Industry News

Designed specifically to face the tough conditions of the mining environment, the Bortana EV is a robust and rugged vehicle equipped with advanced electric technology. Unveiled at a launch event following the Austmine Conference in Brisbane in May, the Bortana EV is built using the chassis from an Agrale Marruá. The Marruá is a resilient four-wheel-drive utility vehicle from Brazilian manufacturer Agrale, traditionally used in the Brazilian army and mining industry. Safescape selected the Marruá chassis for the new Bortana EV due to its corrosion-resistant body and ability to withstand the harshest of conditions. The Bortana EV is the result of a collaboration between Safescape and 3ME Technology with support from METS Ignited, the Industry Growth Centre for the mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector. METS Ignited provided $500,000 toward the project under its Collaborative Project Funds in 2018. 3ME is a Newcastle-based company dedicated to developing heavy-duty e-mobility solutions. The electric technology for the Bortana EV features a battery with advanced opportunistic on-board charging capability. According to Safescape Managing Director Steve Durkin, the Bortana…

We’re in the early stages of what is widely regarded as the Fourth Industrial Revolution – or Industry 4.0. As the name suggests, this is a period of momentous (as well as complex) change, but also of extraordinary opportunity, especially in the field of manufacturing. The tectonic shifts brought about by the preceding revolution – the digital revolution – has led us to a new world of industrial possibility. If you’ve ever read one of the thousands of articles, explainers or opinion pieces on the subject, you’ll know that this fourth era encompasses sensor technology, data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced automation, robotics, human-to-machine communication, the Internet of Things and more. What you probably haven’t heard so much about, though, is the similarly radical transformation that could – and I think must – accompany these much-talked-about changes: a shift in business models. What about the Subscription Economy? What do I mean by business models in the context of Industry 4.0?…

There are many ways to define a Makerspace, but essentially it is a place where people can come to use – and learn to use – equipment, develop creative projects, or simply gain experience. They are most commonly associated with offering technology to create, develop and design in an informal, non-traditional, environment. Becoming a member of a Makerspace enables you to access the resources (training, machinery, technology and materials) at times that are convenient to yourself, without the capital outlay often required for production. FAB9 is a purpose-built space, located in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, for hardware entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, tinkerers, craftspeople, artists, hobbyists and anyone who wants to experiment through the making of physical objects. Whether you’re an amateur working on a fun project, or an inventor set to create the next world-changing product, they are open for people of all interests and skill levels. Architecturally…

The lab will enable manufacturing and other industries to create ‘digital twins’, or virtual replicas of physical objects and systems. By 2020, the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates 30% of the top 2000 global companies will be using data from Digital Twins of Internet of Things (IoT) connected assets to improve product innovation success rates and organisational productivity, achieving gains of up to 25%. The Mixed Reality Lab houses a set-up of industrial and consumer optical cameras and sensing equipment to capture detailed information about a physical object and the space surrounding it. The equipment is underpinned by sophisticated algorithms which merge the enormous amounts of data collected to create a digital twin in a matter of minutes. Matt Bolger, senior software engineer at Data61, said the lab is a unique combination of Data61’s research expertise across machine learning, computer vision, computational modelling, IoT, and CSIRO’s patented Stereo Depth Fusion technology for depth estimation. “This technology is game-changing for manufacturing and other industries,” said Bolger. “By comparing a digital twin of a manufactured object…

Accuride Corporation is one of the leading suppliers of wheels for the automotive industry. The company has a global annual turnover of US$1.2bn and a workforce of approximately 5,000 across 16 locations in North America, Europe and Asia. The product portfolio includes wheels for microcars (or motorised quadricycles), heavy vehicles, tractors, construction machines and agricultural machines. As an important company within the Accuride group, Kronprinz alone provides approximately 1.6m truck wheels and more than 1.8m motor car wheels from its plant in Solingen, Germany. The truck wheels with a particular high load-bearing capacity consist of a rim and a wheel disc. At Kronprinz, these components, which are made of rolled steel, are formed and then welded all around from the inside in modern gas metal arc welding lines. This sounds…

Based in Warren, Michigan, the company is committed to improving the lives of factory-floor workers through safety, reliability and efficiency in manufacturing, for industries ranging from medical devices to automotive. “Industry 4.0 is really the ecosystem that is a smart factory,” says Andrew Storm, Eckhart’s CEO. “It takes all of the systems in a factory, ties them together to help not only those who manage the process, but also to help the employees on the factory floor become more informed on the health of the system.” “Ninety percent of Fortune 500 manufacturing CEOs believe adopting Industry 4.0 technologies is imperative,” adds Dan Burseth, Vice-President of Eckhart. “And we build technology implementation plans with some of the largest manufacturers in the world, designing tools, equipment and automation that truly improve the life of the people tasked with running the line.” Customised, proven additive solutions Eckhart develops customised factory floor solutions to address the specific needs of each client, walking the floor to see exactly where ergonomics, line of…

After the R&D specialists were handed their notice from Toyota in 2014, they sat down and nutted out a new business concept. Bastion Managing Director Ben Schultz recalls how he and his co-founders, James Woolcock and Dean McGeary, wanted to incorporate their three passions: cycling, leading-edge manufacturing and Australian-made production. All keen cyclists, it was a classic case of creating the bike they wanted to buy but which didn’t exist. Bastion empowers the rider to design their own adjustable bike that is a unique fit not only to their desired specifications and aesthetic preferences, but the physical capabilities of their own body with all its ticks and quirks. Bastion shares the industrial warehouse it occupies in Fairfield, north-east Melbourne, with three other specialised…

Working closely with customers across the globe, Sandvik Coromant has developed a connected solution that enables manufacturers to speed up the machining of high-value components, confident that anything untoward (that is, anything that moves beyond strictly set parameters) can be identified. While Silent Tools technology from Sandvik Coromant is around 50 years old, the quantum leap comes from a new development that involves embedding sensors into the turning adaptors, making it much easier to fathom what is going on deep into a…

AMTIL’s AGM will be held on Thursday 31 October at Riversdale Golf Club in Mount Waverley, Victoria. The AGM will be preceded by a Breakfast Seminar, featuring a special presentation by keynote speaker Simon Kuestenmacher, Director of Research at The Demographics Group. Kuestenmacher is a rising star in data animation and interpretation, making astounding predictions for Australia’s future. A columnist for The Australian newspaper, he is frequently sought out by SkyNews, The Project, newspapers and radio stations across Australia as a commentator on demographic and data matters. Reaching more than 30 million people every month through his Twitter account, Kuestenmacher speaks on demographic trends, consumer insights and cultural change in Australia. Proceedings will begin at 8.00am with a networking breakfast, before the presentations get underway at 8.30am. The AGM will take place after the presentations. Tee up for Golf Day The AMTIL 2020 Corporate Golf Day will also be held at Riversdale Golf Club on Friday 14 February. As always the event will include a light breakfast, lunch and drinks,…

Developed in 2015 by researchers from CSIRO, ASPIRE is an online marketplace that intelligently matches businesses with potential remanufacturers, purchasers or recyclers to find new purposes for waste materials working towards the circular economy for Australia. Dr Melanie Ayre, research scientist at CSIRO’s Data61, said that since its launch, ASPIRE has diverted hundreds of different waste streams from landfill, including batteries, e-waste, metals, organics, polystyrene, ferric chloride and timber pallets. “Almost 80% of Australia’s waste is generated through commercial, industrial, construction or demolition activities,” Dr Ayre said. “We developed ASPIRE in response to rising costs of waste management, and to redirect waste to more productive uses.” Cameron McKenzie, ASPIRE’s newly appointed CEO, said the online marketplace has seen an impressive uptake amongst businesses, state governments and local councils in Victoria, but that a national network was pivotal in tackling the widespread waste crisis. “Around 300 businesses are using ASPIRE,…

The event was attended by more than 180 industry leaders from manufacturing businesses across Australia, as well as representatives from manufacturing technology suppliers, government and industry bodies, universities and research organisations. AMTIL CEO Shane Infanti has been with AMTIL since the very beginnning, and he noted that the association’s 20th birthday coincided with a strong resurgence in Australian manufacturing. “It’s great to be celebrating 20 years of AMTIL at such a positive time for our industry,” said Infanti. “There’s been a lot of pessimism in recent years with the GFC and the car industry closures, but right now we’re just seeing exciting stuff going on all across the sector. So tonight’s event isn’t just about looking back on 20 years of AMTIL; it’s about looking forward to what I think is a very bright future for Australian manufacturing.” AMTIL is the peak national body for the precision engineering and advanced manufacturing sector in Australia. The association was founded on 11 August 1999, following the…

The resources sector plays a big role in Australia’s economy. Iron ore, coal and natural gas were ranked first, second and fourth respectively among the country’s exports by value for 2017-18. The sector that is key to extracting these and other resources – mining equipment, technology and services (METS) – is another source of national strength. Dating back to 1859 here, it has not stood still and its technical leadership is globally renowned. An Austrade paper from 2016 notes that while Australia may not design and manufacture big capital items such as draglines and earthmovers, its METS companies “lead the world” via “time and effort in the area of innovation”. The sector is valued at $90bn, based on research in 2013 by industry body Austmine. Exports totalled $15bn, R&D spend amounted to $4bn, and the workforce numbered 386,000. “The Australian METS sector continues to develop its reputation on a global scale and is of vital importance to the domestic economy,” says…

It has been more than a year since China’s Government implemented the National Sword policy which would go on to have significant impacts across the global recycling sector. The policy set restrictions on the contamination levels of plastic waste, unsorted paper and textile materials, meaning China would only accept materials with a contamination level of 0.5% or less. From the 1990s up until 2013, global wealth manager Credit Suisse says it was cheaper to transport recycled materials by ship to China than it was to domestically transport by truck or rail in its 2018 report, The age of plastics at a tipping point. One particularly difficult waste identified in the report was modern food packaging, which use layers of different polymers as well as other materials like aluminium and ink layers that need to be separated before sorting if they are to be reprocessed. “Food packaging is also often contaminated by its contents, requiring screening and washing,” the report notes. “Councils also have different requirements…