Member News

Based in Highett, Victoria, Ronson Gears was established in 1954 by Melbourne engineer Ron New. Ronson’s current Managing Director - Gordon New - commenced his career as a cadet at Robert Bosch Australia before a stint working and travelling in Germany and Europe. A mechanical engineer, he returned to Australia and joined the family business in 1976. Today the company manufactures gears, associated power transmission components and proprietary gearbox assemblies for a range of customers and industries. Ronson could be regarded as a ‘traditional’ manufacturer, as gears themselves are indeed a ‘traditional’ mechanical component. Dating back to hundreds of years BC, gears are among the oldest equipment known to mankind. Originally carved by hand, the first mechanical machines built specifically to cut more accurate gear profiles date back to the 19th Century, when English inventor Joseph Whitworth patented the first gear hobbing process in 1835. So how do businesses like Ronson transition from such deep ‘traditional’…

Triple Eight – also known as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team – is an Australian motor racing team that competes in the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship, Australia’s premier motorsport category. Parts inside Triple Eight cars need to be structurally fit-for-purpose and durable enough to endure the harshness and vibration that come with racing. High temperatures inside the cars can exceed 65 degrees Celsius. During racing, these cars reach speeds in excess of 300kph and generate g-forces up to 2.5 times gravity. In early 2017, EVOK3D, a Melbourne-based 3D printing solutions company and HP partner, visited Triple Eight’s workshop to show HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) parts. “We were blown away with the part quality and strength, compared to what we were used to,” said Mark Dutton, Race Team Manager at Triple Eight. “We realised we needed to have access to this technology to improve a whole host of components”. This aligned with a broader discussion with HP and resulted in a joint partnership with EVOK3D, HP, and Triple Eight. The…

Many manufacturers and suppliers supply goods to customers on retention of title (ROT) terms ROT security interests must be registered on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) If a registration is not made, and the customer enters insolvency or defaults, a supplier will have no claim to recover unpaid goods supplied on ROT terms The COVID-19 pandemic brings a heightened risk of insolvency Recent legislative changes give suppliers a longer window of opportunity for the registration of security interests in goods supplied on ROT terms Goods supplied on ROT terms It is common for manufacturers and suppliers in many Australian industries to supply goods to their customers on ROT terms. This means that while the customer takes possession of the goods, the supplier retains legal ownership of the goods until they are paid in full. Since the introduction on the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA), a supplier can only enforce its rights to goods supplied…

AMT: Tell us a little bit about Sheet Metal Solutions (SMS) and what you do. Luke Williams: We provide sheet metal cutting and bending services to a wide variety of businesses and within various industries. We service agriculture, engineering, construction, mining, architectural, transport and trucking SMS has been in business since 2007. We received our first TRUMPF laser in January 2010, which is when I joined. I’ve been working with lasers and programming ever since. While originally I was thrown in the deep end at the time, I do love working with the laser technology. Over the past ten years I’ve received extensive software training on-the-job and acquired the skills to run the machines for the greatest productivity. I also schedule the work for the bending machines and help run the entire factory’s production. AMT: How has the company evolved over the years? LW: Over the past 10…

Times are tough in Australia’s – and the world’s – manufacturing sector. In the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis, we’re all trying to balance our need for preserving cash versus investing in capital infrastructure to get through and be ahead in the recovery beyond. However, given that the lead times for ordering and deploying large machines is long, we cannot always afford to delay. To illustrate this, here at Sutton Tools we are working on some very large projects in Europe that called for further capital expenditure to increase our capacity to deliver. In March we received a $1m thread grinder from SMS in Germany that is already in production making automotive forming taps for South-East Asia and Europe, and is proving very effective. Despite the crisis, we are still receiving orders for these types of products. In April a large Indonesian subsidiary of Honda ordered 3,000 automotive forming taps – and that order will go straight onto that machine. Investing to compete For Sutton Tools, as an Australian manufacturer up…

On 25 March, the Government effected changes to the Corporations Act to protect the economy from the stress of the ongoing pandemic. Understanding these changes and what hasn’t changed can help you protect against: Being held personally liable for Company debts incurred, and Losses from trading with insolvent customers and on Director / Shareholder Loans. What has changed? Relief from insolvent trading Relief has been provided to Directors who act in good faith from insolvent trading claims for the period of six months from 25 March 2020. Insolvent trading is the act of incurring debt whilst the company is insolvent, and this debt remains outstanding at the point of liquidation. A liquidator can bring an action against a Director personally for these debts. An example of how the relief will work in practice is: We have Jim who runs a chain-link fencing manufacturing business with expenses in the form of rent, wages and wire. Jim’s company becomes insolvent on 1 April 2020; however, he keeps trading until 31 December 2020 when his…

AMT: Firstly, tell us about Bosch Australia and the business’ activities. Gavin Smith: Bosch Australia is the representative subsidiary for the Bosch group in Australia and New Zealand. The company here has been around in one form or another trading since the early 1900s. The company’s grown in different directions, but it literally does a little bit of that which Bosch does everywhere. We operate across four sectors: mobility solutions, consumer goods, industrial goods, and building & energy technologies. Some of our businesses are the leaders in their field and large in scale, others are small and relatively new to our portfolio. But we have a team of about 1,300 people across Australia and New Zealand. Our turnover is just under a billion Australian dollars this year. And we are still a significant manufacturing and engineering location for the Bosch group in the areas of vehicle safety and comfort electronics, and we import and trade the…

With over 40 years’ industry experience, Genis Steel manages all aspects of steel fabrication from on-site measuring, in-house drafting, fabrication, through to full site installation. With extensive in-house capabilities and state-of-the-art facilities in both Melbourne and Adelaide, Genis Steel is able to provide a range of steel construction components for domestic dwellings, architecturally designed projects and multi-level apartments right through to industrial, commercial and government projects. Genis Steel recently expanded into South Australia, opening a state-of-the-art fabrication facility at the Lionsgate Business Park in Elizabeth South. This large facility, which was once home to Holden’s press shops, boasts over 15m clear heights and a 100-tonne lifting capacity. Combined with Genis Steel’s technical capabilities, workmanship and reputation for quality fabrication, the scale of the facility will enable the company to handle an almost unlimited scope of work. Coregas worked closely with Genis…

With the use of network communication, new digital technologies combine physical manufacturing systems with virtual worlds of knowledge and 3D modelling. The target is significantly increased output, but as manufacturing systems considerably improve their intellectual features and decision-making capabilities, they necessarily become more complicated and more expensive. Minimising the downtime of such systems is a ‘must’ for the development of every system component such as machine tools, workholding devices or cutting tools. Cutting tools can not only cut metal but also cut downtime, depending on their design concept. Assembled cutting tools with exchangeable cutting heads from cemented carbides are very common in metalworking today. Two decades ago, there were very few systems built on an exchangeable head principle. Now, practically every leading cutting tool manufacturer has this type of system in its product range. Advances in tool grinding and resharpening machines have…

While William Buck’s FRAA division has been operational for some time, it is significant to a wider range of businesses in the current environment given the regulatory changes, tax breaks, and widespread restructuring resulting from the global pandemic. FRAA advisors are available to assist CFOs and financial controllers to listed public, unlisted public and private companies on the proper implementation of Australian Accounting Standards (AASB) and the Australian equivalents to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). FRAA will also assist with complex accounting matters such as impairment testing, business combinations and share-based payments. The service line can also assist with the preparation of general-purpose financial reports for public interest entities to allow CFO’s and financial controllers to concentrate on operational matters rather than annual compliance. With 13 years’ experience and strong insights across a broad range of industries and markets, William Buck’s Director Alan Finnis leads the FRAA division. Finnis said the FRAA team assists companies to understand the ‘real-life’ implications…

With nearly 200 staff at its factory in Porirua, Wellington, Whittaker’s produces the highest-quality chocolate products for both the domestic and export markets. During the 1950s Whittaker’s developed the Peanut Slab. It has since become an iconic product and the recipe has never changed. In the 1990s the company started to make its first chocolate blocks, which are now New Zealand’s favourite blocks. Whittaker’s is a ‘beans to bar’ company, controlling the whole process from roasting the beans to the final product. This is to ensure only chocolates of the highest quality are produced. With a philosophy of purity and environmental consideration, the company does not use palm oil or genetically modified ingredients in the manufacturing process. Evidence of Whittaker’s popularity and recognition in New Zealand is reflected in numerous awards. This includes being voted New Zealand’s most trusted brand in the Reader’s Digest annual…

AMT: Tell us firstly about the Industry Capability Network Limited and its activities. Warren Jansen: The Industry Capability Network Limited (ICNL) is a national entity that co-ordinates activities for the Industry Capability Network (ICN) offices across the country. There is a presence of ICN offices in most states, and ICNL acts as the national office and primarily develops and manages our IT platform, ICN Gateway, which bring suppliers and buyers together on-line. We bring businesses together. We’ve got local suppliers who look for work, and there are buyers – we call them proponents – who handle large-scale projects. The projects might be based in the mining sector, the oil & gas industry, infrastructure, construction, defence and so on. And we act as an intermediary to bring those buyers and suppliers together. We ensure that supply chains function adequately to service these projects. There’s a whole raft of different industries that we cater to, and our platform services all these buyers and suppliers, and helps drive Australian industry through this matchmaking process. In recent times however, we have…

Shortly after beginning work at Melbourne’s IMTS Machinery in 2006, Simon Stain made his first phone call to the company’s supplier, Prima Power in Italy, to introduce himself to his contact, Marco Daimo. Remarkably, 14 years later, it is still Marco who Simon calls at the Prima Power headquarters in Turin today, several times a month. Not only have the pair formed a watertight working relationship during that time, but they have a strong friendship. IMTS Machinery may be a leading supplier of world-class sheetmetal and laser cutting products and the sole agent for Prima Power systems in Australia. However, it is the company’s focus on relationships and longevity of experience that really sets it apart in the sheet metal fabrication market. Now business development manager at IMTS, Simon says that before coronavirus, he and Marco probably saw each other four or five times a year. “Sometimes I would take clients to Europe for a product demonstration or Marco would come…