Member News

Based in Melbourne, Megafun is a designer and project manager of exhibitions and theatre works with more than 23 years of experience in providing creative and technical services to companies, artists and exhibitions around the world. The company specialises in delivering quality theatre and events and creating intriguing and engaging interactive experiences. Megafun was engaged to develop, construct and install a new 3D animated zoetrope in ACMI’s permanent exhibition space. For this new zoetrope, Canadian video game company Studio MDHR was approached to provide the characters and storyline from its Cuphead series of games. While the historical zoetrope concept was a slitted drum, this new variation is a 3D animation. A disc spinning at a set speed is illuminated with flashing strobe lighting. Each flash illuminates a slightly new position of the disc as it turns. By aligning objects and characters at just the right spacing with slight adjustments of position,…

Regarded as a flexible all-rounder, the expanded D4120 indexable insert solid drill line is available in diameters ranging from 13.5mm to 59mm. The product expansion now incorporates the D4120-02 2xD drill and the D4120-03 3xD drills for creating holes from 13.5 to 41.3mm diameter as well as the D4120-04 and D4120-05 4xD and 5xD drills for holes from 17 to 59mm diameter with exceptional productivity and performance. From a dimensional perspective, the 2xD drill has an overall length from 97mm to 228mm with a cutting length of 27mm to 118mm depending on the diameter selected, whereas the 3xD drill has an overall length from 110.5mm to 287mm with a cutting length from 40.5mm to 177mm. The 4xD provides a flute length from 68mm to 236mm with an overall length from 149mm to 346mm, whereas the largest 5xD drills have a maximum cutting depth of 295mm with an overall length from 166mm to 405mm depending upon the damp to selected. The 2xD and 3xD drills…

The build volume of the LC Magna is 510mm by 280mm by 350mm, making it the largest build volume LCD screen-based 3D printer currently available. LC Magna has a 60cm 4K Ultra HD screen, offering unbeatable precision and detail when creating high-resolution, mass-manufactured parts. The screen has been matched with a custom-built backlight. These two elements work together to ensure extremely high print accuracy, delivering amazing detail. Product designers, engineers and manufacturers alike can now benefit from LC Magna’s large build volume capabilities and maximise build plate capacity to increase throughput, speed up assembly production and reduce lead times. “LCD screen-based 3D printers have been the fastest growing area in 3D resin printing,” says Sally Tipping, Sales Director at Photocentric. “This machine sets new standards, making it best in class in almost every respect – it really is a disruptive industry-changing machine.” The hardware and electronics of LC Magna have been designed by Photocentric with high-precision reliability in mind to ensure consistent robust performance. The patented peel…

The first thing you notice when meeting Jamie Howard, Group Managing Director of HMS Group, is his unwavering commitment to Australian manufacturing and his belief in huge opportunities for local industry. With a trade and engineering background and a passion for safety, innovation and training, it quickly becomes apparent how Howard’s philosophy has made HMS Group a success. He describes HMS Group as a proudly Australian company operating in a zero-harm environment, designing and manufacturing safety solutions, while driven by innovative productivity and skills education. “We are about workplace safety,” says Howard. “Manual labour is hard work and it limits the productive life of people. If an autonomous machine like ours can save wear and tear on the human body, that is a great benefit.” The HMS Mini Loader Howard saw a need for a safe solution to removing coal from under conveyors. Previously, removal of spilled coal was a dangerous operation, involving up to five people to shovel coal from underneath the conveyor belt. While undertaking this dangerous operation,…

As a business owner, it can be tempting to seek short cuts to find your best-fit insurance cover. The internet offers you an overwhelming range of options, but it can be tricky to work out the right cover to suit your business needs (and cheaper is not always the best). Also, other insurance markets may be available to an insurance broker, which are not directly accessible by business owners. You could have then taken out a policy because it was quick and ticked most of your boxes. Maybe the impact of COVID-19 has belatedly made you take to the fine print with a magnifying glass. But you may still not have taken the cover that is best for your business – and this is where a broker can provide you with the required advice. For example, did you have a chance to check the independence of the comparison website? Social proof might have weighed in on your…

Based in Sefton, NSW, AMTIL member Romar’s winning grant is the largest of four allocated to manufacturers working in the aerospace sector under round one of the Integration and Translation streams of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI), a $1.3bn Federal Government initiative designed to position Australia as a globally recognised, high-quality and sustainable manufacturing nation. The four companies – Romar Engineering (NSW), EffusionTech (Vic), Titomic (Vic) and Q-CTRL (NSW) – will share in nearly $14m in funding. Romar plans on leveraging a more diverse metal additive manufacturing (AM offering in the Australian market with GE Additive and Romar’s custom sealing solutions. Its design-centric, qualification-focused approach provides Australia with the fluid control, motion control, and metal AM solutions to hit orbit. “These grants will help bolster Australia’s reputation in the growing global civil space industry and build on the important work being led by our Australian Space Agency,” said Christian Porter, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. “From satellites, to componentry in sensors and even rocket engines, Australian…

AMTIL member GoProto operates six different additive manufacturing technologies in-house for prototyping and end-use applications, as well as providing 3D scanning, machining and injection moulding services. ISO 9001 is quickly gaining acceptance among 3D printing and contract manufacturers as a foundation for their quality programs. The stringent process analyses a business’s operations from top to bottom, seeking commitment to quality at every level. “ISO is one of the most rigorous and well-regarded standards in the world,” says James Sanders, General Manager of GoProto ANZ. “We sought to become certified as part of our longstanding commitment to quality and a further step of our Industry 4.0 journey. I am extremely proud of our team’s efforts, which proves their commitment to providing high quality parts and excellent customer service. We’re dedicated to constant improvement and making sure we have the processes and systems in place for this.” GoProto’s ISO certification was accelerated as a result of a grant awarded by the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, in recognition of the company’s potential to manufacture aerospace and defence components in-country,…

Gazmick is a small, privately owned business dedicated to improving ground support in the mining industry. Gazmick has enjoyed great success in patenting novel ground support solutions, such as rock bolts. Up to now its most successful bolt is the Stiff Split Set, a modified friction bolt. Via a licensing agreement, Gazmick has sold in excess of 4 million units throughout Australia and Asia. Gazmick looks to solve other rock bolt problems to enhance the safety and efficiency of mining and tunnelling operations. The challenge One common type of rock bolt is the resin bolt. In this embodiment a steel bar is locked into the rock using a two-part resin pack. Currently the resin is contained in a two-part “sausage” and placed into the hole in the strata. To avoid danger, this is done remotely, with the operator working approximately five metres away behind a protective steel canopy. This resin installation process has remained unchanged for the last 10 years and contributes significantly to the entire bolting…

Sales for AMW 2022, Australia’s premier manufacturing solutions event, have been so strong that AMTIL, the event’s organisers, has taken a further bay at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC), bringing the overall floor space for the AMW exhibition from 15,000sqm to 16,500sqm. Even with this expanded footprint, AMTIL expects the show to be fully sold out many months in advance of its opening on 8 March. Exhibitors who have booked space for AMW are already benefiting from significant exposure as a result of pre-show marketing activity by AMTIL. “Riding on the coat tails of AMTIL’s ongoing promotion of AMW is just one of the advantages of locking in a stand early for next year’s exhibition,” says Kim Banks, AMW Exhibition Manager and Head of Events at AMTIL. “The sooner you get your stand locked in and announce it to your target markets, the quicker you can start putting yourself in the box seat to develop great early interest in your company’s…

The company is now launching a new product to add to its extensive portfolio of clamps. The Heavy-Duty VersaGrip gripper is designed for those aggressive operations on harder materials while providing the versatility to hold just about any workpiece shape that can be imagined. The rotatable, flat, serrated top face allows for additional holding force in horizontal pockets in jaws or hard stops. Standard gripping height is 5mm; if a higher height is required, the workpiece can be elevated by resting part of it on the Original VersaGrip gripper, allowing for cutter clearance around jaws. The standard VersaGrip, as the name implies, provides versatility for clamping standard vise work as well as providing a solution for difficult applications that would normally require fixturing or machining soft-jaws. The VersaGrip is just one of a number of new products that the company has recently introduced, one of which is the new Heavy Duty T-Slot clamp. Designed to be used in the…

AMT: Firstly, tell us about Australian Manufacturing Week (AMW) and why AMTIL decided to launch a new manufacturing industry exhibition. Shane Infanti: AMW is Australia’s premier manufacturing solutions event. It’s an industry exhibition that will cover every aspect of manufacturing in Australia today. So it will feature a comprehensive line-up of the very latest, state-of-the-art manufacturing technology, across all equipment categories. Also exhibiting will be a wide variety of service providers who specialise in supporting the manufacturing sector. And last but not least, we’ll have our Australian Manufacturers’ Pavilion, a dedicated zone within the exhibition where we’ll be showcasing some Australia’s most innovative, exciting advanced manufacturing businesses. So really visitors will be able to take in the Australian manufacturing industry in its entirety, all under one roof. We decided to launch AMW after Reed Exhibitions announced last year that it would stop running its…

Having access to parts as needed that can be 3D printed is a positive solution for industries operating in remote locations such as mining, oil & gas production, power stations, farming equipment and wind farms. The convenience factor offers a convincing argument for on-demand production for parts that unexpectedly break, wear out before time, or become affected by environmental conditions. An emerging solution for the provision of AM-produced spare parts is being offered by German company Bionic Production, with its revolutionary mobile, modular 3D printing system, or better known as a “factory in a box”. Bionic Production has an extensive history in design, development and service, producing the renowned Bugatti brake caliper using an SLM Solutions multi-laser system. By applying bionic design techniques, the initial model was reviewed, the maximum possible tensile strength determined, and the topology optimised for 3D printing. Using its technical and methodological expertise and experience as 3D printers and developers, Bionic Production now supplies the Mobile…

All six manufacturing sectors in the Australian PMI expanded in June, with five expanding at a faster pace than in May (readings above 50 points indicate expansion in activity, with higher results indicating a faster rate of expansion). Businesses that directly supply the construction sector reported strong results, saying they are investing to increase capacity, increasing employment and diversifying suppliers to keep up with demand. Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox said: “The 2020-21 financial year closed on a high note for Australia’s manufacturing sector. Ai Group’s June Australian PMI pointed to record growth across the sector fuelled by the fastest recorded pace of expansion in each of the food & beverages; machinery & equipment; building materials; and chemicals sectors.” All seven activity indices in the Australian PMI expanded in June. Exports returned to strength, reversing May’s contraction (up 11.3 points to 60.2), while new orders accelerated into very strong expansion (up 5.7 points to 70.6), suggesting confidence for ongoing demand and a…