Member News

JC Butko Engineering was established in 1976 by John and Carolyn Butko. Employing 128 tradespersons and 30 contractors, the company’s expansion – particularly over the last 10 years – has seen its factory grow to the present size of 7,000sqm (with an additional 450sqm of administration area). With an average annual turnover today of $35m, it is now the region’s largest general engineering company. Born to Ukrainian immigrant parents, John Butko was apprenticed as a fitter and turner in Melbourne before returning to Wodonga and joining Milos Metrol & Sons. In 1972, John was named as Albury & Wodonga’s top apprentice. Soon afterwards, he rented a small shed in Kendall Street, Wodonga, and invested heavily in machinery – including a lathe, guillotine and a set of rollers – and the rest is history. The team at JC Butko consists of boilermakers, sheet metal workers, pipe welders, fitter/machinists and apprentices. The management team comprises project managers, mechanical engineers, certifying engineers, project supervisors, estimators, drafting personnel, quality assurance,…

The 47-year-old company, based in Kilsyth, Victoria, counts Kenworth Trucks as one of its longest-serving customers and prides itself on how its staff continue to deliver exceptional client service by providing timely solutions to help solve customers’ problems. Rae-Line has been recognised as Kenworth’s ‘Supplier of the Year’ seven times. Brett Vorhauer, Managing Director for Rae-Line says the business has been successful at reactively addressing issues, but that the company is now at a point where employees’ time needs to be freed up to allow them to do more with the limited time they have. Despite a solid customer base, the growth of the company and its customers’ businesses means the organisation needs to progress its digital transformation journey, so that efficiency can be improved via better predictability throughout the supply chain. “Due to customer growth, the business has outgrown our legacy system of relying on manual data collection and requires a more integrated IT system,”…

State-of-the art turbochargers are used in diesel vehicles, and almost all automotive manufacturers offer a turbocharged petrol engine. Why? The turbocharger makes comparable performance with a smaller engine capacity possible and that contributes to the advance in downsizing. Turbochargers also contribute to the reduction in fuel consumption and are therefore fundamental in meeting strict emission limits. Challenge for machining tools Most turbochargers are exhaust gas turbochargers and each automotive manufacturer has a different design that incorporates special geometries and the need for special tools. However, when it comes to petrol engines, there is one common factor in all variants – the very high temperatures achieved during operation. It is due to this reason that the turbine housing, the so-called ‘hot side’, is manufactured from a very abrasive, heat-resistant material. These materials represent a particular challenge for every machine tool, especially regarding the cutting tools applied. Mapal has taken up these challenges and developed new cutting materials and tool geometries.…

A third-generation family business based in the Gold Coast suburb of Carrara in Queensland, Prendergast Fasteners is a long-term user of Okuma’s range of high-tech manfacturing equipment, having commissioned its first CNC machine back in 1996. Most recently the company commissioned five new Okuma CNC lathes with OSP-P300LA control and four LNS ALPHA SL65-S Bar Loaders. While the new machines are in many ways similar to the existing Okuma machines in the Prendergast Fasteners workshop, they also provide for enhanced consistent accuracy and increased speed of production, thereby allowing for shorter lead times and improved efficiencies. For the company’s Managing Director Nat Prendergast, the new machines have had a clear impact on operations at the company’s Carrara facility, further bolstered by the aftersales support provided by the team at Okuma Australia. “Okuma has been a standout for us,” said Nat. “The performance of these machines is outstanding as we are already…

It’s been two years since the last of the major car manufacturers ceased vehicle production in Australia, when GM Holden followed in the footsteps of Ford and Toyota and closed its manufacturing operations here. The automotive aftermarket manufacturing sector has consequently had to move with the changing market, and the signs are currently very positive. In June, the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) published research conducted with ACA Research to evaluate the state of the market. It reveals that 300 automotive manufacturing companies operate in Australia, up from 260 in 2015 (when the AAAA last surveyed the sector). Although the sector’s combined annual revenue has dropped from $5.2bn to $4bn and employment is down from 21,000 to 9,800, the research also shows that 93% of the automotive manufacturers surveyed expect revenue to grow, and 82% expect…

“It was a pretty easy choice for me,” says Aaron. “I looked at all my options and decided I wanted to go with an Australian-made machine as I knew the quality of the TECHNI machines was world class. It also helped that the TECHNI head office was local, so if we needed any support, the guys were very close. “I started the business back in 2008 as I thought there was a gap in the market for a waterjet cutting job shop here in the area. At the time I didn’t really know which way the business would go, but I was confident that we could build a strong business providing a quality service. Eleven years later, we now have a total of six TECHNI Waterjet machines – eight cutting heads, running 10 hours a day.” Soon after he opened Aztech Cutting Solutions and the business began to grow, Aaron knew he needed more support.…

Australian Made Chief Executive Ben Lazzaro highlighted the importance of supporting local businesses this Australia Day, especially those in regional and bushfire affected areas, to help communities bounce back in what are extremely challenging times. “Australian-made and -grown products play an important role in our economy. It’s been tough for Aussie farmers and manufacturers, particularly those in rural and regional areas affected by fire and drought,” said Lazzaro. “We need to rally behind our local businesses. Every dollar spent on locally made and grown products will have a direct impact on the livelihoods of Aussie farmers and manufacturers, as well as the wider community. “We are so lucky to have access to some of the best products in the world made right here in our backyard. Shoppers should look for the Australian Made logo to be sure they’re buying genuinely Australian products.” These sentiments were echoed by Australian Made licensee MiniJumbuk, located in the country town of Naracoorte in South Australia. MiniJumbuk…

Owned by Australian farmers since 1895, NORCO recently invested in a Micro-Vu Vertex Multi-Sensor vision system, supplied by Hi-Tech Metrology, to enhance the production and quality of its injection-moulded ice cream containers. According to Trent Dobrunz of NORCO: “We needed a better way of measuring the dimensions on an ice cream container. As they are flexible with no straight edges conventional methods proved difficult, unreliable and definitely not repeatable, which prompted a call to Hi-Tech Metrology.” NORCO had previously been using a Go/No-Go gauge that was highly susceptible to operator influences, making it very difficult to obtain reliable results. As the ice cream containers are flexible the solution needed to be non-contact, so the search began for an automated measuring system that utilised vision technology. The system ultimately chosen for the task was a Micro-Vu Vertex, supplied complete with a suite of fixtures and part programs to measure a variety of…

Already examples are emerging, such as the 3D-printed titanium brake caliper for the Bugatti Chiron. Produced as a single unit from titanium through the layering process in the build chamber of an SLM 500 multi-laser machine, it features a tensile strength of 1,250 N/sqmm and a material density over 99.7%. On testing the parts, Bugatti found the 3D-printed components sustained strength and  retained stiffness amid the high temperatures witnessed at the speeds of more than 375km/hour achieved by these high-performance sports cars. When BMW redesigned the folding mechanism of the BMW i8 Roadster and built it in the metal-powder bed fusion chamber of an SLM Solutions laser machine, it found the part to be 10 times stiffer than the plastic injection moulded counterpart. It was also 44% lighter as it was built from AlSi10Mg. Traditionally the folding mechanism of the i8 Roadster’s soft top is cumbersome, loading the car with unwanted additional weight, and taking up boot space. The new folding mechanism reduces all of these…

The affordable desktop 3D printer has composite-ready performance and an efficiently small footprint to fit easily on any desktop. Packed with the latest technology, the Ultimaker S3 offers disruptive businesses a cost-effective way to adopt and drive in-house 3D printing. The new Ultimaker S3 seamlessly integrates into Ultimaker’s open ecosystem. The feeder wheels are made of hardened steel and together with the CC print core, users can print with almost any 2.85mm filament – such as PLA, ABS, Nylon, third-party materials and abrasive materials. Engineers can design, test, and produce models and custom end-use parts with the widest range of materials for their manufacturing needs. The wider nozzle coverage ensures that no space is wasted, which offers an increased build-volume-to-size ratio. The Ultimaker S3 contains an award-winning touch interface and predefined print settings that facilitate more precise 3D printing as part of any workflow. A heated build plate, advanced active levelling, a stiffer build platform and accurate stepper drivers result in the highest print quality…

An ideal complement to the company’s existing infrastructure, Paul Hughes, Managing Director at Integra, explains that one of the biggest advantages the P2 delivers is a boost to his business’ design capabilities. “Most of our customers want something that’s functional but also aesthetically pleasing,” Paul expounds. “Sometimes, though, you’re compromised with sheet metal work in what you can actually achieve in terms of aesthetics because of the limitations of what you can fold. Essentially, we needed a lot more capacity in metal folding, because that’s a critical part of what we do, and we wanted something that was different to what we already had in terms of conventional CNC press brakes. “Most of our jobs now require design and prototyping. The P2 also needed…

Since expanding overseas, Sutton Tools has been able to continue to manufacture high-end tools here in Australia because we have access to global markets. As a family business founded in 1917, that is important to us, as it is to our many local customers. It also means we’re competing with global tool manufacturers on their own turf – so we need to hold our own and prove it as well. This is why we put extensive time and effort into testing our tools in our R&D Lab. To compete, our products must offer a technical advantage over their competitors: longer tool life, faster cutting speeds, smoother loads or another measure of value to manufacturers. An example is our range of tapping solutions for automotive applications. Our taps for forming threads in steel forgings are used in components such as crank shafts, cam shafts, connecting rods, steering and suspension parts for both through and blind holes. We have engineered these taps for high-volume thread production, so they need…