Month: December 2021

Today the partnership is stronger than ever and has made a real impact on childhood cancer support in Australia, helping fund critical emotional and mental health support, financial assistance, and information and resources to help families throughout the long and traumatic cancer experience. Over the 23-year partnership, BOC has raised more than $2.4m for Redkite. “Redkite and BOC have always had a similar philosophy, based on providing practical help when it’s most needed, as well as a deep commitment to community and looking after families who are doing it tough,” said Monique Keighery, Redkite’s CEO. “BOC’s generosity over the years has helped us achieve significant change that has made a real impact on the lives of children and their families.” BOC offers an innovative employee giving program, Hero time, which allows team members to take leave and donate the leave pay for those hours to Redkite. Employees are also encouraged to take part in Redkite fundraisers, such as Redkite’s first national Sun-Up Challenge, for which BOC was headline sponsor. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, BOC…

Manufacturing is a process of evolution, it continues to progress and re-invent itself, in Australia the movement towards Advanced Manufacturing has become the norm, which is reflective of the use of innovative technology to improve products or processes. While physical assets, tools, machinery and instruments will continue to be a key to success of manufacturing enterprises, the inescapable truth for any business is that the drivers of wealth creation are to be found in its intangible assets. An analysis of the enterprise value of businesses less their tangible asset value, across a vast array of industries (except for investment and banking entities) reveals that 80% of the real value of a business is held with intangible assets such as acquired goodwill, brand names, trademarks, customer lists and the like, as opposed to tangible assets. The shift in value paradigm from tangible assets to intangible assets began in the early 20th century with the growth and dominance of stock exchanges around…

At a very young age, Thomas knew he was born to be an engineer. Using the spare material found in his father’s shed, Thomas would construct anything and everything, using his ability to observe existing designs and recreate them. From remote controlled cars/aircraft to bridges and everything else in between. There was always an ongoing project for him to work on. It therefore seems inevitable that Thomas would be drawn to the F1 in Schools STEM Challenge. Established by the Re-Engineering Australia Foundation (REA Foundation) in 2003, F1 in Schools is the world’s foremost student competition for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Each year more than 17,000 schools in 51 nations take on the challenge of developing the world’s fastest miniature F1 car. “After meeting the head technology teacher, Stephen Read, during a Brighton Secondary School open day, I was immediately drawn towards the F1 in Schools challenge,” Thomas recalls. “I…

AMTIL’s new premises is located across two levels and 300 sqm in a newly-built complex in Bayswater, right in the heart of one of Melbourne’s key manufacturing heartlands. The office has been fitted out with a bright, modern design, with an emphasis on promoting staff interaction and collaboration. The office area includes height-adjustable desks and large screen monitors for all members of the team, to support productivity and staff wellbeing. AMTIL had been based at its old premises in nearby Wantirna for more than a decade, and it had served the organisation well over the years. However, it had become clear that the old offices would not be suitable for AMTIL as it moves forward with its current strategy, and that a new base would be required to accommodate future growth. An extensive search was undertaken of potential locations around Melbourne, till the site in Bayswater was identified as meeting all the necessary criteria. The purchase was completed earlier this year, after which work got underway on the time-consuming process of preparing the site,…

“It allows me to be really creative,” explains Tanti. “The more I use it, the more uses I find for the Demmeler table. For me, it’s the product that keeps on giving. As well as holding and fixing, I also use the matrix of the table to help with design. It enables me to 3D print tools and then copy them into the matrix of the table. I’ve also used it as a makeshift milling machine by clamping a magnetic welder to it.” Tanti first discovered Leussink’s Demmeler table system several years ago when he was setting up a workshop for his then-employer Lindsay Fox. When he parted ways with Fox in 2018 after 30 years, he contacted engineering company Leussink to assist with the set-up of his own workshop in the Sydney suburb of Artarmon. Brian Tanti’s Workshop, as his business is now known, was looking for a versatile fixturing table system to hold and fix parts in place, and called on Leussink to assist. Brian…

Though Australia lags behind other developed nations in terms of robot use in its factories, there are parts of the economy where our local automation has led the world. Self-driving trucks in Rio Tinto’s mines and the world’s first automated port at Brisbane are two reasonably well-known examples – each involving the work of experts at University of Sydney’s Australian Centre For Field Robotics (ACFR). “Australia’s always punched above its weight when it comes to automation,” says Professor Saleh Sukkarieh. “We’ve always been the country to look at when it comes to automating mining or stevedoring or logistics. The fact we have lots of constraints in this country kind of pushes us down that path and it makes it a great ground for that. There’s some really good companies, really good robotics research institutions, and a desire to see automation.” Sukkarieh began at the ACFR as a graduate student in 1997, and served as…

Don’t just take my word for it, a report from the Climate Council found that our Government is doing the least of any developed nation when it comes to action on climate change. This Government’s inaction on climate will not only raise the risk that we will face increased global temperatures – and the associated increases in server weather events – it leaves our nation unprepared to deal with the realities of a low-emissions future. With the US, the EU and other major trading partners looking at imposing carbon tariffs, our failure to invest in decarbonising our energy system and shifting our manufacturing industry to low-emissions technology is a huge risk to workers and communities that rely on those jobs. The only thing worse than Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Government’s woeful performance on preventing climate change is their support…

Just ask Brett Longhurst, owner and Managing Director of Bremar Automotion. Based in Carrum Downs, Victoria, his company provides simulation, testing, validation, and design optimisation services to customers across many industries, including automotive and motorsport. In particular, Bremar is accredited by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) the world governing body for motorsport, to certify vehicles’ rollcages using finite element analysis (FEA). This accreditation enables the company to independently certify rollcages for competition use both here in Australia and internationally. Life savers Rollcages protect occupants from being injured in roll-overs and other accidents that sometimes occur in the heat of competition. They can vary greatly in design, depending on the level of racing and the type of racecar. For example, a rollcage for the Australian V8 Supercar Series – based around General Motors and Ford production cars – is very different from a rollcage built for off-road…

Major progress was made. Before Glasgow the International Energy Agency estimated that announced policies worldwide would lead to 2.1 degrees of global warming if fully delivered. Then came a flurry of announcements from nations, regions and businesses. Midway through Glasgow the IEA said that the latest commitments, if fully delivered, would bring that down to 1.8 degrees. In other words 1.5 is alive, though very much on life support. Success now depends on further strengthening pledges and implementing what’s already been committed. That has big implications for Australia, and for Australian industry. Start with ambition. Most countries adopted stronger goals for 2030 and for long-term net-zero emissions in the run-up to Glasgow, and more deals were done during the conference. India, among the largest absolute emitters and the lowest emitters per capita, committed to net-zero emissions by 2070 – slower than some,…

With the ever-present march of time and technology, and the veritable abundance of machinery and technology out there to choose from for businesses to stay ahead of the game, the difficult part these days is deciphering what is truly worth investing in and what is simply the same old tech with a new paint job. It’s so important for anyone in business to understand the difference between something that is just new, and something that is a genuine improvement on the way things have been, and the way things are currently being done. Something that provides that edge to ensure that your business is not falling behind, because in today’s day and age, falling behind could very well mean being left behind. New advancements in the development of hybrid machine tools, incorporating both servo and hydraulic-driven systems, have resulted in a wave of incredibly intelligent machinery…

There are some demanding applications in the food & beverage industry that require extremely dry compressed air. Generally speaking, the drier the air needs to be, the lower the pressure dew point required, and the lower the pressure dew point, the higher the level of complexity, space requirement and cost involved. However, for those applications needing to attain extremely dry compressed air to a negative pressure dewpoint of around -30 deg C, Kaeser Compressors presents an integrated and intelligent solution that is energy-efficient and space-saving. Where extremely dry and clean compressed air is required, Kaeser’s dry-running rotary screw compressors, featuring an i.HOC (integrated Heat Of Compression) dryer, may be just the solution. Here, the dryer is integrated within the dry-running compressor. In this dryer design the desiccant is contained in a…

Originally established in the 1930s, Sheetmetals Ltd (SML) was acquired in 1983 by Kerry Dines, Director and Owner of Dines Group of Companies. SML is a fabrication business focused on architectural design, facades, structural steel products, balustrades, handrails and all other building components such as cabinets and including retail and office fit-outs. SML currently employs over 21 people and works with all kinds of sheet metal such as stainless steel, mild steel, aluminium, brass, bronze across multiple industries. Claden Williams, General Manager at SML, discussed the compay’ recent purchase of a TRUMPF turret punch. “We’ll be using the TruPunch for improved customer lead times and to ensure a quality end product,” says Williams. “We originally wanted to buy a smaller punch; however, with the growth projection of the company we wanted a machine that could grow with us, and would not need to be replaced too quickly.” Williams joined the company over seven years ago, starting off in project management and then progressing to the…

AMT: Firstly, what is FIAL, why was it established, and what are its objectives? MP: Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) is a not-for-profit industry-related organisation that was established under the Department of Industry as part of their innovation agenda through the Industry Growth Centres initiative. We are an industry-led organisation built to consult and deliver to the food and agribusiness sector in Australia.. In terms of our purpose, we were set up to catalyse the growth of the sector globally. It’s really to increase the share of Australian food in the global marketplace. We work across three pillars that we believe are the – excuse the pun – ingredients for success. The first is knowledge. We believe firms need knowledge – not just information, they need knowledge. As part of that knowledge pillar, we do research, we do analysis, we identify opportunities. So in our Project 2030 report - Capturing the Prize - we showed that our sector is currently sitting at $59bn gross value add, roughly 4% of GDP…