Month: April 2022

Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula has welcomed Hanwha Defense Australia’s announcement that its $170m Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence will be established at the Avalon Airport Industrial Precinct. “We’re backing Hanwha to make the Geelong region its home because we know it will grow the economy for years to come,” said Pakula. “Victoria continues to lead the way in advanced manufacturing and this state-of-the-art facility in Avalon will create hundreds of jobs and deliver major benefits for local businesses in the supply chain.” Hanwha will use the new Avalon facility to build self-propelled howitzers to deliver the Commonwealth’s approximately $1bn LAND 8116 program. The investment will strengthen the state’s defence capabilities and create hundreds of highly skilled local jobs in design, engineering and advanced manufacturing. Construction of the 32,000sqm state-of-the-art facility is expected to start later this year and take two years to complete – creating more than 100 jobs during construction. Richard Cho, Managing Director of Hanwha Defense Australia, commented: “The Hanwha…

The word “robot” was first coined in Czech writer Karel Čapek’s play ‘R.U.R.’, written in 1920 and first performed in 1921. The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, called roboti (robots), whom humans have created. Initially happy to work for humans, the robots revolt and cause the extinction of the human race. While ‘R.U.R’ was the first countless works of science fiction in the century since that have depicted robots as sources of menace or wonder, the reality today is much more down to earth. Modern robots have become a feature of many modern workplaces, but nowhere more so than in the manufacturing industry. In today’s factory, robotics and automation systems have liberated human personnel from an ever-growing array of repetitive and dangerous tasks. At AMW 2022, the Robotics & Automation Zone will showcase the latest state-of-the-art equipment and processes for the optimisation and digitalisation of manufacturing operations. While some of the world’s leading robot brands will be on display, there will also be exhibits from…

Under the laws of cricket, it is illegal for players to rub any substance other than saliva and sweat onto the ball, let alone scuffing it with their fingernails. Similarly, strict rules apply to the manufacturing of cricket balls. Cricket ball manufacturer Kookaburra designed its first ever machine tending robotic system to produce the perfect ball, with the help of industrial robot supplier TM Robotics and its Australian partner MAP Services. Machine-tending is repetitive work. The job of loading and unloading machines with parts or materials is usually done by humans. In the production of cricket balls, workers would place covers ― the outside leather of cricket balls ― onto trays after being pressed into shape to form half of a cricket ball. These trays are then placed into a rack and moved to the next process ― trimming excess leather from the pressed cover. Originally, when Kookaburra approached MAP Services, the distribution partner for Shibaura Machine’s industrial robot ranges in Australia, its system for manufacturing cricket balls involved having human operators at the…

A regional development package has been revealed as well, targeting a bunch of regional centres includes massive investment into infrastructure projects in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and the Pilbara area of WA.  These sectors cover telecommunications, road, rail and regional health. The commitments total more than $21bn over the medium term. Simon Birmingham, the Liberal government finance minister, described the government’s budget management was allowing for the delivery of a dividend back to taxpayers.  But, he said, “it seeks to apply those dividends in a careful, cautious, responsible way to set Australia up for the future.” The deficit for 2021-22 is expected to be $79.8bn, with total deficits across the four-year forward estimates totalling $224.7bn.…

“Increased sales growth and demand across Australia has resulted in us steadily expanding the Yawei range, which today includes CNC fibre lasers, tube lasers, pressbrakes, turret punch presses, guillotines and smart-factory automation solutions,” said Applied’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Daniel Fisher. “The value for money and performance aspect is why so many companies have opted for Yawei. The competitive price of Yawei machines has enabled many local manufacturers to bring their fabrication work back in-house. It has also allowed job shops to expand their range of services and capabilities enabling them to secure new business opportunities.” Two new models recently introduced further add to the impressive line-up: a laser punch combination and a panel folder. The new HPML Laser Punch Combination combines the forming capabilities of a turret punch press with the flexibility of a fibre laser cutter - all in the one machine. The machine features class-leading components which are a hallmark of all Yawei machines; these include a Siemens 840D controller, IPG laser source…

AMT: You were recently the author of a report ‘Rebuilding Vehicle Manufacturing in Australia’. Tell us a little about its findings. Mark Dean: My report shows that Australia has all the key elements to develop an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry in this country. We have rich mineral reserves. We have an advanced industrial base. We have a highly skilled workforce. And we have consumer interest, not just in the purchase of EVs, but also in seeing an EV manufacturing industry in Australia. The one thing we lack is a Federal Government with the political will to create an active, interventionist industry policy to bring those pieces together and develop a plan for the growth of an EV industry, which could effectively be economy-transforming. And I’ve developed four building blocks around areas that would be fundamental to an industry policy for EV manufacturing in Australia. AMT: Would this be a significant export industry as well? In the past Australian car-makers often struggled outside the domestic…

The co-founders of WAZER, Nisan Lerea and Matthew Nowicki met at Penn Engineering in the US when they were building custom racing cars for the Formula SAE international competition. Their quest for a solution to make precision cuts in hard materials sparked their interest in low-cost waterjet technology. In 2012 Nisan led a team of undergraduate students on research in developing the technology and in 2015, the project had advanced to the point where both he and Matthew quit their jobs to continue developing the waterjet. By January 2016, the team temporarily moved to Shenzhen in China to join the Hax Accelerator, the world’s first and largest hardware accelerator. Most of that year was spent in Shenzhen to develop the business and refine the design and engineering of WAZER. During that time an engineering team was assembled to assess market…

“COVID has been a game-changer in many negative ways over the past couple of years, but it has also delivered many positive opportunities by accelerating change in key Australian and New Zealand industries,” said Anthony Wong, Regional Director – South Pacific at Rockwell Automation. “These ongoing efficiency and innovation gains will be most pronounced in key local industries – such as food and beverage manufacturing, mineral processing, oil and gas production, and public infrastructure.” Wong outlined a series of Rockwell Automation’s initiatives in an exclusive interview with AMT magazine, saying the new technologies and capabilities will have major relevance to its readers. Rockwell Automation – which employs over 24,000 people and has customers in more than 100 countries – is best known for its FactoryTalk software and Allen-Bradley automation systems, incorporating its programmable logic controller (PLC) and programmable automation controller (PAC) ranges from large to small and even micro applications. The company continues…

The history of welding dates back thousands of years. The earliest examples of the technique stem from the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe and the Middle East. According to the ancient historian Herodotus, iron welding was “single-handedly invented” by the Glaucus of Chios, a Greek sculptor in metal, around 500 years BC. Today, welding is an essential manufacturing process used across a range of settings, from medical devices and electronics, to larger-scale applications such as mining or shipbuilding. It continues to advance to new levels of technological sophistication. Robot welding has today become commonplace, and researchers and companies continue to develop new welding methods and to gain greater understanding of weld quality. The Weld Solutions Zone will provide a comprehensive showcase for this critical part of the manufacturing world. As well as offering a chance to see some of the latest, state-of-the-art welding technology, it will feature an array of exhibitors supplying ancilliary equipment, safety systems and gases. Australian Manufacturing Week 2022 will take place at the International Convention…

Founded in 1984, CNC Design is a leader in motion control and drive-based solutions throughout Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia, and has established itself as one of the world’s foremost specialists in developing and retrofitting CNC machinery. CNC Design is based in Nunawading, Victoria, and in the last few years the company has been building and supplying very large volume 3D printing and machining systems for thermoplastics, concrete, and wax. In addition, CNC Design is the exclusive representative for Siemens machine tool products in Australia and South-East Asia, and has partnerships with Güdel and Comau. The company has an extensive service, sales and engineering network in the Asia-Pacific region, with more than 175 people located in its offices in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The team at CNC Design has completed more 2,500 projects in 30 countries. Big area additive manufacturing Drawing on its extensive experience…

Superalloys – metal alloys which reflect their complex alloyed structure – feature extremely high elevated temperature strength, and therefore often are referred to as high-temperature superalloys (HTSA) or heat-resistant superalloys (HRSA). The history of superalloys started with the development of gas-turbine engines that required reliable materials for high operating temperature ranges. As a result of intensive research and progress in metallurgy, modern superalloys provide a long service life for working temperatures more than 1,000 deg.C. Understandably, the largest superalloy consumers today are aerospace and marine engine producers. Superalloys are also very common in the medical industry, which effectively use them for prosthetic implants in orthopedic surgery. In addition, superalloys have become widespread in power generation and the oil & gas industries as crucial materials for essential parts of various devices. Exceptional high-temperature strength and corrosion resistance are the undeniable advantages of superalloys. However, there are two sides to the coin: superalloys are not only highly priced, but their machinability is poor, which can…