Industry News

AMT: How long has NZTM been in business? Terry Carter: New Zealand Tube Mills stared in 1938. Originally, we were focused on producing truck rear-vision mirrors and pram wheels. The production of steel tubing and car exhaust systems followed soon after and took us down the path we are today. During and following the Second World War there was a shortage of materials, which prompted the company to design and build tube mills capable of producing tubular steel using oxy-acetylene welding. Today, we focus on manufacturing precision carbon tube and an extensive range of stainless architectural food and beverage tube. Our primary industry these days is horticulture and viticulture – with tubular steel trellising solutions. Export sales have increased steadily over the last three years, from 17% to over 35%. In addition to New Zealand, we sell into Australia and the USA. We also made sales to parts of Europe…

There is little doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the way in which businesses interact with customers, suppliers, and advisors. Although each state has experienced varying degrees of uncertainty, all have shared the need to be better positioned to thrive in the new COVID normal. Through lockdowns, delays in supply-chains, zoom meetings, and disruptions to global trade and currencies, we now understand how important it is to have solid foundations in every aspect of one’s business. Predominantly, these foundations can be best described as: Supply Chain Management and IT Systems Marketing and Visibility Financial, Accounting, and Legal advice and advisors HR and Staff Management By focusing on these four areas of a business, one can expect to identify areas in which the effects of the pandemic have highlighted the need to change how they are managed and operated. The following paragraphs will provide a brief overview of how you can thrive in the new COVID normal. Supply chain and inventory management A business’ performance during the pandemic can almost…

Premier Daniel Andrews’s Government will invest $179.4m to support stage one of the Fishermans Bend Innovation Precinct development at the former General Motors Holden factory, just 4km from Melbourne city centre. The precinct will encourage collaboration between industry and academia, with the University of Melbourne leading the way. Fishermans Bend will house the University of Melbourne’s School of Engineering from 2024 and the innovation precinct is forecast to be capable of supporting up to 30,000 STEM jobs by 2051. The precinct is intended to cement Victoria’s status as a major centre for advanced manufacturing and support high-paid innovation jobs in defence, aerospace, clean energy and transport. It will also strengthen the state’s capacity to commercialise new ideas and foster new business ventures. GM Holden established its Fishermans Bend operations in the 1930s, first to assemble imported engines and locally produced car bodies. In the late 1940s, the site delivered Australia’s first mass-produced vehicle – the FX…

The manufacturing industry in Australia is facing a period of renewal and transformation. With more robotic density in manufacturing factories and warehouses comes the need for connectivity, since there is more data to consume. The ability to have low latency and secure connectivity at high speed is becoming critical to the future of manufacturing. Local manufacturers are now looking to private 5G capabilities for this low latency and secure connectivity to improve the overall manufacturing process. In fact, some are looking at combining private 5G with optical infrastructure to create test beds for autonomous guided vehicles and autonomous guided robots to increase the accuracy and speed of tracking. This testing has so far seen many opportunities that go well beyond the initial concepts that manufacturing businesses conceived, including addressing quality assurance, safety of employees, and making sure the right assets are at the right location at the right time. This integration of information with other members of the supply…

Fortescue Metals Group’s Chairman and founder, Dr Andrew ‘Twiggy ’ Forrest, surprised a few with his first Boyer Lecture of 2021, highlighting the mining giant’s commitment to renewables, green hydrogen, and ultimately to the production of green steel . Acknowledging his group’s significant greenhouse gas contribution – two million tonnes a year, more than the entire emissions of Bhutan – Twiggy said the answer is not in stopping mining iron ore, which is critical to the production of steel and to humanity, but instead ensuring that iron ore and steel activity use zero-emissions energy. Twiggy believes green hydrogen – the purest source of energy in the world – could replace up to three-quarters of global emissions, if we improve the technology and add scale. He argues that the green hydrogen market could generate revenues – at the very least – of US$12 trillion by 2050. So, as the…

Founded in 1979, Toolcraft is a leading manufacturing and technology development company based in Holden Hill. The 100% Australian-owned company has supplied precision components and assemblies to the defence, aviation, space, hypersonics, electronics, medical and renewable energy industries for more than 40 years. As a top tier aerospace company, Toolcraft partners with world-leading businesses to design, engineer and manufacture advanced products, systems, and technologies. Toolcraft is an approved supplier for DST Group and many defence Prime contractors, including BAE Systems, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Thales and Rheinmetall. With a quality management system accredited to AS9100D + ISO9001 and capabilities extending from bespoke one-off parts to mass production of full-component assemblies, Toolcraft is equipped for any challenge. The company recently established Toolcraft Defence Technologies Pty Ltd to build internal R&D capability for advanced mechanical systems, focusing on energy, hypersonics and laser integration technologies. In 2020, Toolcraft decided to invest in a new five-axis CMM, not only to enhance its metrology capability, but to increase its capacity…

An important change from ballscrew to linear motion is going from indirect to direct drive, with no need for gearboxes or belts to create movement. Going from rotary direct motion also means big potential increases in speed and acceleration. Although ballscrews still have their advantages, there are trade-offs when selecting any type of actuation based on the application, there are some clear areas of superiority when comparing linear versus rotary motion, and manufacturers offer drop-in replacements as a response to this. One of the standout advantages is dynamism, with much better acceleration and velocity possibilities. With ANCA Motion’s LinX M-Series, a velocity of 10m per second can be achieved, along with a maximum acceleration over 30G. Continuous force range is between 90N and 160N. Another advantage of tubular over flatbed actuation is longer machine life due to there being no contact between moving parts; electromagnetic forces generate the motion, rather than contact between a nut and screw. Going from flatbed to tubular actuation also means greatly improved thermal stability, and therefore less expansion,…

Efficiency programs are commonplace in manufacturing and sustainment programs, particularly in the defence forces and supporting industries. The aim is to produce savings which could be redirected into other priority areas, such as purchasing new equipment or supporting ongoing operations. Understandably, it is extremely worthwhile to seek ways to make infinitesimal gains, even outside those obvious areas where ‘low hanging fruit’ paybacks have already been made, in order to streamline maintenance procedures. One of the relatively under-explored areas where investment in automation can provide tangible value for money through potential reductions in costs is in paint processing and the rework of parts and capital equipment. When considering automation, there are some obvious savings in labour and material usage, but digging deeper, there are a myriad opportunities for a significant return on investment that may not be apparent to those who haven’t worked with robotic paint application equipment before. These improvements include transfer efficiency gains, removal of operators from potentially hazardous environments, a reduction…

Michele Levine, Chief Executive Officer of Roy Morgan, said Australian-made goods enjoyed an outpouring of support in 2020 as international travel was restricted. “Australian-made products have experienced a surge in support during 2020 with a large majority of 93% of Australians more likely to buy a product that is ‘made in Australia’, up 6% points from 2019,” said Levine. “Less than 1% of Australians say they are less likely to buy a product that is ‘made in Australia’ unchanged on a year ago. “The closure of international borders and restrictions on travel around the world appears to have helped increase support for Australian-made goods. Although the preference for Australian-made goods is very high across all age groups, it is Baby Boomers (96%) and Generation X (94%) who are even more likely to prefer Australian-made products than other generations.” Australian Made Chief Executive Ben Lazzaro said Roy Morgan’s latest research comes as…

Based in Frenchs Forest, NSW, Black Lab’s focus is on design, manufacturing diversity, flexibility and super-competitive delivery times. Having a skilled, capable team enables the operation to work closely with its customers from concept through development to manufacture and deliver within a critical lead time. “We are continually trying to find ways to solve traditional problems and challenge the old ways of doing things,” explains Daen Simmat, CEO of Black Lab Design Simmat is a highly experienced industrial designer who is passionate about designing for manufacture and creating effective, fit-for-purpose solutions in a timely manner. He is driven and ambitious to showcase the capabilities of the Black Lab team and the manufacturing industry in Australia. “When establishing the business, a key challenge was determining how to grow high-value sales of large volumes of diverse high-quality products in a short period, without incurring significant additional capital investment costs,” he explains. “Our strategy is to pursue high-value business across market segments that include major retailers, industrial applications…

“Jobsite productivity has been a huge challenge due to COVID-19,” says George Maglaras, Sales & Technical Director, Stanley Black&Decker. “This is the result of several factors, including the level of skilled trades able to work on-site at any time, and the shift of resources due to social distancing restrictions.” The road to recovery will require continual government and private investment to drive the various sectors of the market, supported by the availability of finance. Economic activity generated by increased public-sector investment in infrastructure will not only offset the downturn in private sector investment, but also create the necessary momentum to entice private sector businesses to focus on important areas of commercial building like health and education. “In a COVID-normal environment, we anticipate higher ‘work done’ volumes than 2020 and see an effort to play catch-up to reign in the delays in construction timelines from 2020,” says Maglaras. “Hopefully we will see the…

The new facility called Neo-Bionica, a joint venture between the Bionics Institute and the University of Melbourne, is a highly specialised laboratory, purpose-built with the latest cleanroom technology, cutting edge robotic equipment, enhanced 3D printing and precision engineering tools needed to develop prototypes and manufacture medical devices for clinical trials. Bionics Institute CEO Robert Klupacs said that providing researchers and engineers with the capability to build clinical trial grade medical devices in Australia will increase the speed from initial concept to clinical application. “Our Institute is renowned worldwide for developing life changing medical devices such as the cochlear implant, Minder epileptic seizure monitoring device and a unique nerve stimulation technique for the treatment of ulcerative colitis,” Klupacs said. “And yet, we currently depend on companies overseas to build prototypes of the latest medical devices for use in clinical trials. “The opening of Neo-Bionica in July will completely change how we translate Australian innovation, enabling home grown inventions to be manufactured rapidly…

1MILLIKELVIN’s technology can identify and measure minute changes in temperature in solid objects that are a direct result of the structural loads (compression and tension) applied to it. For example, it can image complex aircraft structures undergoing fatigue testing, and generate highly accurate and detailed full field stress maps. The system achieves this via small infrared cameras and sophisticated real-time image and data processing to capture high-resolution close-up images of the object and identify critical stress hot spots. Referred to as MiTE (Microbolometer Thermoelastic Evaluation), the device has been developed under the stewardship of 1MILLIKELVIN and the Department of Defence – the same department responsible for inventing the revolutionary black-box flight recorder. With such lineage, MiTE has the potential to reinvent the way engineers and scientists measure the integrity of structures, with significant implications for safety and productivity. “As a former salesman for a multinational infrared imaging specialist, I had been aware for some time of this transformative technology under development at Defence…