Industry News

Space Machines Company (SMC), the Australian in-space transportation and logistics startup, has secured the support of SpaceX as a launch partner to carry its Optimus Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) to space as part of its April 2023 mission. SMC's Optimus OTV is one of the largest commercial spacecraft designed and manufactured in Australia. It is a testament to the innovation of Australia's space tech sector and the sovereign capability being built by SMC. The 2023 mission will demonstrate the 270kg Optimus OTV’s ability to deliver in-space logistics services and will reinforce SMC’s strategy as a last-mile delivery services provider. The 2023 mission will also see SMC deploy solutions for foundation customers. The Optimus spacecraft’s assembly and integration will occur at the Space Machines Company facility within the University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Tech Lab and will demonstrate Australian sovereign access to space capability. More than 6,000 active and inactive satellites are currently in orbit, and by 2030, there will be more than 100,000. Space will increasingly need infrastructure and logistics services to support and manage the exponential…

Centor Global Services is a Brisbane-based private company with a global reach. They manufacture high-end doors, screening systems and door hardware for the housing market world-wide. They manufacture their products at factories around the world, but when it comes to the technical components, they create them quickly on the Markforged 3D printers at a press of a button. Set among industrial roads, railways and overpasses, Centor’s office is an oasis in a lot of respects. Maybe it was quieter 70years ago when the Centor office opened, but there is a respectable calm about the place when AMT visited just after the Sydney AMW show in June. Dave Chappell, Group Manager, Product and Engineering for Centor Global Services showed us through the facilities. Centor's in-house Product Design Centre is responsible for the design and testing of products available around the world. Centor was the first to come up with designs to make folding doors weather-proof and strong enough for external openings. “That was the mid-90s,” explains Chappell. “Ten years ago we set up distribution in…

First came the use of energy sources—water then steam—to power manufacturing processes, which required a consolidation around these energy sources. Then came the great efficiency gains from the streamlining of manufacturing processes—the assembly line—followed by automation and control, thanks to the development and deployment of digital technologies. The latest revolution, industry 4.0, takes that one step further by turning the flow of digital information into a two-way street: data is used to control the manufacturing process, and is collected and analysed to improve efficiency and detect problems.   The challenge to anticipate malfunctions There is one common denominator to all four phases. The operators of manufacturing systems and processes strive to anticipate and if possible, prevent any malfunction of production machinery that will compromise product quality or interrupt production. It’s not good to discover a machine has been producing malformed widgets after it has created a few hundred. In industry 1.0 and 2.0, the ability to do this was limited and…

Onshore manufacturing of life-saving mRNA vaccines took a major step forward on Monday, with the Australian Government, Moderna and the Victorian Government finalising all arrangements for the ten-year partnership. Under these new agreements, an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility will be built at Monash University, helping protect Australians against future pandemics, supporting local industry and creating highly skilled local jobs. Moderna will also establish its headquarters and a Regional Research Centre in Victoria. Once operational, the facility will be able to produce up to 100 million vaccine doses every year. Once this critical onshore mRNA capability is established, Australia will reduce its dependence on imported mRNA vaccines and our vulnerability to supply disruptions or delays. It will give Australians local and ongoing access to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine – Spikevax – and give us an onshore mRNA manufacturing capability in the event of a new pandemic, such as avian influenza or another new pathogen, vaccine-resistant COVID-19 variants or a global resurgence of infections. The partnership will lead to a world-class mRNA ecosystem based in Melbourne, attract highly skilled staff and expand local capability through joint…

When it comes to serious quality and reliability, Pilot Air has built a reputation that sees large operators turn to them for all their compressed air needs. The team at Sydney’s Luna Park ride development did just that when two of the big-ticket rides needed the supply, installation and commissioning of air compressor systems and pipework. Tendering began in February 2021 for a number of ride upgrades, and Pilot Air was engaged to create an air compressor system and air pipework solutions for two of the park’s most iconic and popular ride attractions. The team conducted a comprehensive site visit, undertaking a diagnostic discovery of the park’s Boomerang ride. As a feature ride with dynamic size to weight ratios and high-velocity execution, the complex air compressor system and air pipework needed to be intrinsically accurate with a robust system that would successfully perform under the stresses and demands of the ride’s platform. “Luna Park Sydney has a long and very successful relationship with Pilot Air. We have full faith in the air compressor systems supplied by Pilot Air,…

CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has opened a new $23.1m national lab in Melbourne that will bolster the nation’s ability to produce vaccines and drug treatments onshore. Researchers at CSIRO’s National Vaccine and Therapeutics Lab will turn vaccine and drug candidates into products that can be manufactured in large quantities for clinical trials. The ability to do this in Australia, rather than needing to go overseas, has been the ‘missing link’ in Australia’s biomedical science sector being able to produce vaccines and drugs here. The new lab follows a successful pilot facility in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when CSIRO scaled up vaccine candidates that had been developed onshore as part of a national strategy to combat this emerging threat. The facility was completed with funding from the Federal and Victorian Governments and was officially opened by Federal Minister for Industry and Science Hon Ed Husic. CSIRO’s Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said the new National Lab would lift Australia’s ability to protect its people and grow new industries. “We created the pilot facility in anticipation of disease “X” - an expected…

US automotive supplier H-P Products was experiencing high-stress readings due to a major job with tight bending radii of up to 1xD, short cycle times and compatibility with existing tools. The German tube bending machine manufacturer Schwarze-Robitec responded to the complex issue with a powerful CNC 160 E TB MR. The commissioning took place in the middle of the pandemic despite strict regulations. Thanks to short distances between the customer in Ohio and the Schwarze-Robitec branch in Michigan, the job was a success. Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Louisville, Ohio, H-P Products, Inc. manufactures a wide range of tubular products for large diesel engine, fire truck, construction equipment and agricultural equipment industries from air intake systems to exhaust and cooling components to structural components. To bend large tubes in particularly tight radii, the company now relies on a machine from Schwarze-Robitec. With the fully electric CNC 160 E TB MR, H-P Products is replacing another model from the German manufacturer after more than 20 years of continuous service. Schwarze-Robitec designed the CNC 160 E TB MR for two different tool sets, each…

Imagine all the things you could do with an accurate digital representation of your body. Bodd has, and the Melbourne-based company is putting it into practice. It starts with a body-scanning turntable device, which creates a complete set of measurement data via a very user-friendly, non-intrusive process. The subject simply steps onto the scanner's rotating platform, accesses the controls through a touch screen, stands with feet slightly apart and hands slightly away from the sides and rotates slowly for about a minute. Various optical lenses and data capture hardware devices then capture a broad and constantly expanding suite of possible anatomical detail. Bodd is pursuing a range of applications and markets from the worlds of clothing and customised wearable garments, through to health-related information. In the uniform retailing sector, Bodd’s technology is disruptive to existing business models and is a lead field of application. The possibility of eliminating waste in the retail fashion and…

Aaron Yeardley works as a Carbon Reduction Engineer for Tunley Engineering. He combines his role with completing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sheffield.  Yeardley specialises in gathering data from clients and performing carbon calculations to present carbon footprints. He then works with the client providing solutions to help reduce their carbon footprint. He utilises his expertise in data analytics, machine learning and python coding to achieve these goals. The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is already happening, and it’s transforming the way manufacturing operations are carried out. Industry 4.0 is a product of the digital era as automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies shift the central industrial control system to a smart setup that bridges the physical and digital world, addressed via the Internet of Things (IoT). Industry 4.0 is creating cyber-physical systems that can network a production process enabling value creation and real-time optimisation. The main factor driving the revolution is the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The complex algorithms involved in AI use the data collected from cyber-physical systems, resulting in “smart…

Directed Energy Deposition (DED) is making a difference to the life and usability of parts. DED focuses thermal energy to fuse materials by melting them as they are being deposited. Materials such as Stainless steels, Titanium alloys, Nickel alloys and Stellites can all be applied using this process. But the real advantages of DED processes is in the variety of industrial applications including extending the life of parts by providing wear-resistant coatings, repairing broken or damaged parts, multi-material applications, creating additional structures on pre-existing parts, and building new parts from precise complex geometry. The system that fulfills this task is BeAM Machines, first developed in France with recent operations commencing in Cincinatti USA with AddUp which offers a complimentary technology of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) systems. BeAM provide two models, the Modulo 400 and Magic 800. These 5 axis machines have been designed and manufactured for industrial purposes and are sympathetic to customer requests. They are modular, upgradable and offer high performance.  Modulo 400 for example, has a 640 x 400 x 400 mm build volume, a process module with 5-axis kinematics,…

The scientific community has clearly stated the need to reach net-zero global CO2 emissions by mid-century to limit global warming to 1.5°C and to reduce the destructive impacts of climate change on human society and nature. As a major aluminium supplier, Capral’s buying strategies and corporate activities will demonstrate the goal for Capral to work towards sustainability best practice underpinned by a commitment to the United Nations SDGs. Capral recognises that in the world in which we all live, the company must act wisely to protect the environment and the broader society while working in the interests of stakeholders and customers. “We have an absolute commitment to our staff, customers, stakeholders and the communities within which our facilities operate to ensure we are eliminating sources of emissions within the value chain of our business,” says Michael O’Keefe, General Manager – Marketing & Technology, who oversees Capral’s National Sustainability Committee and roadmap. Organisations around the world are recognising that this is…

Woolworths Group is committed to removing plastic from packaging wherever it can, already removing more than 5,800-tonnes of virgin (newly made) single-use plastic and packaging from its own brand range in FY22. Where there is currently no viable alternative to plastic for food safety or quality, Woolworths Group is working to use recycled plastic to reduce the environmental impact. The partnership being developed between Woolworths Group and Pact is expected to represent a multimillion-dollar investment in local recycling and manufacturing capacity. Projections that the partnership could see 18,000-tonnes of newly made plastic replaced with locally-produced recycled plastic each year would relate to an estimated decrease in carbon emissions of almost 25,000-tonnes (equivalent to planting more than 37,000 trees) and a saving of almost 500 Olympic swimming pools-worth of water annually. The intent of the proposed partnership is to establish Pact as Woolworths Group’s key strategic partner by volume in its efforts to deliver more sustainable packaging across its own brand range and…

Crushers, conveyors, belt sweepers, and vibratory equipment are areas where air springs are used in challenging applications where reliability and resistance to grime are critical. The same highly robust air springs go into the suspensions of big trucks working on the same mining, quarrying, materials handling, ports, and energy sites. A company that has spent more than 40 years building up its national network to supply air springs used to process and transport goods is now helping the industry avoid the need to expensively import urgently needed components as they wear out and need replacement. Air Springs Supply P/L supplies global quality brands of air spring actuators, isolators, and air suspension components including Firestone Airride™ airbags used as OEM equipment by major truck manufacturers, as well as original and crossover replacement actuators and isolators for conveying and processing equipment. The company - which is Australia’s leading supplier of air springs for heavy transport and industrial use – has worked hand-in-hand with the industry over the past two years to help ensure supply in…