Member News

Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, is already a prominent figure in US motorsports with the NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing. Having first confirmed his intent to launch a Formula One team in January 2014 – the first US team to enter the contest in nearly 30 years – it has been a long road to the start line, and the sense of anticipation was palpable at the HFO open house. “It’s very exciting. We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” said Frank Ramirez, International Business Manager for Haas. “Obviously we’re hoping to use the Formula One platform to grow our brand world-wide like we do in the US with Nascar. Today’s open-house event and we’ve had a very good turn-out, a lot of customers and a lot of upbeat optimism.” “The open house has been excellent,” added George Buhagiar, Director of HFO-Australia. “We’ve had a mix of existing customers…

One company at the forefront of these enormous changes has been Okuma, which has been a focal point with its leading-edge technology. Okuma’s Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, Phil Hayes, recalls a study at the Ford Motor Company in Geelong some years back that identified that a part sat on a pallet for almost six hours before its next machining operation. With some quiet smugness he also recalls the successful transition from a line of eight machines, each machining two features of an oil pump body at one set-up, to two machines machining every feature at 64 units at one set-up, commenting at the time that the maths was not difficult. Hayes recalls that Ford implemented a huge number of efficient new processes and methods, but this did not save them from the short-sighted industrial climate of the time,…

There have been a number of developments, but at the forefront is China. Downward pressure on the Chinese economy remains high following the collapse in the stock market while the latest PMI data point to a further deceleration ahead. However, China’s slowdown is not limited to the domestic economy. Indeed, China is casting a major cloud over the rest of the world, denting regional and global trade and investment. It is expected that Chinese growth could fall below 6% in 2016. Moreover, despite interest rate cuts, the risks in China are on the downside given the slide in the stock market and the strength of the yuan over the last year. The move to weaken the yuan in August suggests that growth may be well under the published headline numbers, and be followed by further currency falls. Linked to the weakness in China, another development has…

Based in Mackay, Queensland, 3D Engineering in Mackay is one of the top mining suppliers of engineering solutions in Australia and manufactures heavy earthmoving equipment, buckets and truck bodies. With over 80 years combined experience in the management team in servicing the mining, agriculture and coal ports sector, 3D Engineering offers integrated engineering solutions for its customers by combining workshop facilities, on-site labour and support, site measurement and design/drafting capabilities, quality control and safe work practices. Mining customers include many large companies operating in the Bowen Basin, such as Rio Tinto, Thiess, Downer EDI, DBCT, BMA and BHP Billiton, along with local industries. BOC approached 3D Engineering to help increase efficiencies in its manufacturing workshop and improve the company’s ability to service customers after a slowdown of mining projects across Australia. According to Tony Muscat, Business Development Manager at 3D Engineering, a significant amount of time was being spent by the team to manually keep an…

CoroMill 390 from Sandvik Coromant has for a long time been seen as the state-of-the-art square shoulder end mill, and now the company is extending this successful concept with the addition of the smaller 07 insert size. This becomes the first choice for small diameter, light cutting applications on low-powered machines, where it offers impressive levels of versatility and productivity. The objective for the Sandvik Coromant design and development team was clear: to create an extremely versatile cutter for productive milling in a wide range of operations and materials. The solution had to offer trouble-free, reliable milling performance, as well as easy-to-use insert clamping to increase process security. The result was CoroMill 390 tools with size 07 inserts, a product that has close synergies with two other Sandvik Coromant innovations: the Coromant EH modular system; and the…

We recently conducted an extensive survey looking at what sort of events you would like to see in future, what form they should take, and what content they should cover. This program has been designed in response to that survey’s findings, incorporating regulars such as our annual general meeting (AGM) and our Christmas Golf Day, as well as educational site tours, breakfast seminars and networking functions. The events listed below will be added to as the year continues, so keep an eye on the AMTIL website for more information as it emerges. AMTIL Tour of Australian Synchrotron Australian Synchrotron, Clayton, Victoria 8.30am-10.30am, Wednesday 13 April The Australian Synchrotron is a world-class national research facility that uses accelerator technology to produce a powerful source of light – X-rays and infrared radiation – a million times brighter than the Sun. It supports a broad range of high-quality research, with applications in sectors from medicine and nanotechnology to manufacturing and mineral exploration. Its highly advanced techniques and passionate staff are contributing directly and demonstrably to…

Ronson was established in 1954 and has gone from a manual gear manufacturing and machining shop to a CNC production facility with a key focus on utomation. The company employs 37 personnel and is ISO9001 and AS9100C certified. With a growing aerospace and defence industry, Ronson Gears has focused on developing relationships with some of the world's largest manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers in this field. To support its endeavours, it achieved AS9100C certification by enhancing and developing sophisticated manufacturing systems and verification processes. The company also sought out a machine that will enhance its competitive advantage. Investing in a Studer S145 internal and external cylindrical grinding machine from Headland Machinery, it is able to manufacture tight toleranced parts for any market. Gavin New, grandson to founder Ronald New, says the Studer has improved lead times and quality by bringing work back in-house. “Typically we subcontracted all of our grinding work,” he says. “But now with the Studer, bringing that work back…

Debuting in March 2010 as the flagship facility of Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF)-Victoria, the MCN is a joint venture between six Victorian Universities and the CSIRO and is backed by $50m worth of investment in micro/nanotechnology infrastructure. Located in Clayton, in the heart of the South-East Melbourne Innovation Precinct, the Centre is openly accessible to both academic and industry clientele. In the six years since its launch, the MCN has been involved in a growing array of projects and ground-breaking innovations in areas ranging from renewable energy sources to life-saving medical device breakthroughs. A look at some of the Centre’s more recent projects shows that the business of innovation is in no danger of slowing down. Rapid prototyping to understand particle diffusion A team of researchers from Melbourne University have applied laser-based microscopy techniques to understand the processes that control the diffusion of particles during advanced self-assembly and transport from examples like carbon nanotubes settling…

Since the collaboration between Prodrive and Sandvik began in 2014, Sandvik has provided the team’s machine shop with tooling solutions to manufacture a number of performance parts used in house and distributed to race teams across the country. Sandvik has played a pivotal role in the success of the team to date, assisting with the development of new parts within its manufacturing division, particularly with the introduction of the FG X Ford Falcon. The success of the team and its manufacturing department is not only driven by development, but through the reliability of the product and the speed of production, as well as by maintaining good relationships throughout the business. Prodrive CEO Tim Edwards believes the relationship between Prodrive and Sandvik has played a vital part in the team’s success this year. “While having the right team of people working for us has been the key to our success, it’s important to have the best manufacturing equipment on offer in order to create…

What does production superiority mean to aircraft manufacturers? In a word: billions. In the land of the giants, US-based Boeing beat European rival Airbus in net new orders and deliveries in the first quarter of 2015. While the first quarter is the traditionally slow quarter for new orders, it’s deliveries that generate the most revenue, and Boeing handed over a record number of jets for the period. For manufacturers of all sizes and types of aircraft, and their entire supply chain of components and parts suppliers working in difficult-to-machine materials, production delays can mean order cancellations, and cancellations can mean shifts to better-equipped builders. One technology provider that knows this better than most is Fives Cincinnati, whose plant in Hebron, Kentucky, produces Cincinnati machining centres, composites fibre-placement systems, and multi-spindle Cincinnati profilers. Fives Cincinnati is recognised as a preeminent provider of manufacturing solutions in key industrial markets including aerospace, automotive and truck, heavy equipment, oil and gas, rail, wind energy and general machining. With manufacturing and support operations strategically located worldwide,…

NMW is Australia’s largest, longest-running manufacturing event, bringing the industry together to see, touch and discuss new and innovative manufacturing solutions. This year’s event takes place against a solid backdrop of manufacturing industry growth; the AI Group’s March figures show that Australian manufacturing has grown for eight consecutive months and is now at its strongest point this decade. NMW 2016 will showcase hundreds of products and services from around the world, laid out in 12 Product Zones, ranging from Automation & Robotics to Digital Manufacturing, Intralogistics, Advanced Materials and more. Among dozens of firsts for NMW 2016 will be innovative materials handling systems from Magnet Sales and Millsom Materials Handling, next-generation LED lights from LEDified, as well as new 3D printing technologies – from Konica Minolta, Amaero Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing Systems, 3D Printing Studios, Sydney 3D Printing and more – that can help boost your production capabilities. NMW also gives you the opportunity to…

Pressform Engineering was established by John Worner in 1976. After graduating in metallurgy from Curtin University, Worner had initially seen an opportunity to get into stainless steel fabrication with a couple of partners, together establishing a reasonably successful fabrication business. The partnership ultimately ran into problems and the company was broken up, but John decided to continue with the pressing side of the business. “We went forward with the pressing side because I felt it was a better thrust of a business in that it’s based on niche products,” says John. “And so that’s what we’ve developed over the last 40 years, with more and more customers, more and more products.” Today Pressform operates from a 2,200sqm facility in Bassendean, in north-eastern Perth, with a workforce of around 35. From its beginnings in pressing, the company has expanded its capabilities substantially to include CNC punching and perforating, profiling, rolling, bending and stamping, as well as all forms of welding,…

I’ve been developing new products intended to be made in Australia for more than 30 years. Innovation has always been a topic of interest for me. So let’s dive right in. Firstly, what is innovation? The word ‘innovation’ comes from ‘nova’, which means new. There are several definitions around, most of them not really helpful. The one I use is “A change that is intended to be an improvement”. I like this definition because it covers cases where the new idea doesn’t work out and it focusses on why you want to innovate – because you are looking for an improvement of some kind. The number one area of innovation in the world today is business models, not technology, so this stuff applies to everything. People are basically creative. You are already innovating, even if you don’t recognise it. And you are also better at it than you realise. In fact, there are ideas you have that are brilliant but never…