Industry News

While your options to revisit pre-existing contracts with a view to ‘COVID normal’ may be limited, learnings from the last year can and should be put to use when negotiating future dealings. Ensuring that contracts are negotiated and drafted to account for the impacts of a global event like a pandemic should be standard practice. Whatever form the contract takes – “standard form”, longstanding in use on successive transactions, bespoke subcontract or supply agreement – it should be vetted to allow for all potential COVID-19 impacts. Indeed, at the time of writing (February 2021), Victorian businesses have just emerged from a snap five-day lockdown. The need to address these types of risks remains ever-present. Courts and tribunals generally will not interfere with otherwise clear contractual terms, even if the agreement places one party in a far more commercially or legally onerous position than the other. At its most fundamental, this means the objective remains: Preserving the…

Founded by Bob Kierlin back in 1967, the US-based company that started as a small business selling fasteners has exploded into a 20,000 worldwide workforce with 10 manufacturing facilities, as well as thousands of branches offering more than 750,000 available manufacturing items. Despite an unfathomable product range, with unsurpassed availability, it is the 10 manufacturing sites with more than 500 staff that sets Fastenal apart from its competitors. With more than 200 staff, the largest manufacturing site is located at the company’s headquarters in Winona, Minnesota, which is also home to two Vollmer circular saw blade sharpening machines. The story behind Fastenal’s decision to buy two Vollmer machines starts back in the 1980s when the company first started manufacturing and modifying fasteners for its customer base. With tens of thousands of fasteners being modified each month in all shapes and…

Manufactured in Mulwala, New South Wales, the Jones rocket motor was co-designed with Southern Launch, an innovative Australian SME that provides launch services, bespoke rocket subsystems and operates the Koonibba Test Range, Australia’s first licenced launch site for overland suborbital rocket testing. Dion Habner, Managing Director of Australia Munitions, said the rocket motor firing was a core risk mitigation step in a joint program with Southern Launch to expand Australia’s sovereign guided weapons manufacturing capability. “This represents a critical milestone in the return to routine rocket motor manufacturing at the Mulwala Munitions facility,” said Habner. “In the late 1990s advanced warhead and rocket motor facilities were established at Mulwala and since then advanced warheads, military rocket motors and ignition systems have been safely manufactured on site. “Every day, high explosives and propellants are produced for systems used by Australian and allied forces, including the explosive effectors for GBU-12 aerial laser-guided bombs. Testing activities are a routine part of operations in Australia’s…

Based in Dudley Park, in Adelaide’s north-west suburbs, PRP Manufacturing plans to hold a celebration event around June to mark the company’s 30th year in business. Loyal customers who have been buying its products since the company first started will be VIP guests at the event, and PRP’s founder, owner and Director Steve Sernecki is keen to catch up with several long-term clients. He mentions Ken and Christine Bridges, who own B&R Enclosures, a designer and manufacturer of electrical enclosures headquartered in Queensland, with distribution centres worldwide. “When I first started the business, I asked Christine if B&R would support my new venture,” recalls Steve. “She said yes, and B&R Enclosures has stayed loyal to us for 30 years. We have been supplying them with thousands of gaskets for their electrical enclosures over that time.” Another company that has been a customer since the very start is Philmac Pty Ltd. The…

Held on 29 April in Edinburgh, the AIC opening saw nearly 100 industry representatives, sponsors, dignitaries, and media come together to join this historic industry moment in a new ‘Centre of Excellence’. Underscoring the significance of the event for South Australia and Australian manufacturing, Senator Rex Patrick was the guest of honour, who symbolically cut the ribbon to declare the industry leading facility open for business. Patrick was joined by Jon Gee MP, State Member for Taylor; AIC Managing Director Luke Truskinger, and Stuart Charity, CEO of the AAAA. “We are proud to launch this facility in Adelaide, a location that boasts a great number of innovative aftermarket companies,” said Charity. “This facility, in addition to the Melbourne AIC centre, is the culmination of eight years of passion and hard work, and opens up new product development opportunities for businesses, while playing a role in supporting the health of this great industry. “Bringing these centres to…

Having celebrated its centennial year in 2019, Norman G Clark remains a proudly Australian, family-owned company. Considered one of this country’s most diversified manufacturing and supply businesses, it services industries such as mining, heavy vehicles, off-road vehicle, defence, power generation, food, packaging, paper, forestry and other associated industries. The cornerstone of the business rests on a licencing agreement granted to the company in 1963 by the original Horton Enterprise to manufacture Horton fan clutches and Nexen Air Champ industrial clutches, brakes and tension control equipment. The company also distributes an exhaustive range of industrial and off-road equipment from principles based in USA and Europe. Norman G Clark is an OEM supplier to all of Australia’s heavy transport manufacturers and to the defence industry. The company’s general engineering capabilities, which encompass CNC turning, milling and drilling, as well as design and fabrication to customers’ specifications. The new CNC machine cell incorporates an Okuma Multus B300II Wx900 with an OSP-P300SA Control, a gear-cutting package, a workpiece gauging station, and a Fanuc M710iC/45M…

Over the next decade, more than 57,000 satellites will be launched worldwide to support a surge in demand for space-derived data, from environmental monitoring such as bushfires and floods, to connecting to sensors on Internet of Things (IoT) networks. However, with present-day ground stations typically tracking one satellite at a time, heavy congestion is expected to limit the potential of satellites and the downstream industries they support. Launched on 4 May, Quasar is backed by $12m in funding, technology and industry expertise from CSIRO, Main Sequence, the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer, and Australian companies Vocus, Saber Astronautics, Fleet Space Technologies, and Clearbox Systems. Quasar will look to capitalise on the US$130bn satellite ground communications market, using technology developed by CSIRO for radio telescopes like its own ASKAP telescope in Western Australia. CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said after helping receive images of humans on the Moon 50 years ago, the commercialisation of this breakthrough research would now help put more…

Most optical sensors for measuring the surface properties of objects have only a limited field of view. When measuring the surface outside the field of view, either the sensor or the object must be moved or repositioned. It is important to distinguish between the position of the object being measured and the sensor movement, whereby the positioning itself should have as little influence as possible on the measurement result. The higher the sensor resolution and accuracy, the more precise the motion system has to be. In addition to precision, another important requirement in many applications is the degree of automation. Precise positioning and monitored control Surface analysis is often integrated directly into the production line as a quality assurance process. As is often the case in semiconductor manufacturing, for example wafer inspection or the production of flat panels, quality is assessed after almost every process step, necessitating fully automated in-process inspection with object…

The Territory Government will invest $8.75m over five-years with the Federal Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) that will fast-track innovation projects and generate millions of dollars in co-investment. AMGC has connections with manufacturers, universities, research institutions and export hubs around the country, and co-funds industry projects to lead to commercialisation, with a goal of driving innovation, productivity and competitiveness across Australia’s manufacturing industry. Announcing the new partnership, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said: “We are backing innovation and local business, because we know how exciting this space is for the Territory and for our economic comeback. We want to make things in the Territory, lock in more local projects and get them off the ground. “This will lead to more jobs for Territorians, and higher paying ones at that. This announcement is Kickstarter on steroids – and it will turn Territorians’ ideas into reality.” The new partnership will fast-track research, pilot projects and commercialisation of advanced manufacturing opportunities in minerals processing, agribusiness and carbon across the Territory. Successful applicants through the partnership will be required to…

Based in Minto, NSW, Holloway Group is one of the few Australian-based plastic injection moulding companies that can produce large goods. So when its Managing Director and owner  Matthew Holloway saw a concrete void filler product that was being imported from China, he contacted the owner to see if they could do business. “As a growing organisation, we are always looking for new opportunities to expand into new industries and to form new business partnerships,” says Holloway. “I read about Biax Foundations’ concrete void filler product in an article on LinkedIn and knew straight away that it was something we could manufacture.” Up until that point, Biax was manufacturing its product in China and importing it into Australia. The freight costs and lead times made this difficult to sustain. “Not only are we manufacturing the Biax product, but we’ve assisted with the improved design of the void filler, and will be assisting with their supply chain and distribution,” Holloway adds. “Our engineers and industrial designers…

Located in Oskarshamn, Sweden, the company specialises in creating and streamlining solutions for its customers’ production flows and processes. Plåtson’s industrial service is actually born through extensive collaboration with Scania, the Swedish manufacturer of trucks, buses, coaches, and power solutions, and the company’s neighbour and largest customer. Recently, Plåtson acquired a world-leading automated 3D measurement system in order to secure the accurate measurements required for precision-demanding parts in a very time-efficient way. Consequently, the company can now provide its customers with real-time follow-ups and measurement data that is available 24/7. Plåtson had been facing various challenges that eventually prompted it to look for a new solution for measuring Scania’s transport stands, ultimately reaching a turning point that motivated the industrial service manager to look for an automated system. With a number of key requirements specified in its technical request, the company’s search finally ended with Creaform’s latest technology, the MetraSCAN 3D-R robot-mounted optical scanner. High-precision stands Scania has several production plants in Europe. The cabs, which…

The Internet of Things (IoT) includes the integration of digital sensors and networking technologies to devices and systems we use every day in the analogue world. The most famous consumer examples include smartphones, smartwatches, smart thermostats, smart speakers and so on. Traditional versions of these devices have no internet connectivity; however, as IoT has developed they have become connected. IoT devices have been a big part of our lives for over a decade and continue to grow in influence. In fact according to Transforma Insights, at the end of 2019 there were 7.6bn active IoT devices, a figure which will grow to 24.1bn in 2030. Beyond consumer households, IoT has an application for commercial use. Prominent examples where IoT devices come into play will be temperature control systems across buildings, trucks and so on. A simple use of IoT devices for commercial purposes is…

It is the third highest rate of growth recorded since the Australian PMI moved to a monthly format in May 2001 (readings above 50 points indicate expansion in activity, with higher results indicating a faster rate of expansion). All six manufacturing sectors in the Australian PMI expanded in April , as did all seven activity indicators. The capacity utilisation index hit a record high, suggesting employment and/or investment may need to step up in order to facilitate further growth from here. Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox said: “Australia’s manufacturing industry showed no signs of slowing in the month following the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy. Instead the industry continued to grow and in fact lifted the pace of expansion in April. All six manufacturing sectors expanded at a healthy rate led by the food & beverage sector with very strong support from the machinery &…