Month: June 2017

Avtech manufactures precision components and tools for companies that supply the subsea, mining and resources industries. It also produces parts for local and international manufacturers of CNC machinery, and for industrial safety switch component businesses. Nonetheless, according to Avtech’s owner and Managing Director Steve Delfos, the extractive sector inevitably casts a major influence on local manufacturing. “Being WA-based, most manufacturers are connected somehow to the mining industry,” he says. “Avtech makes components for the companies that manufacture products for the mining, oil & gas industry. We produce tools to support exploration and drilling areas for mining. This includes ‘down-the-hole’ equipment and tools used in the surveying of drilled holes.” For its oil & gas industry clients, Avtech produces various traceable components for subsea, maintenance, exploration, production and recovery tools. These will end up being used worldwide by some of the largest subsea companies. “We also precision manufacture cylinders, rams, manifolds and valve blocks for the hydraulics industry and cases, standoffs, brackets, chassis and…

According to McKinsey, the IoT will contribute up to US$11 trillion in economic value globally by 2025. The value of the “Factories and Worksites” component alone will be worth almost US$4 trillion. The Internet of Industrial Materials conference will focus on how Australian manufacturers, researchers and investors can be big winners by focussing on this Factories and Worksites market segment. Advanced materials that use functionalised graphene – a revolutionary carbon allotrope – to capture and communicate useful data will enable differentiated products and processes that will deliver value into global supply chains. Imagine Intelligent Materials is the lead industry partner with Swinburne in a world-first research initiative: The Graphene Supply Chain CRC-P. This research centre will be officially opened on 17 August 17 in parallel with the conference. The initiative is devoted to determining how to ensure replicability of graphene-based materials, together with the quality assurance necessary for graphene to…

Thermo-plastic injection moulding is used for large-scale mass production of a wide range of mass-produced items, from plastic car parts, homewares and furniture, medical parts, electrical tool cases, toothbrushes, toys, caps, pipes and grommets – to name just a few. The processes used for injection moulding have a direct bearing on productivity and the quality of the end product. Challenges faced by moulders and mould-makers include guarding against warping, the appearance of flow lines, sink marks, the occurrence of vacuum voids, burn marks, jetting and flash and where uneven cooling occurs, thermal stresses in particular sections can reduce tool life. Any of these issues can result in losses through rejects, part-failure and recalls. However, 3D printing with metals could have a revolutionary impact on the industry, through the design and production of conformal cooling inserts. Why is conformal cooling considered such a game changer? Put simply, conformal cooling makes use of cooling lines that follow the geometry of the part including curves allowing for uniform cooling providing better product outcomes while…

The deal represents the culmination of a long and involved development program with Isuzu Company Limited (ICL) in Japan and IAL (Isuzu Australia Limited) to supply world-class genuine bull bars for Isuzu trucks for the Australian and NZ markets, with the potential to export to other Isuzu markets globally. Announcing the contract, John Kaias, Director of Abcor, said the deal was more than two years in the making and Abcor worked closely with Isuzu – the highest-selling truck manufacturer in Australia with sales representing over 25% of the total market in 2017 - to secure it. “The partnership approach was important for Isuzu and us,” said Kaias. “Our engineers worked side-by-side, including several meetings in Japan, to ensure the product design, manufacture and performance was outstanding. It was vital to integrate the bull bar performance and styling with the truck and for the final product to be endorsed by Isuzu Japan as a genuine part.” To fulfil the contract, Abcor invested heavily in new equipment at its…

This can be remedied by using structural parts for machinery that are made of lightweight fibre-reinforced materials. This entails mastering some serious obstacles, as evidenced by an as-yet-uncompleted research project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) in Aachen, Germany, which will also be on show at the EMO 2017 trade fair in Hannover . CFRP replaces steel for enhanced dynamics The researchers in Aachen usually adopt a holistic approach to optimising designs. In other words: they consider the machine’s design as a coherent whole, thus also including the development of important drive elements in the machine tool. They have currently joined forces with Magdeburg-based machine tool manufacturer MAP Werkzeugmaschinen to examine how an innovative machine component for vertical movements (Z-axis) made of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) behaves in a machine tool and how the Z-slide can be optimised. “We began development work on the CFRP slide in…

According to Nital Shah, Regional Sales Manager – Southern Region at SICK, a “mixed bag” of old and new customers visited their stand and overall it was a “very good show” in terms of interest. Visitors were particularly drawn to the company’s Flexi Soft safety controllers and the range of safety laser scanners. Regarding Industry 4.0, SICK’s pitch focussed on “smart tasks” enabled by their sensors – which can process detection and measurement signals, simplifying control programs and processing elsewhere – and on getting away from Programmable Logic Controllers. “The information from the sensor will be available to the cloud or to the browser, and that’s what Industry 4.0 is all about,” said Shah. ABB’s stand featured YuMi, its contribution to the booming collaborative robot market. Adopting cobots effectively takes training as well as a little imagination, explained Paolo Maggi, ‎Product Specialist for Robotics. It’s important to understand the strengths of humans as well as those of robots. “If you have a…

VCI’s State of Play report surveyed over 800 leaders from 321 companies in the global mining industry and uncovered that while the majority (66%) of Australian mining executives say their companies are prepared for digitisation, only 26% are focussing on innovation plans that extend beyond just three years. Despite nearly all (98%) Australian mining company leaders indicating innovation is ‘important’ or ‘critical’ to their long-term business strategy, when it came to their company’s focus on a long-term strategy, Australia ranked last in the globe – trailing other major mining regions including South Africa (63%), India (38%) and North America (32%). Surprisingly, since the survey began in 2013, the timeframe for long-term innovation focus in Australian companies has actually dropped by more than half from 2013 (59%) to 2017 (26%). So, why is an industry that contributes nearly $100bn to the Australian economy each year lagging the rest…

The partnership, signed on 21 June by Greg LeMond – a three-time Tour de France winner and the founder and CEO of LeMond Composites – and Deakin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander AO at the University’s Waurn Ponds Campus, allows LeMond Composites to license technology developed by Deakin’s world-leading carbon fibre research centre, Carbon Nexus. LeMond Composites will also consider the development of a carbon fibre manufacturing plant in Geelong, which would invest more than $30m in construction and equipment, and create dozens of jobs for Geelong manufacturers to take the carbon fibre of the future to the global market. The specialised carbon fibre production machinery for the plant will be manufactured by Furnace Engineering in Clayton, Victoria. Professor den Hollander said the new technology, developed by Carbon Nexus PhD Student Maxime Maghe and Carbon Nexus General Manager Steve Atkiss, was a game-changer for the future of manufacturing. “We know carbon fibre has been in use in aircraft, high-end cars and bikes, among…

The Governor of Victoria Linda Dessau AM is the patron of the awards, which are made up of 15 categories, including three exclusive to Victoria – Innovation Excellence, Women in International Business, and Exporter of the Year. The awards recognise businesses that take their products, innovation and expertise to the world, playing a key role in strengthening global trade and creating new jobs. Winning companies are automatically entered into the Australian Export Awards where they compete against the country’s most successful exporters for a chance at national acclaim and international exposure. “Victoria’s exporters keep the wheels of our economy turning, put people in jobs and show the world why we remain Australia's hottest economic destination,” said Philip Dalidakis, Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade. “The quality of applications for the GOVEAs is always outstanding and I look forward to seeing what 2017 brings for some of the state’s most important businesses.” Digital start-up Envato took out two categories in 2016 – winning…

The report, Manufacturing: A Moment of Opportunity, identifies several indicators which suggest that the economic opportunities for domestic manufacturing have improved significantly. Prepared by the Centre for Future Work, part of the Australia Institute thinktank, it outlines the industry’s dogged resilience in difficult times, its importance to the Australian economy, and its more hopeful future prospects. “Australia’s manufacturing industry faces some daunting domestic and global challenges. But it’s not just surviving, it’s finding a way to grow, adding 40,000 new jobs last year,” said Dr Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work. “That ranks manufacturing as the second biggest source of new jobs in Australia last year.Additionally, manufacturing re-invests 5% of its value added in R&D, the highest of any industry, making it an engine room for innovation in the economy.” The report was launched on 21 June to coincide with the National Manufacturing Summit, held by the two organisations at Parliament House in Canberra. The event featured presentations from a wide range of experts from industry, university, trade unions and…

In April and May, over two stages, more than 10,000 sqm of “smart” Australian-made geotextile liner was installed in a Queensland coal seam gas evaporation pond. The non-woven, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) geotextile, made by Geofabrics Australasia, was a first, in a number of respects. It was coated with a graphene-based conductive coating named imgne X3, produced by Imagine Intelligent Materials. The liner is able to “self-report” in the case of even a small hole being sprung. (Before a coal seam gas evaporation pond can be commissioned, leaks have to be identified and fixed, to prevent leakage of toxic leachate into groundwater.) Graphene – the “wonder material” one-third of a nanometre thick – has been a source of much hype in recent years, but has currently delivered few breakthroughs outside laboratories. Despite exciting results in scientific journals, graphene has not as yet delivered fantastic wealth to those at the commercial end of things. “We…

A report identifying specific areas of innovation that can grow the METS and mining sectors will be revealed at the roadshow. The report is the culmination of industry interviews and research by METS Ignited to identify the barriers for the mining industry and how innovation by the METS industry across target areas can fast track growth. METS Ignited will also explain how $15m from the METS Ignited Project Fund can be accessed by local METS companies wanting to meet these innovation challenges. METS Ignited CEO Ric Gros said the project funding is an opportunity for companies to commercialise innovation that will benefit the Australian METS and mining sectors. “An extensive evaluation of the mining sector by METS Ignited has identified key mining challenges that may be of use to organisations considering applying for the project funds,” said Gros. “The selection criteria for funding is wide but it is essential…

While conventional turning operations have remained largely unchanged for decades, PrimeTurning allows machine shops to complete longitudinal (forward and back), facing and profiling operations with a single tool. The methodology is based on the tool entering the component at the chuck and removing material as it travels towards the end of the component. This allows application of a small entering angle, higher lead angle and the possibility of machining with higher cutting parameters. Furthermore, conventional turning (from part-end to chuck) can be performed using the same tools. Sandvik Coromant believes some applications could see productivity increases in excess of 50% through deployment of PrimeTurning. Some of these improvements are due to the small entering angle and higher lead angle, which creates thinner, wider chips that spread the load and heat away from the nose radius. The result is both increased cutting data and extended tool life. In addition, as cutting is performed in the direction moving…