Month: February 2021

The index showed just 18% of owners saw reduced productivity, with 29% seeing an increase in productivity, and 53% saying working from home had no impact. The Finance and Insurance sector saw the biggest uplift with 52% of owners saying productivity increased and 36% within the Health and Community Services sector also experienced productivity gains. The sector with the most significant negative impact was Transport, with a 30% reduction in productivity, followed by Construction at 29% and Wholesale at 25%. The sectors where productivity was unaffected the most were Communications, Property and Business Services at 65%, followed by Hospitality at 62%. Sensis CEO John Allan said the results showed that the vast majority of workers could be trusted to perform their jobs at home: “The fact that nearly one in three businesses (29%) saw an actual increase in productivity will make it hard for employers to force their employees back into the office full-time.” The survey also looked at owners’ attitude to workers going back into the office,…

The Government will invest $956,000 through its Accelerating Commercialisation program to help the company develop a world first prototype engine called ‘SPARTAN’. Hypersonix Co-Founder and Head of Research and Development, Dr Michael Smart, is a leading Australian aerospace engineer specialising in scramjet technology. “The global market for small satellites is developing fast and will be worth around $8bn by 2028,” said Smart. “Our SPARTAN scramjet will power an unmanned, fully composite vehicle called ‘DELTA-VELOS’, pushing it to hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 12 before it releases its payload in LEO.” According to Smart, what makes DELTA-VELOS so different from other launch vehicles is that it’s designed to be low-cost, reliable and reusable with net-zero carbon emissions due to its use of locally produced green hydrogen for fuel. “We’re confident we will be able to achieve a rapid turnaround potentially as short as one week for launching small satellites into LEO,” adds Smart. “This is unprecedented and will give us an edge for…

APCO has its own in-house foundry where castings are produced in ferrous and non-ferrous metals including specialised materials such as high-strength, heat, wear and corrosion-resistant cast irons, alloy steels and stainless steels, and supplied “as cast” or machined in its machine shop. The company prides itself on working with the latest technology, recently enhancing its machining capability with a Mazak Integrex i-400S and a Mazak FJV 60/120. “The Mazak Integrex machines are renowned for their multitasking abilities, and as we are a workplace that follows Lean manufacturing and 5S principals, Mazak was a clear choice for us,” says Mark Palaszewski, CNC Machining Supervisor at APCO . “The Mazak Integrex i-400S allows excellent ergonomics for the operator and reduces the cost tied up in our work in progress by allowing us to machine parts to completion in one machine. It also has a larger tool magazine (72 tools) which was another key feature for us, further reducing set-up times.” APCO investigated numerous options from a range of machine tool builders before chosing…

At first, the use of barrel-shape mills was largely confined to a few specific applications, such as machining 3D surfaces of complex dies and turbomachinery components. However, advances in five-axis machining and in CAM systems have significantly expanded the boundaries of barrel endmill applications. At the same time, the design principle of a cutting edge as the segment of a large-diameter arc has been realised successfully in other types of milling cutter – the tools for high-feed milling (HFM). The concept provides a toroidal cutting geometry that ensures productive rough machining at extremely high feed rates due to a chip-thinning effect. Unlike HFM tools, barrel endmills are intended not for roughing but for finish and semi-finish machining of 3D surfaces with low stock removal. Traditionally, ball-nose and toroidal cutters perform these operations. However, the large-diameter arc…

The NXG XII 600 is the fastest machine on the market, 20 times faster compared to a single laser machine, and equipped with innovative technical features like the zoom function to maximise productivity and reliability. The machine is designed to be used in serial production for high-volume applications as well as for printing large parts, which opens up new applications in the automotive and aerospace industries and paves the way to industrialised serial production. The NXG XII 600 is the latest addition to SLM Solutions’ product portfolio and puts productivity on a whole new level, with 12 1kW lasers operating simultaneously, as well as numerous technological innovations and automated features. A radically improved use of laser time in the build process enables unrivalled build-up rates. The new machine was designed from scratch for serial production and features a whole new optic system, the most compact on the market. It enables large overlap and is based on a…

VH2 is designed to bring researchers, industry partners and businesses together to test, trial and demonstrate new and emerging hydrogen technologies. Under the partnership, CSIRO will receive more than $1m towards the development of a refuelling station to fuel and test hydrogen vehicles. The refuelling station, to be located at CSIRO’s Clayton campus in Victoria, is a key milestone in the development of CSIRO’s national Hydrogen Industry Mission, which aims to support Australia’s clean hydrogen industry – estimated to create more than 8,000 jobs, generate $11bn a year in GDP and support a low emissions future. “As Australia considers energy alternatives, we know hydrogen is clean and will be cost-competitive,” said Nigel Warren, Executive Director, Growth at CSIRO. “But a major barrier to it becoming a fuel source for cars and trucks is how to refuel, and the lack of refuelling infrastructure. The refueller is a significant step towards removing that barrier.” Construction will take place as part of the development of VH2 – a new hydrogen production and storage…

SafeWork NSW Director of Metro Operations, Sarina Wise, said with more than 7% of the state’s workforce employed in manufacturing, the workplace regulator was focussing its efforts on improving industry safety. “This industry is one of the economy’s driving forces but we have work and safety incidents at almost twice the state average due to falls, being hit by an object or muscular stress,” said Wise. “This program seeks to change perceptions about safety relating to some of the major risks, including forklift safety and the importance of machine guards and their proper uses. “We have four ambassadors from the industry who, through podcasts, workplace tools and direct messaging, will assist managers understand the role they play in safety, and encourage those managers to be leaders in their workplace.” The Ambassadors of the program include: Videon Glass WHS Manager, Mark Peagam (Educating and training manufacturing workers). Allied Pinnacle National WHS Manager, Maria Hooker (Consultation and optimisation in manufacturing). Yates Safety and Sustainability Business Lead,…

Uncertainty is arguably what most business leaders fear most. But when you launch a new company aimed at building the first supersonic passenger jet since the Concorde, you need to embrace it, be agile and think big. That’s the story behind Boom Supersonic, an aerospace company located near Denver, Colorado. Boom is a growing company with a big idea – to make supersonic air travel mainstream. Earlier attempts at commercial supersonic flight were unable to achieve sustainability, economically or environmentally. However, advancements in technology and the growing prevalence of global travel create a market opportunity for Overture, the company’s flagship airliner. Overture will be the world’s fastest airliner and will cut long-distance flight time almost in half, making it possible for more people to go more places more often. To bring it to life, Boom has embraced 3D printing in nearly every facet of the aircraft’s development. Big ideas come with big challenges What Boom is trying to accomplish isn’t for the faint-hearted. The last time paying passengers flew supersonic, with Concorde, it was a government-driven, Cold War-era prestige…

In Australia, most high-head hydro energy – such as Snowy Mountains Hydro, for example – has already been harnessed, and in most cases large civil infrastructure is required to create dammed reservoirs. However, there is an opportunity for low-head hydro power generation to become more accessible and with lower barriers to entry, while being sustainable. Kinetic NRG’s modular turbine design will be able to generate power from existing streams, irrigation channels and discharge canals. “We have been helping Kinetic NRG with composite solutions for their hydroelectric turbine,” says Paul Falzon, General Manager at ACS-S. “They were very impressed with the quality and dimensional accuracy we could achieve with the highly complex part. As an added bonus, we were also able to take out 70% of the blade mass compared to the steel design! The key advantage of using composite materials in Kinetic NRG’s turbine is its mass savings,…

In the past 36 months, more than 50 Bodor laser systems have been installed within Australia by Industrial Laser, who will now be stepping back from system machinery sales and concentrating on assisting resellers and end users with high-level support for all brands of laser systems. Laser Machines recognised Industrial Laser as a premium laser service provider with several laser field engineers, combined with Australia’s largest stock holding in laser consumables. The two companies have signed an agreement with Laser Machines utilising Industrial Laser’s local resources for the installation and support of all Bodor laser systems going forward. Adam Kibel, Director of Laser Machines, said: “ This resource allows our customers to enjoy the very best service and after-sales support from a company that has been dedicated to this industry for over 20 years. I believe no company can look after laser users better than Industrial Laser, and we want the very best for our customers.We also have dedicated local Bodor factory engineers supporting our service partners.” Miles Wang, Sales Director of Bodor Laser Australasia…

As we reflect on 2020, we will no doubt remember how unexpected life can be and how much is out of our control. However, there is one aspect of our lives we can control, and that is our estate planning. As we start 2021 with anticipation and possibly some trepidation, there is no better time than now to take control of your succession plan. The succession plan for a family business can often be quite complicated, especially where only one or some of the founder’s children work in the business or are interested in the business. Leaving your business interests to only those children who work in the business can cause disenchantment among the children, resulting in a potential challenge to the Will. Careful planning is required but there are strategies which can be implemented to mitigate any potential risk of dispute between those you leave behind. In this article we will review the importance of shareholder agreements and buy/sell agreements, and…

Researchers at Monash University’s BioPRIA, Department of Chemical Engineering and School of Biological Sciences have created medical gowns for healthcare workers and first responders using paper laminated with a coating of polyethylene – a lightweight thermoplastic. Paper has never been used to produce medical gowns with viral protection. However, this innovation could see the mass rollout of high-quality PPE to vulnerable communities across the world. Machine-glazed, bleached and newsprint papers were laminated with polyethylene coatings of different thicknesses, before being characterised for their potential use as medical gowns for healthcare workers and COVID-19 patients. The findings show paper could be the missing element in creating alternative materials for PPE to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and keep people safe. “The global pandemic, spike in demand, and shortage of traditional PPE materials suitable for viral transmission protection has driven researchers, virologists and biomedical experts to collaborate and explore low cost alternative materials…