Month: December 2017

It’s an honour to stand here and talk to a group of people about a business that we’ve owned since 1989, and talk through what we’ve been able to achieve. I’d like to preface something like this to say that this is just what we’ve done, it’s not at all what I’m telling anyone else they should do – it’s just some of the lessons and things that we’ve done over our journey. CME (Composite Materials Engineering) is a family business and until last Thursday was a supplier to the Australian automotive industry. Our main customer was GM Holden, and we supplied everything in the boot of the Commodore except the carpet. This included a spare wheel tub, spare wheel cover, all the assemblies… you open the boot, it…

The one constant is change. Change does not have to be rapid or radical. It can be subtle and seamless. But if you are not constantly changing aspects of your business and personal lives, you are at risk of being left behind. So as I look back over the last year and plan for the next year or two, I am conscious of the minor changes we have made to our business and how we operate. One internal change is our commitment to work/life balance and providing flexible working arrangements for staff. There is certainly a mind shift to the way we employ staff and keep them invigorated, accountable and productive. Our biennial flagship exhibition – Austech - ran in May 2017 and was a great success with over 12,000 visitors and…

Producing Australian sparkling wines is a challenge gladly accepted by boutique wine-maker Peterson House in the Hunter Valley, which has achieved standout success with its sparkling wines. However, being able to track each bottle as it left the winery and travelled along the distribution chain to local or international destinations was a longstanding concern, particularly when it came to feedback on quality. Several years ago Peterson House opted to use a laser system that would make a permanent mark on each glass bottle. The Linx CO2 laser system form Raymax Applications in Sydney was easily integrated into existing operations, providing markings at speeds of some 2,500 bottles per hour. The system offers both accuracy and durability, as the laser process removes, or ablates, a layer of substrate (glass) leaving a traceable permanent mark. As each bottle passes along the line, the bottles are dried, warmed to an ambient temperature of around 20 deg.C, then coded just prior to labelling. For identification and traceability purposes, each bottle…

What comes in a cylinder and is extraordinarily powerful? The answer is hydraulic power, which is a cornerstone of kinetics – the part of physics that is concerned with the relationship between motion and its causes – specifically, forces and torques. This power is seen everywhere in the industrial world, from tipper-trucks and rock-crushers in the civil engineering and mining industries, to extruders and press-brakes in factories and workshops, not forgetting cranes and earthmoving machines. Nordon has been in the hydraulics business since 1974, and has built a solid reputation for its expertise, product quality, and commitment to customer service. Nordon’s customers at home and abroad require hydraulic cylinders from tiny to enormous, and they don’t always want them today – sometimes, they want them yesterday. At its manufacturing base…

Starting out in 2001 with just two employees, New Touch now employs approximately 65 staff across multiple sites in Victoria. The laser cutting and fabrication specialists now operate five machines, 24 hours a day in the Melbourne suburbs of Bayswater and Clayton South. New Touch understands the importance of staying ahead of the game in such a competitive industry. By travelling both overseas and to exhibitions held in Australia, it remains up to date on the latest technology. Another key focus is company culture. Brad Drury, Managing Director, explains: “We are very focused on attracting, training and retaining great staff members. We truly believe that there is little point in having the right equipment and services without the staff to drive them. We believe that happy staff are great staff. “Our unique selling point is that we are an ISO9001-accredited ‘one-stop shop’, capable of offering high-quality finished products at a fair price. We focus on quality, service and delivery – and we…

A staggering 51 million used tyres are discarded annually in Australia, causing environmental and health problems like the sea of stockpiled tyres in Stawell in western Victoria. Only 5% of used tyres are recycled locally in Australia, but researchers from the University of Melbourne have teamed up with Tyre Stewardship Australia and Merlin Site Services to come up with an innovative way to reuse the rubber. Project technical lead, Dr Mahdi Disfani from the Melbourne School of Engineering, has spent the last 18 months working on a pilot project with his colleauges Associate Professor Lu Aye, Dr Guillermo Narsilio and Dr Alireza Mohammadinia, that increases the number of uses for permeable pavements made from recycled tyres. “While there are a number of recycling solutions for tyres, like using them in children’s playgrounds, in landscaping or in asphalt layers, but the applications for high volume are limited,” says Dr Disfani. “Roads and pavements are everywhere. With the right product, we could have a serious…

Improving the design of a part within a system is rarely straightforward. From the simplest enhancement to the most complex, a cycle of iterations can be expected to verify the design during prototyping and implement it in production. During a recent test for a new valve product design, this experience played out for Philmac, a global leader in designing and manufacturing specialist fittings and valves for the transfer, control and application of water. Accustomed to accelerating its design cycle with 3D printing for prototyping, Philmac expanded its use of 3D printing to prototype tooling in order to enable a more complex geometry. Teaming with 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing experts in Australia, Philmac conducted a successful trial of this new methodology to bring its new concept to life. 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing delivers the technologies, materials and expertise to support the entire product development lifecycle from fast turn and advanced prototypes to appearance models and low…

At 10.45 on the morning of Friday 20 October, a VFII Commodore Redline rolled off the production line at GM Holden’s Elizabeth plant in north Adelaide. A private ceremony was held to commemorate Holden’s manufacturing history and pay tribute to the employees past and present who had helped build the company. And then the factory closed its doors for good. “Today is about paying tribute to the generations of men and women across Holden and our supply network who have given so much to our company,” said Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Mark Bernhard. “Holden is the icon it is today only because of these passionate people. On behalf of everyone at Holden, I thank you for your service from the bottom of my heart.” The shuttering of the Elizabeth site followed close on the heels of Toyota Australia closing its Altona plant on 3 October, with a ceremony attended by approximately 3,000…

‘From the idea to the finished product’ is the mission statement for Fetzer Medical, a medium-sized company established in 2008 by Peter Fetzer. The family business has a longstanding background in the development and manufacture of surgical instruments and medical devices. To build on this, Peter set the company a target: to operate exclusively as an independent OEM, establishing all the necessary human and technical resources to that end. Fetzer Medical launched an extensive capital investment, qualification and certification programme, beginning its five-axis machining in 2008. This was rolled out with the stated aim of offering a flexible and swift approach to delivery for varying product and batch sizes. All relevant materials, including titanium, are machined and Fetzer Medical supplies its customers with ready-to-use products – from prototypes/individual parts to large production runs and complete systems. The business currently employs 45 highly-qualified employees and state-of-the-art equipment. Roughly 75% of the work involves complex milling/drilling operations, which have been performed at Fetzer…

The five-year ‘Just-in-time implants’ project brings together the Australian Government, RMIT University, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and global medical technology firm Stryker. Worth more than $12.1m in research effort, the work is funded by Stryker with co-funding from the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), which is contributing $2.36m in cash. RMIT’s Professor Milan Brandt and the project team will combine 3D printing, robotic surgery and advanced manufacturing to create tailored implants for patients with bone cancer. “Our aim is to bring the technology to the theatre,” said Brandt. “While patients are having their cancer removed in the operating theatre, in the next room, we are custom printing an implant to precisely fill the space left after removal of the diseased bone.” St Vincent’s Professor Peter Choong said just-in-time implants will transform the delivery of care for people with bone cancer: “By combining specialised imaging techniques, 3D printing and the accuracy of robotic assisted surgery, we are aiming to deliver a personalised implant…

As you’d expect, we are incredibly proud of our achievements, and also humble, in reaching the milestone of 100 years – an achievement pretty special for a family business, and also importantly for a manufacturing business in light of the tragedy of the recent automotive closures. Undoubtedly to reach this point it has taken the efforts of countless hardworking, talented and dedicated staff. There are also many other factors that have contributed – not discounting some lucky breaks. I would like to share with you a couple of our insights into what has enabled our company to be here today to share our story. A pivotal point in our recent history happened back in the mid-1990s. We had been fortunate enough to navigate our way through our last official recession. Unfortunately…

The company’s success has been in keeping tight control of every aspect of their operation. By investing wisely in all their vital manufacturing processes, and moving them in-house. Catten offers customers short delivery times for a quality product at a competitive price. Catten’s latest machine acquisition is a Bodor fibre laser sheet cutting system from Industrial Laser. Catten purchased the demonstration machine that was exhibited and demonstrated at the Austech 2017 trade show in Melbourne back in May. “Until the Austech show we were under the misconception these machines were financially cost-prohibitive for our requirements” says Ian Cubitt, Managing Director of Catten. “At the show, we realised the price of this technology had reduced dramatically since last investigating this option – from around $500,000, to $150,000 installed.” Richard Ladley, Technical Director of Industrial Laser, explains why the Bodor machine was the right choice for this particular client: “The price, speed and cut quality over Catten Industries’ range of materials was a perfect match. Offering the right laser system for the application and providing technical…

Axiom Precision Manufacturing is a family-owned company founded by Neville Grose in 1979 in Edwardstown, South Australia. Axiom originally started by manufacturing plastic injection moulds for the automotive industry, working for Ford, Holden and Toyota. They continued to work for Ford and Toyota until their respective shutdowns. It was about 10 years ago when Axiom identified the need to transition away from automotive manufacturing. They were finding it harder to meet the demands of the automakers and remain profitable. At the same time a lot of tooling projects were going to China forcing a serious re-think about the company’s source of work in the future. Axiom specialised in the manufacture of “A”-class injection moulds, lighting, interior and exterior moulds. These were manufactured in hard steels and usually quite complex to machine. The company felt these machining capabilities would give them an advantage in the manufacturing…