in. Firstly, what is innovation? The word ‘innovation’ comes from ‘nova’, which means new. There are several definitions around, most of them not really helpful. The one I use is “A change that is intended to be an improvement”. I like this definition because it covers cases where the new idea doesn’t work out and it focusses on why you want to innovate – because you are looking for an improvement of some kind. The number one area of innovation in the world today is business models, not technology, so this stuff applies to everything. People are basically creative. You are already innovating, even if you don’t recognise it. And you are also better at it than you realise. In fact, there are ideas you have that are brilliant but never…

Founded by Len Harrop in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick in 1955, Harrop Engineering began life as a small family business providing general engineering services for the textile and trucking/haulage industries. As the business grew, Len and Elsa Harrop’s son, Ron, joined after completing his boilermaker apprenticeship. Ron had a strong interest in modifying cars and in motorsport, so with Len’s technical knowledge and Ron’s motorsport passion Harrop Engineering grew into a world-class automotive engineering and performance parts manufacturer. The local growth of automotive engineering and motorsport fuelled demand for Harrop’s products and services, and the company enjoyed sustained success with a diverse array of domestic and global customers, from both the world of motorsports, such as V8 Supercars and NASCAR, and automotive OEMs including GM Performance, TRD, Ford and Lotus Cars UK. As its capabilities widened and demand for its work grew, Harrop moved in 2000 to its current purpose-built facility in Preston, Victoria. Further expansion followed, with the…

AMT: Firstly, what is APMEC and what are its aims?        Arnold Mouw: Good question! I think you know the FAPM (Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers), was the body representing a great deal of Australian automotive manufacturers. The problem with the FAPM was it was primarily focused on the OEM side of the business. Even with Dayco – we were supplying to Ford and still do today – you would get some grants from the Government under the schemes available. The problem was that volumes got very low, and the FAPM today is in voluntary administration and disbanded to a large extent. So we formed APMEC, and quite a few of our members were members of the FAPM. One of APMEC’s aims is to support all manufacturers of automotive parts, not just supplying OEMs, but those that make aftermarket components. Companies like Dayco, or Milford Industries, many of these businesses make parts…

In an industry that’s constantly throwing a curveball at you, it’s often hard to think strategically when all you want to do is survive. In today’s society, surviving doesn’t always mean to continue with your same business processes, it means, being smart, being innovative, not being afraid to change and look at new technology that can help shape your business in the future. Five years ago Headland Machinery was growing. Despite our growth, we found that we weren’t seeing a big impact to our bottom line due to our inefficient IT systems and duplicated processes. We knew that we needed to streamline our business by investing in new systems that would enable us to simplify our systems into one solution, take control through real time information and enable growth by gaining access into new channels, markets and opportunities. We needed to ensure our business was agile and able…

Most plants use compressed air for blow-off, cooling, and drying. Unfortunately, the way they go about using air can be extremely primitive, using such things as crimped copper tubing or drilled pipes. Why? Those things are inexpensive. Even if the commercial air nozzles are available from industrial suppliers or distributors, that doesn’t make them good. Like those homemade devices, they can prove to be loud and use a lot of compressed air. Finding sources of air abuse Where do you start? An easy way to spot the ‘air abusers’ is to use hearing protection and walk through the plant, listening for the noisy compressed air hiss. A sound level meter showing a reading of 85dBA or above when measured at 0.9m away from the noisy air source is dangerous and is sure to use too much air. The reality is that you don’t need the meter to tell you that. If it is extremely loud, you aren’t using an engineered air product to conserve compressed air…