Month: September 2020

The retail and business initiative is a ‘call to arms’ for shoppers to support Aussie small businesses dealt a string of economic disasters in 2020 following droughts, bushfires, floods and now the financial devastation caused by COVID-19. Earlier this month it was revealed Australia officially went into recession for the first time in thirty years, with gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 7% – the worst fall on record and worse that most economists predicted. It is also expected that Real retail turnover growth is expected to fall -1.4% in 2020 which will be the worst year on record in Australia. National Buy Aussie Day Founder Chris White is hopeful every Australian will do their bit on the day whether it is $2, $20, $200 or $2,000. “In the way that Singles Day in China and Black Friday in the US have become landmark shopping days, we hope October 1 will forever be our National Shopping Day, supporting Aussie owned businesses producing Aussie made goods,” said White. “As we grow year…

The hub includes a significant high-tech industrial software grant from Siemens, as well as support by the Federal Government to participate in an innovative trial of a new Industry 4.0 teaching model in higher education. With these grants, RMIT joins a national network of universities driving change to help prepare students for the future of work. On Thursday, the Federal Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, announced the Government will provide a grant of $1.2m to enable RMIT to join a multi-university trial of an advanced apprenticeship-style Associate Degree in Digital Technologies (Industry 4.0). RMIT will join five other universities across Australia participating in the pilot, which will provide an opportunity for employees of local industry partners to gain skills in software applications, design and engineering methodologies, and practical problem-solving approaches in advanced manufacturing. The announcement reinforces a MoU commitment between Siemens, RMIT and Festo announced in June this year, to explore major areas of co-operation to help drive workforce transformation for Industry 4.0 in the Australasian region, including…

BAE Systems’ subsidiary ASC Shipbuilding is now in the final stages of the formal handover from Australian Naval Infrastructure of what will be one of the world’s most modern naval shipyards, a key enabler of Australia’s continuous naval shipbuilding strategy. The Hunter Class Frigate program will deliver nine anti-submarine warfare frigates to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), using a digital environment for the design and build of the ships made possible at the new shipyard. The company is now rapidly mobilising its people to work from the site. The company also announced that it has been given the green light to commence prototyping in December 2020 as planned, following the Prototyping Readiness Review, a formal review with the Department of Defence. BAE Systems Australia Chief Executive Officer Gabby Costigan said: “The Hunter Class Frigate program is significant to both the defence of the nation, and the contribution it will make to the Australian economy. Today’s visit by the…

“Industrial robots are so dangerous the way they are now,” says Charlotte Firth, who is creating the robotic hand as part of her Master of Computational Design degree. “Being able to create soft robots would change the way humans interact with them and it will take out the element of danger.” The hand, or ‘anthropomorphic end effector’ as it’s known technically, will fit onto one of two mechanical arms, called ‘collaborative robots’, assembled by UNSW Built Environment researchers and technicians last year. The robotic arms, nicknamed Betty and Arnold, are two of just six in Australia, and UNSW is the first university to have them up and running. Firth and her supervisors, Dr Kate Dunn and Associate Professor Hank Haeusler who run the robotics program in the Design Futures Lab will begin trialling the hand’s capability at the end of 2020. “We’ll be testing [the hand as an attachment on the robotic arms] and actually seeing if that…

MSC is supporting Deakin University with its additive manufacturing courses for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. It will assist with expert knowledge, and access to leading industrial software used by companies such as BAE Systems and Danfoss to industrialise emerging additive manufacturing techniques. The global additive manufacturing market is expected to reach $125bn by 2025, and the collaboration between Deakin and MSC will build a regional hub of skills for graduates to take into this fast-growing market. The new course will advance students’ understanding of increasingly industrialised metal 3D printing techniques and also cutting-edge polymer-based additive manufacturing processes. The Additive Manufacturing Processes and Applications course will be conducted online due to COVID-19. To support the theoretical course work in virtual printing, students will also get experience using industry-leading software for generative design (MSC Apex Generative Design), metal additive manufacturing (Simufact Additive) and polymer or composite 3D printing (Digimat AM). These products will give students a wide range of skills, including design for additive manufacturing, predicting and mitigating quality issues, and predicting the final part performance…

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers are under more pressure than ever before, and need creative solutions that can improve the efficiency and quality of their operations, control costs and speed up research & development (R&D) times to launch products more quickly, while coping with a worldwide shortage of skilled professionals to accomplish these tasks. Automation can help overcome these challenges and improve staff safety, with robots able to complete repetitive tasks up to 50% faster than current manual processes, enhancing productivity and enabling highly skilled manufacturing, medical and laboratory staff to undertake more valuable activities. Accurate, fast, flexible, tireless and able to work 24 hours a day, robots are well suited to repetitive tasks, while also being flexible enough to switch between jobs, as needed. Recent technological advancements have brought robots a long way from their big, heavy-duty predecessors, designed primarily for the automotive industry. Today, robots have smaller footprints, far greater…

The workforce investment is intended to help provide skilled workers that will be needed to support upcoming WA defence projects and secure future defence work, expected to be valued at up to $75bn nationally over the next decade. The package includes $8.5m for an additional $20,000 incentive, on top of existing financial subsidies, for shipbuilding employers to take on in-demand apprentices in readiness for a pipeline of future work. In addition, $2.85m has been allocated to deliver 335 additional apprenticeship commencements in nominated defence trades in 2020-21 to achieve 200 apprenticeship completions by 2024-25. A further $3.3m will be provided to create new TAFE short courses to support Western Australians to upskill and become ‘defence ready’. The package includes $800,000 to create two new scholarship programs to encourage women and Defence veterans to take up a career in the defence manufacturing industry. The program will be co-funded between the State Government and industry, with each party contributing $5,000 per scholarship. It will create 20 scholarship opportunities…

As Singapore’s public housing authority, the Singapore Housing & Development Board (HDB) is responsible for the development of 80% of the housing in the island city-state. There is a great demand for housing, and 3D concrete printing could help to speed up the housing development task that HDB faces. On 16 September 2019, HDB declared South-East Asia’s largest 3D printer for construction operational. The Virtual Smart Factory (VSF) 3D Concrete Printing System is capable of printing concrete components up to 9m long, 3.5m wide and 3.8m tall. The project was a joint effort involving Robin Village Development, Nanyang Technological University, Witteveen+Bos and CNC Design. Witteveen+Bos is an independent engineering consultancy that services clients in water, infrastructure, environment and construction projects. Witteveen+Bos engaged CNC Design for the development of an advanced six-axis gantry robot as part of the 3D Concrete Printing System. This is now operated for HDB by Witteveen+Bos. CNC Design is an Australian-owned company established in Melbourne in 1984, with core competencies in machine…

The poll – conducted from 14-16 September – showed close to two-thirds (65%) of those surveyed supported taxpayer funds being used to transition the Australian manufacturing industry towards using clean renewable energy, while only 19% supported continuing to rely on fossil fuels such as gas. Just under one-third (31%) of Coalition voters support Australian manufacturing continuing to rely on fossil fuels like gas. The survey was conducted by YouGov on behalf of Oxfam Australia with a nationally representative sample of Australian voters. Releasing the survey results, Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Lyn Morgain said the poll found support for prioritising funding for the health sector was highest at 74%, while 47% supported prioritising public investment in the tourism industry, 46% in schools and universities, and 41% in renewable energy – almost three times as much as would prioritise gas. A majority (56%) opposed taxpayer money being spent on subsidising multinational gas…

Creaform has announced the release of the latest version of the MetraSCAN 3D line-up, the company’s advanced optical CMM scanner designed specifically to perform metrology-grade 3D measurements and inspections — right on the production floor. As the fastest and most accurate portable optical CMM scanner, the MetraSCAN BLACK can be seamlessly integrated in any quality control, quality assurance, inspection, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), or reverse engineering workflow and operated by users of any skill level in any type of environment. The MetraSCAN BLACK dimensional metrology system has been developed to measure complex parts and assemblies from an array of industries such as automotive, aeronautics, power generation, heavy industry, and processes such as metal casting, metal forging, sheet metal, plastic injection and composites. Features include: 4X faster: Featuring 15 blue laser crosses for a larger scanning area that takes up to 1,800,000 measurements per second, and live meshing ultimately cutting down the time between acquisition and workable files. 4X…

RACV Solar has installed a 30kW solar power system on the Free 3D Hands factory at Cowes on Philip Island, providing reliable, efficient and always-on solar power supply. Free 3D Hands founder Mat Bowtell said the new RACV Solar power system, complete with 109 panels and two Tesla storage batteries, means the factory can keep 3D printing hands regardless of electricity supply issues. “In the past, we’ve experienced problems with the electricity grid on Phillip Island,” Bowtell said. “Even the smallest disruption to the power supply during production means we need to scrap the printed materials and start again. It not only costs us time and money, but causes delays getting the devices to the children who need them the most. “The new solar panels and batteries provide us with the certainty that we will no longer have those issues and we can keep doing what we love, which is making hands for kids and helping those in need.” Traditionally manufactured prosthetic hands, which children can outgrow quickly,…

Why the change? It turns out that many manufacturers have learned a hard lesson regarding the negative side of offshoring over the last 30 years that do not occur when manufacturing remains onshore in Australia. Can the industry easily transition back to onshoring? First, let us look at why so many manufacturers moved metal fabrication outside of Australia in the 1980s and 1990s to places like China and Vietnam. Australia’s steel production according to Trading Economics, was at its peak in the late 1990s and today it has fallen to around 50% of that, with 400,000 tonnes produced in April 2020. The development of computer-based automation technologies, programmable logic controllers and cheap offshore labour are the rationale for so many to have moved their production offshore. As a result of offshoring, there have been countless issues over the past two or so decades with quality control, which is an extraordinary challenge when it is managed from 7,000km away. There have also been frustrations over production…

QUT medical devices specialist Professor Prasad Yarlagadda and virologist Professor Kirsten Spann rapidly began testing the novel coronavirus SARS-cov-2, which causes COVID-19 disease, on the nano-structured surface, after publishing their findings on its antiviral properties against common viruses earlier this year. The wet-etching process was tested in a lab by applying it to commercially available aluminium alloy 6063, which is commonly used for doorknobs and frames, window panels and hospital and medical equipment. Professor Spann said they tested respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes infant bronchiolitis and pneumonia, and rhinovirus (cause of the common cold) on the wet-etched aluminium surfaces. “The nanotextured aluminium surfaces significantly sped up the inactivation process of these two common pathogens,” she said. “We then collaborated with Dr Alyssa Pyke, together with the Public Health virology team from Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services to test the nano-pillared aluminium against SARS-CoV-2 in their  biological secure containment facility that is specially equipped with technology to prevent the…