Industry News

Shortly after beginning work at Melbourne’s IMTS Machinery in 2006, Simon Stain made his first phone call to the company’s supplier, Prima Power in Italy, to introduce himself to his contact, Marco Daimo. Remarkably, 14 years later, it is still Marco who Simon calls at the Prima Power headquarters in Turin today, several times a month. Not only have the pair formed a watertight working relationship during that time, but they have a strong friendship. IMTS Machinery may be a leading supplier of world-class sheetmetal and laser cutting products and the sole agent for Prima Power systems in Australia. However, it is the company’s focus on relationships and longevity of experience that really sets it apart in the sheet metal fabrication market. Now business development manager at IMTS, Simon says that before coronavirus, he and Marco probably saw each other four or five times a year. “Sometimes I would take clients to Europe for a product demonstration or Marco would come…

Manufacturing has slipped from 28% of Australia’s GDP in the mid 1960s to just 5% today. While it is easy to blame the demise of Australian manufacturing on the rise of Asia as ‘the world’s factory’, there are significant structural deficiencies in our economy and in government policy that have contributed to the situation: in Leadership, Investment, Education, and Compliance. While none of these issues can be solved in the short term, strategic incremental movements over time will engender confidence, and help reverse the downward slide of Australian manufacturing. Leadership Successful industrial nations, like Sweden, South Korea and Germany, regard manufacturing as essential to their economies and social infrastructure. This fosters a degree of bi-partisanship and strategy that is strongly supported by voters. In Australia, manufacturing has been denigrated as a ‘Rust Industry’. Research & development (R&D) tax concessions come and go with successive budgets, as does critical CSIRO funding. Development grants for small…

Advatek Lighting is a small business dedicated to developing innovative, world-class control systems for decorative LED lighting. The type of lighting is commonly referred to as “Pixel” technology, where each LED can be digitally controlled to be any colour using specially designed integrated circuits. Advatek’s control systems are state-of-the-art in the field and typically interface between lighting software using an Ethernet network interface and many different types of digital LEDs. Advatek has been operating for around five years now and has a growing customer base worldwide. Approximately 80% of its business comes from international sales. The challenge This project entailed the design of a plastic enclosure to form part of a new digital LED control system. The goal was to create a robust but cost-effective housing for part of the system, which would have been difficult to achieve with a typical metal enclosure. Tightly placed electronic components, connectors and fuses all needed access from multiple angles in a small overall footprint. This meant the design would be complex, heavy and…

Over the years, I have worked for some manufacturing heavyweights, such as Robert Bosch Australia, the Ford Motor Company of Australia, BASF and OI, to name a few. I have steadily watched Australia’s manufacturing capability slowly leave our shores as we have restructured operations through outsourcing and offshoring of activities. This has occurred despite exemplary, locally driven productivity and quality outcomes. COVID-19 has no doubt impacted the sector further, resulting in unprecedented consequences for manufacturers and supply chains. Risk mitigation strategies for the manufacturing and supply chain sector require integration between existing safety practices combined with new approaches. Collaboration with designers, technology companies and our industry bodies will be paramount, to increase sustainability and resilience in the current market. From an occupational or work health and safety (OHS/WHS)…

Founded in 1980 by Susan and Peter Cull, ICT developed precision instruments to accurately measure, monitor and understand how water could make a significant difference to some of the major challenges in food production and land use – decades before the term “climate change” become part of everyday language. A regional success story, ICT’s research & development program has allowed the organisation to design, develop, produce and export their quantitative monitoring technologies to some of the harshest environments across the globe. The company has worked collaboratively with leading soil, plant and environmental scientists in Australia and overseas and in the process have grown local skills, capabilities and employment opportunities in the region. Found across the globe, ICT’s products have been installed to measure plant water use (via sap flow) and water stress (psychrometry), along with…

The instant asset write-off threshold was initially increased from $30,000 to $150,000 in March, with access expanded to include businesses with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $500m (up from $50m). Under the extended scheme, Australian businesses with annual turnover of less than $500 million will be able to take advantage of the prolonged timeframe to invest in assets to support their business as the economy reopens and Coronavirus health restrictions continue to be eased. The measures are expected to support more than 3.5 million businesses. They are designed to support businesses in sticking with investments they had planned, and to encourage them to bring investment forward to support economic growth over the near term. The instant asset write-off also helps to improve cash flow for businesses by bringing forward tax deductions for eligible expenditure. The threshold applies on a per asset basis, so eligible businesses can immediately write-off multiple assets provided each costs less than $150,000. The extension will also give businesses additional time to acquire and install assets, as they…

AMT: Firstly, tell us about Axiom Precision Manufacturing and what you’d been doing as a business prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Craig Maynard: Axiom Precision Manufacturing is a 40-year-old family-owned company. Before coronavirus we had mainly been doing defence, aerospace and some medical manufacturing; precision machining, assemblies and electronics integration as our focus. We spent 35 years in automotive manufacturing, in tooling and production. We did work for Toyota and Ford, and a little bit for Holden. But also tooling exports to the US, South America and South Africa. Now with precision machining we’re exporting both indirectly and directly with defence projects such as the F35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Silvershield program. Since automotive finished, we’ve experienced significant growth with defence and aerospace over the last few years, growing from 40 to 70 staff. AMT: How has coronovirus affected the business? CM:…

According to figures from the South Australian Chamber of Mining and Energy, royalties paid to the State Government are projected to reach $325m for the 2019/20 financial year, up from $299m the previous financial year and $207m in 2015/16. Jobs in the sector in SA have also grown to reach 27,200 direct and non-direct employees this year and have been boosted in recent times by more than 1,000 direct construction and production jobs at Oz Minerals’ new Carrapateena copper/gold mine, 160km north of Port Augusta. While global commodity prices, which are calculated in US dollars, have dipped in the past few months, this has been largely offset locally by a slump in the value of the Australian dollar to some of the lowest levels in almost two decades. A global survey of 2,400 explorers, developers and other mining-related companies was released in February and listed SA as the sixth-most attractive jurisdiction in the world for mining investment, up from 24th in 2018. The Fraser…

Waste reduction and the associated recycling has become a crucial part of the Australian landscape over the last few years and plays a key role in minimising landfill and driving growth in the number of new products manufactured with recycled material. With the dual benefits of reducing landfill and lowering waste disposal costs, many businesses are looking for effective, reliable and cost-effective solutions for waste reduction. Applied Machinery is the sole Australian distributor for Genox Recycling Technology’s extensive range of shredders and granulators, which are perfect for reprocessing waste material for direct input into closed loop manufacturing, secondary processing or simple volumetric savings in recycling skip bins. Genox is a combination of the words ‘Generating Oxygen’, which serves as the cornerstone of its efforts towards creating a better environment through new and innovative technology. Genox’s range of shredders and granulators are suitable for all kinds of waste products. The Vision series comprises high-quality, cost-effective shredders, while the Gran-Calibur series of granulators offers defined…

GST is usually a subject left to our friends and fellow Corporate Partners over at William Buck Chartered Accountants to explore. However, just like the dreaded Coronavirus has been pushing our businesses into new territory, the Deferred GST Scheme being implemented by the Australian Government is forcing our humble logistics firm to delve headfirst into the wonderful world of GST to an extent never seen before. What fun! So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty - What is the Deferred Goods and Services Tax (DGST) Scheme and how can we, as importers, utilise this initiative to help our businesses soften the blow of the pandemic? As the Australian Government ATO website puts it, “As an importer, the deferred goods and services tax (DGST) scheme allows you to defer…

This diverse industry features a wide array of moulding components, often featuring materials that are difficult to machine, with a requirement for tools capable of high feeds and large material removal rates. Common components include plastic injection moulds, forging dies, die casting and micro moulds, with each requiring application-specific tooling. This range of applications covers heavy roughing through to fine finishing. Dormer Pramet works with a wide range of die and mould manufacturers, from companies making small components, such as moulds for bottles and mobile phone cases, up to large forgings. Workpieces are often made from difficult to machine materials, such as pre-hardened steel, hardened tool steel and stainless steel. The most typical include P20, H13 and D2 tool steel materials, based on international standards. P20 is a versatile, low-alloy material that offers good levels of toughness and moderate strength. It is commonly used for plastic injection moulds and die castings. A versatile chromium-molybdenum material, H13 is suitable for applications where temperatures fluctuate during the…

AMTIL welcomes the establishment of the NCCC and looks forward to working with its members over the coming months. The Commission is working across business-to-business and business-to-government networks to unlock resources, break through bottlenecks and fix problems so Australian businesses and communities are supported in the months ahead. I recently met with a few members of the Committee and discussed a number of issues and opportunities that face our sector. I discussed the three key areas that are needed to support the Australian manufacturing industry’s sustainability and growth. The need for us to continue investing in technology, continue developing the skills of our people and continuing to explore market access opportunities are paramount to a strong manufacturing sector coming out of COVID-19. Investment in technology AMTIL’s surveys and statistics have shown a recent decline in investment in capital equipment and machine tools. The last time we saw declines…

Founded in 2002 by Lindsay and Kelly Malley, the company is a contract manufacturer specialising in CNC machining and small-to-medium fabrication. Its extensive range of services also include profile cutting, a robot welding cell, sandblasting and painting utilising both advanced and Lean manufacturing principles. Hydraulic manifolds, tapping blocks, drive shafts, hardened pins and bearings and small-to-medium fabricated assemblies are some of the most common products that are manufactured by Maltec. Maltec’s broad engineering capabilities are evident in some of the more unusual products that the company has manufactured; these include a spear tip, a nozzle for a hydroelectric project and several dog enclosures for Tasmania Police. The company’s client base comprises 40% local, and 60% mainland Australia and overseas. Maltec’s customer base includes many well-known companies such as Caterpillar Underground Mining, Epiroc (formerly Atlas Copco), Elphinstone (CAT OEM, Haulmax, Railmax, SVS) and AQ1 Systems, which produce aquaculture and sensor-based feeding control delivery products. “We make a lot of small…