Month: April 2021

Anyone strolling through Federation Square in Melbourne in the last few months might have noticed something unusual. Displayed there from January to March, the Future Food System was a three-storey building developed by sustainability advocate Joost Bakker to demonstrate his concept of a fully self-sufficient, zero-waste dwelling. Chefs Matt Stone and Jo Barrett took up residence throughout its time in Melbourne, living entirely on food and resources produced within the building. Powered by solar panels, with everything from fruit and vegetables to shellfish grown on site, the Future Food System teems with invention, but from the outside, one of its more notable innovations might easily be overlooked. Amid the produce growing across the building’s exterior, its cladding was supplied by Geelong start-up FormFlow. Central to FormFlow’s business is a revolutionary process that enables corrugated metal sheet to be bent at sharp, precise angles without stretching or damaging the material or coatings. Matt Dingle and Matthias Weiss devised…

A research agreement was signed by Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Bronwyn Fox and Peter Sutton, Managing Director of Sutton Tools, on 26 April. The new centre will play an important role in training students, staff and industry end users and will pursue joint research and development activities through different funding bodies. The centre will also play a role in the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy through developing a digital and sustainable local supply chain with Sutton Tools. Features of the collaboration will include: The loan of equipment from Swinburne to Sutton Tools. The joint funding of three PhD scholarships as part of our industry and impact PhD program. The placement of undergraduate and postgraduate students with Sutton Tools as part of Swinburne’s Work Integrated Learning program. Professor Fox commented “This partnership builds on a longstanding relationship between Swinburne and Sutton Tools that dates back to the early 1990s and underscores Swinburne’s research strengths in the manufacturing sector. In recent times this relationship has been…

The Business Competitiveness Program is a key plank of Premier Daniel Andrews’s Government’s $60m Manufacturing and Industry Development Fund, launched on 27 April by the State Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Martin Pakula, who urged businesses that are eligible to apply. “Victoria is the manufacturing state. At the core of our strength are businesses that continually innovate and lead the way in their industries,” said Pakula. “We’re backing businesses to keep ahead of the pack because we know that it means more jobs for Victorians and an even stronger future for the sector.” The Business Competitiveness Program will help eligible Victorian manufacturers implement new manufacturing technologies and processes. Grants will cover up to one-third of eligible project costs. The program will help to secure Victoria’s sovereign manufacturing capability by improving productivity, creating sustainable local jobs, increasing industry competitiveness and strengthening local supply chains in key sectors including medtech and food manufacturing. Grants can go towards the purchase and commissioning of capital…

Running from Monday 24 May to 30 May 2021, Australian Made Week will encourage shoppers to actively focus their buying activities on genuine Aussie products while celebrating and supporting local makers and growers around the country. The Australian Made Campaign is encouraging Australians to get involved in Australian Made Week by: Looking for and purchasing products with the green and gold Australian Made, Australian Grown logo. Spreading the word about Australian Made Week! Share a picture of your Aussie Made purchases on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use the hashtags #AustralianMade and #AustralianMadeWeek. We would love to share your posts, so remember to tag the Australian Made Campaign @australianmadecampaign and the maker too. Considering the flow-on effects of your purchasing decisions. When you buy Australian Made and Australian Grown products, you are helping to support local businesses and communities across Australia. Encouraging your friends and family to get involved in Australian Made Week and spreading the word on the importance of buying Aussie! In the coming weeks, the Australian…

Established in 1976, the family-owned and run company aims to support local businesses by sourcing as much fresh produce as possible from farms in the area. Its diverse range of products includes fresh lettuces, carrots, onions, tomatoes, along with ready-mixed coleslaws and gourmet salads. Safety and quality are critical to Bowe, ensuring produce is delivered in optimum condition. The business is HACCP-accredited and completely focused on continual improvements, including the development and implementation of plant upgrades to ensure the latest material handling equipment and techniques are utilised. One recent plant update has been the introduction of Enmin equipment. Melbourne-based Enmin designs and manufactures vibratory and product handling equipment that align, sort, spread, sprinkle, size, separate, meter, deliver, blend, weigh and screen a variety of products across food and allied industries. “Enmin was recommended to us by a colleague in the industry who’d had an excellent experience with the company,” says Bowe’s Manager, Simon…

For more than 70 years, the core competence of Gloor Brothers, an owner-managed family business based in Burgdorf, Switzerland, has been the regulation of pressure and flow of technical gases. When the business earned its EN ISO: 13485 Certification in 1994, this competence was extended to medical technology, and it has been continually expanded upon ever since. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for fittings for therapeutic oxygen delivery devices has risen sharply, resulting in a capacity bottleneck in the turning department at Gloor. Thanks to a longstanding collaboration between Gloor Medical and Tornos, both of these leaders in their respective fields were able to react quickly and make valuable lifesaving contributions. Gloor Medical is an industry-leading supplier in Switzerland in the medical gas supply field, and its services range from the planning and implementation of the pipeline network in hospitals and doctors’ practices, to the fittings for supplying patients with the required medical gases. Its product range covers the supply of medical gases from central gas…

Formed in the Melbourne suburb of Burnley, Tighe Metal Spinners is a family-owned company operated by brothers Rod and Jeff Tighe. Early in the 1960s the business moved to Moorabbin where it remained for many years until moving into a brand new 1,600sqm state-of-the-art production facility based in Keysborough in 2014. Tighe Metal Spinners has always been involved in the specialised area of metal spinning (also known as metal forming), a process by which sheet metal is rotated at high speed over a mandrel to form round metal parts for domestic or commercial use. One of the more unique products that the company spins each year is the AFL Premiership Cup for Cash’s Awards and Promotion Solutions – something it has been doing since 1999. Virtually any metal can be spun or formed, including stainless steel, hot and cold rolled steel, aluminium, zinc, copper and brass. Metal products can be spun using one piece of material to produce parts without seams or welds. Without seams, a part can…

Tom Macrokanis founded the company in 2018, and with his business partner John Nicolaidis, SLIK Build aims to tackle the ever-increasing problem of housing affordability across Australia. The availability of affordable housing is a longstanding issue in this country, both from the perspectives of home ownership and affordable rental. Responsibility for the availability of affordable and social housing supply is governed by state and local governments, and these bodies are exploring ways to create mechanisms that will help to resolve what is a growing crisis Australia-wide. Despite most local councils having strategies in place, they are yet to materialise. For Macrokanis and Nicolaidis, both research and experience point towards a key underlying issue that “high construction costs are the inhibitor”. The SLIK Build team concluded that the only way out of this crisis would be to develop an industry specifically designed to service the social housing market segment,…

Australia is poised to become a leading provider of green hydrogen, produced by using renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hypersonix has teamed with BOC for the supply of green hydrogen fuel for its reusable Spartan scramjet engines, which can take small satellite payloads to lower earth orbit (LEO). “We’re very pleased to have found a strong clean hydrogen partner in BOC,” said Hypersonix CEO and co-founder David Waterhouse. “We both share a desire to bring the principles of the Green Space to the small satellite launch market, and this is something that sets us apart. We are determined to go to space, but in a way that is sustainable for our planet by design.” Hypersonix secured an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources last year, for the design and build of a re-usable satellite launch vehicle scramjet engine powered by hydrogen. “Our deep-tech solution will ensure that our precious oceans do not become dumping grounds for single use rockets and boosters, and…

CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) announced on 22 April that the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, and global consultancy Stratagen will form an Australian contingent to contribute to the Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) consortium. G-PST is an international group of electricity system operators collaborating with leading international researchers to accelerate the transition to low-emissions, low-cost, secure and reliable power systems. The move signals a major commitment to implementing the technologies and approaches to permanently reduce emissions trajectories, while simultaneously improving grid reliability, resilience, and security. Dr John Ward, Research Director of CSIRO’s Energy Systems Research Program, said CSIRO and AEMO were pleased to draw on their experience in research-industry collaborations to lead the Australian research delegation contributing to G-PST. “The energy sector is a central tenant of our net zero future,” Dr Ward said. “It accounts for 54% of Australia’s emissions and has the most mature range of low-emission technology options for immediate and long-term opportunities. The cost of renewable energy…