Month: October 2019

From humble beginnings in 1982, the company has grown to become a world-leading brand that exports to more than 100 countries worldwide and counts its customers in the millions. A recognised innovator in the field of plastics manufacturing, the company operates from a new state-of-the-art production facility in Auckland that’s packed with automation and robotics technologies. The challenge To ensure its products remain internationally competitive, Sistema wants to maximise production output and quality in the most cost-effective way possible. “Based in New Zealand, we’re a long way away from many global customers, so optimising manufacturing performance is mission-critical for offsetting the impact of high logistics costs on our business,” explains Greg Heeley, Chief Technical Officer at Sistema Plastics. Ten years ago, the company implemented Epicor Mattec MES to manage its production and assembly processes. Handling everything from scheduling to the monitoring of 10 assembly lines, Epicor Mattec collects and analyses data directly from equipment and operators on the shop-floor to provide an up-to-the-minute view of machine and production availability. “Without Mattec MES, our shop-floor wouldn’t know…

The Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) came into effect in January 2012 and effectively abolishes ownership (title) of an asset as the right to recover it from a customer or client in liquidation. The requirement is not widely known by business owners, but it can cause significant delays when financing equipment or selling existing equipment. The Personal Property Security Register (PPSR) allows lenders and businesses to register their security interests. Secured parties, buyers and other interested parties can search the PPSR to determine whether a security interest is registered over the personal property. Examples of personal property include: Art Cars, boats and caravans Crops and livestock Inventory Plant and machinery Shares Non-material items included Accounts Intellectual property Investment instruments Licences Business owners purchasing second-hand equipment need to establish if a security interest is registered over the personal property prior to taking on the additional equipment. If assets are to be sold and they are not de-registered when finance is repaid, there can…

Not unlike previous industrial revolutions throughout history, its occurrence highlights a need for change, modernisation and an upheaval in the way current processes are carried out. The mantra, ‘out with the old, in with the new’ certainly applies here. Thousands of manufacturing hubs are embracing the current technological changes by actively adopting new machines and software in their factories. So what does this mean for your business? The four crucial areas of transformation High-performance machines First things first – in order to be in with a chance to beat your competition, you will need to ensure that you are operating machinery that is adding, rather than detracting, value to your business. If you have an older machine model that is constantly in need of repairs and services, isn’t too flexible in its output range, and isn’t quite cutting it (excuse the pun) then an upgrade may be in your favour. Without being aware of it, dealing with older machinery can be a hindrance to your company’s performance,…

Radiotherapy aims to deliver a curable radiation dose to tumours while sparing surrounding healthy tissue, which is achieved by the accurate conformal delivery of ionising radiation via an external beam using linear accelerators, or an internal beam using sealed radiation source (called brachytherapy). Modern radiotherapy involves CT-simulation, 3D-treatment planning and its quality assurance processes prior to patient treatment to produce highly conformal dose distributions and to ensure its safe and accurate delivery. It is common to build anthropomorphic RDPs through moulding and casting, to mimic the radiation properties of humans as a radiation dose cannot be directly measured in patients. As part of quality assurance (QA) of patient treatment plans, patient-specific dose measurements are often performed using RDPs combined with various dose measurement tools. Unfortunately, anthropomorphic RDPs manufactured through traditional moulding and casting techniques…

Held annually, the Victorian Manufacturing Showcase promotes the state’s exceptional manufacturing capability. The Showcase provides attendees and exhibitors with connections to strengthen their networks and find new ways to grow locally and internationally. Victoria’s high-growth manufacturing sectors are represented, including construction, defence, transport, food and fibre, medical technologies and pharmaceuticals. Hosted in partnership with the Industry Capability Network (Victoria), this year’s showcase attracted the highest number of exhibitor and attendee registrations in its six-year history. The event included a speaker program featuring presentations by some of Victoria’s most successful and innovative manufacturers, including the likes of Trajan Scientific and Medical, PACCAR Australia and DuluxGroup Australia. The event also included a sizeable exhibition space, with stands from companies across sectors ranging from medical & pharmaceuticals, to transport, and food & beverages – as well as manufacturing technology. AMTIL also was an exhibitor, as were several AMTIL members such as Amiga Engineering, Balluff, Catten Industries, Eci Solutions, Hi-Tech Metrology, Integra Systems, Mobile…

AMT: Let’s start with a quick outline of what the AM Hub is. How was it set up and what are its objectives? John Croft: The AM Hub was formed to introduce Australian manufacturing companies in Australia into additive manufacturing. It's been born from a $1.85m Victorian government grant and will run for three years. It was officially launched in September 2018, and has now been running for a year, and since its inception, we now have 153 member companies under the Hub. I think the Hub needs to be the catalyst. What that means is, if you look at a pie, you’re going to have several segments around the pie, with the Hub at the centre acting as the catalyst. What we're trying to do is to bring together the service providers, the technology providers, government mechanisms, industry participants, and we’re working with research…

With a fibre laser, the laser beam is generated in an active optical fibre. It is then guided to the cutting head of the machine through a transport fibre cable. Fibre lasers are best suited when using nitrogen as an assist cutting gas for thin and medium sheet thicknesses, up to 12mm, and non-ferrous materials such as copper and brass. New higher-powered fibre modules allow thicker materials, including mild streel and stainless steel, to be cut with comparable CO2 cut quality and speeds. For thicknesses below 6mm when cutting using nitrogen as the assist gas, fibre lasers are up to five times faster than CO2. To cut mild steel with oxygen the fibre laser beam is defocused to the same diameter as the CO2 kerf width, so the exothermic reaction can take place, the same as oxy fuel gas cutting. Fibre lasers are more compact than CO2 lasers but deliver more than double the power output, with the same input power supply. The comparative wavelength of the fibre…

The bid has been led by Monash University, Lendlease, The University of Melbourne (UoM) and Donovan Group. If successful, the Building 4.0 CRC research initiative will use digital solutions to transform Australia’s building industry from pre-industrial practices to a future where the customer is at the centre of each building experience, and buildings are built faster, cheaper and smarter. “R&D carried out in the CRC will demonstrate that the building industry can come together to solve the big challenges of our times, delivering buildings that are more efficient, cheaper and sustainable, without sacrificing quality,” said Monash University’s Professor Mathew Aitchison, Interim CEO of Building 4.0 CRC. “With our involvement in the CRC, we want to transform the way the industry collaborates, which we think is the key to unlocking major improvements in the sector.” Building 4.0 CRC will bring together expertise in the fields of architecture, design, planning, construction, engineering, business, information technology and law to develop industry-wide practices and…

With sectors such as pump and valve, oil & gas, automotive and aerospace continuing to specify stainless steel components, the challenge for cutting tool manufacturers is to deliver solutions that can provide ever greater tool life and/or productivity to help machine shops succeed in an intensively competitive global marketplace. At Sandvik Coromant, there are high hopes for one such new solution. The challenge There are many different family groups within the ISO M stainless-steel material classification. However, two of the most common are austenitic stainless steels and duplex stainless steels. Austenitic stainless steels include familiar grades such as 304 and 316. Although relatively soft in the annealed condition, and with very good ductility, these grades undergo extensive work hardening during any form of machining. Work hardening produces hard surfaces and hard chips, which in turn lead to notch wear and compromised surface finish on the…

The new facilities make up the largest space of its kind in Australia with a 1200sqm workshop housing advanced manufacturing and prototyping tools and machines including 3D printers, vacuum formers, industrial robots and waterjet cutters. Technical and trade-qualified staff will assist students and researchers in bringing their ideas to life. UQ Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology Executive Dean, Professor Vicki Chen said the new facilities would give UQ students a competitive edge when entering the workforce. “One of our main roles as a university is to give our students the confidence and capability to embrace the challenges of a changing world,” Professor Chen said. “And with the launch of UQ Innovate, we are in a much stronger position to fuel their curiosity, so they can drive sustainable solutions at the cutting edge, today and tomorrow.” Design-and-build teams from the student-led UQ Racing and UQ Space teams have used the University’s facilities and expertise to produce nationally competitive race cars and rockets. Managing Director of UQ Space, engineering and…

Family-owned and established in 1995, Sharpe Engineering operates from four facilities located in Queensland – in Roma, Chinchilla, Virginia and Zillmere. Sharpe Engineering boasts upwards of 50 pieces of plant, including CNC machines, milling machines, drilling machines and manual lathes, as well as Australia’s largest threading capacity. All of Sharpe Engineering’s equipment is procured from world-class suppliers, and the company’s state-of-the-art machine inventory guarantees the precision and the accuracy of its products. Sharpe Engineering’s equipment is a key part in allowing the business to produce quality, cost-effective products. It owns two Mazak 21-inch hollow-spindle Power Master Chuckers, and a 7-inch hollow spindle Power Master Universal. Sharpe relies on its world-class equipment line-up to remain at the sharp end of manufacturing for the oil and gas drilling industry. The latest addition, recently purchased by Sharpe, is a Mazak Slant Turn 550 turning centre, supplied by John Hart, which is used in the manufacture of drilling tools and thread repairs on drill…

Insufficient grip that causes slipping parts, pushback in chuck jaws and collets wearing out prematurely are issues well known to CNC turning machine tool operators. The resultant production downtime, operator idle time, and expense of new or re-worked jaws is a significant problem. Dimac has recently launched a new service designed to eliminate such issues, using a new form of carbide application equipment called Rocklinizer from the USA. The application process improves clamping force by as much as 50% - thereby providing significant extra grip on workholding equipment such as jaws and collets, while wear is accordingly reduced. The new service uses the proven spark deposition process called Rocklinizing to easily and quickly boost the grip coefficient of workholding jaws and collets. The unit electronically applies a hard and wear-resistant surface of Tungsten Carbide, Titanium Carbide or Rockhard electrode material to workholding tools. Material is impregnated both underneath and on top of the workpiece surface. Unlike welding or metal spraying, no appreciable heat is…

A hand-held device to predict heart failure based on saliva could help millions of potential victims take preventative steps to avoid their fate. Nano-sensors on the tip of the diagnostic stick measure heart disease biomarkers from saliva to accurately predict the risk of heart disease, failure or heart attack, then warn users via a simple app. Now a multi-partner deal has just been signed to bring the life-saving technology to market by 2021. The collaboration is being led by an Australian start-up based in Melbourne called ESN Cleer, with RMIT University and the IMCRC now researching and developing the device for pilot manufacture. ESN Cleer CEO Leopoldt de Bruin says the collaboration represents some of the best minds in medical device innovation, design and manufacture. “We’re really pleased to be able to bring these strands together in addressing such a major global health challenge,” De Bruin said. “Of the 400 million people who suffer from…