Member News

Established in 1999, AMTIL (the Australian Manufacturing Technology Institute Limited) is the peak national body representing the advanced manufacturing sector in Australia. The anniversary event was celebrated with an exclusive cocktail reception at the AMTIL stand within the Austech exhibition, attended by AMTIL members and staff, along with several key industry figures. AMTIL’s CEO Shane Infanti was on hand to cut the cake, in what was something of a dual celebration in the middle of a highly successful Austech exhibition. “It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years,” said Infanti. “We’ve loved every minute of it, and we’re looking forward to continuing to support Australian manufacturing for many more years to come. And it’s great that we’ve been able to hold this celebration with Austech 2019 on track to be one of the most successful shows we’ve ever run.” Co-located with National Manufacturing Week (NMW), Austech is Australia’s premier advanced manufacturing and machine tool exhibition. Austech 2019 got underway on 14 May at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, and the exhibition…

The ability of government, at both federal and state levels, to impact change has been demonstrated by two recent developments. The first was the release of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry final report. The second was the recent announcement by the WA State Government to launch a Future Battery Industry Strategy, designed to aid the state’s growth as a battery minerals exporter. Putting on our manufacturing helmets (for occupational health & safety) to reflect on the Royal Commission’s report, a couple of obvious questions arise: How will this affect the manufacturing industry? And what, potentially, could be the repercussions? William Buck’s small-to-medium enterprise (SME) clients are experiencing a tightening of available lending as the most immediate effect of the Royal Commission. These effects were reflected in the January edition of the Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index, which surveys 200 industrial companies to measure the performance of the manufacturing industry. January’s…

The team at NTi have always found high-tech manufacturer Trumpf supplies them with the best systems to suit its needs. Trumpf’s machines deliver impressive performance that allow NTi to achieve a superior level of service. However, these systems are full of intricate features that require extensive training to operate at an optimal level. NTi is committed to the growth and development of its staff, maximising its productivity and constructing an environment for its team to thrive. The company offers various in-house and external training opportunities, one of which included collaborating with Trumpf. NTi sent a number of its staff from Australia to Trumpf’s headquarters in Germany to learn the complexities of these state-of-the-art machines, from the creators themselves. Machines and systems Based in Bayswater, Victoria, NTi provides high-quality laser cutting, bending/folding, welding and fabrication services. As a company that offers an all-in-one service, it’s vital that its production pipeline…

Co-located with National Manufacturing Week (NMW), Austech is Australia’s premier advanced manufacturing and machine tool exhibition. Official figures for the first day of the event show that Austech and NMW attracted a combined total of 2,550 visitors – a very high attendance for first day. That strong turnout was in evidence on the expo floor, with many exhibitors reporting brisk traffic on their stands, leading to high numbers of promising leads and potential sales. “We’re absolutely thrilled with the number of visitors we got today,” said Kim Banks, AMTIL’s Events Manager and Austech organiser. “It’s been one of our biggest ever first days, and an increase of around 50% on the same day at Austech 2017.” Austech 2019 had already been breaking records well before its doors opened. With more than 150 organisations exhibiting, and many of them taking significantly larger stands than in previous years, the exhibition floor space covers more than 6,000sqm – a footprint unprecedented in Austech’s twenty-year history. Austech 2019 was also the fastest…

Co-located with National Manufacturing Week (NMW), Austech is Australia’s premier advanced manufacturing and machine tool exhibition. In total, more than 150 organisations will be putting their products and services on display within Austech this year. Moreover, with a high number of exhibitors opting to book substantially larger stands than in previous years, the exhibition floor space will occupy more than 6,000sqm – a footprint unprecedented in two decades of Austech expos. “We’ve been quite blown away by the bookings this time round,” says Kim Banks, AMTIL’s Events Manager and Austech organiser. “The fact that exhibitors have been booking early and taking larger stands suggests people in the industry are anticipating significant sales activity at this year’s show. We’re also well ahead in terms of advanced registrations from people booking in to visit the show. This year’s Austech is going to be packed.” The high take-up for this year’s event builds on the momentum established with Austech 2017, which was…

Iscar fully understands the importance of parting and grooving operations in the turning process, and recognises that multiple factors need to be considered for every application, including machine tool selection, the type of material being parted/grooved, required depth of cut, and feed and speed rates. Iscar has responded to these complex needs by developing a comprehensive range of highly effective parting and grooving solutions that include an extensive choice of insert geometries, chip breakers, and carbide grades – and the range continues to expand. With Industry 4.0 demands and standards fuelling industry development at extraordinary rates, Iscar has introduced new parting and grooving technologies capable of integrating seamlessly with the new wave of machining centers that work with incredibly high feeds. TANG-F-GRIP has been designed to answer these needs and to achieve high productivity and lower costs. A…

Centor develops custom-integrated doors for residential and commercial buildings. Each unique design requires a proof of concept. Three in-house machinists used to spend all their time fabricating components in low volumes, with additional components being outsourced. This approach led to inconsistent quality, lengthy production times, and excess costs. Seeking an alternative, David Chappell, Group Manager of Product & Engineering at Centor, took a chance on a Markforged Mark Two rapid prototyping machine. He was immediately impressed. “It’s the first time I’ve ever actually seen a 3D printer do what it promised in a real-life design studio factory like ours,” said Chappell. “It just runs.” While his team of experienced manufacturers intially expressed doubt about integrating 3D printing in their workflow, they now run the printer almost 24/7. It enabled them to redirect machining bandwidth, iterate on designs, learn quickly…

Innovators currently have two options for protecting inventions in Australia – the standard patent system and the innovation patent system. The innovation patent is Australia’s second-tier patent system and requires that inventions have an innovative step, which is a lower threshold than an inventive step that applies to standard patents. Also, the term of protection for an innovation patent is eight years rather than 20 years under standard patent protection. The innovation patent system was introduced in 2001 with the aim of incentivising innovation by Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering a rapid and affordable system designed for the protection of, for example, incremental innovation, that is unlikely to satisfy the patentability threshold set for standard patents. Significantly, and consistently over the years, Australian SMEs have been the predominant users of the innovation patent system. Killing off the innovation patent system In 2019, the Australian Government plans to abolish the innovation patent system. This controversial measure came about…

In fact, most Australian organisations are well aware of the need for vigilance. This is especially true when it comes to the use of forklifts. This understanding of the risks has contributed to an increase in demand for robotic technology that prevents pedestrians from ever coming into proximity with a forklift. The safety issues around forklifts have been well-known and reported since the 1960s. The most important, and potentially preventable, forklift-related injury comes from the interaction between a forklift and pedestrians. In fact, a Monash University study found that pedestrians hit by forklifts made up 45% of the injuries in the study. As far back as the early 1990s, expert recommendations included finding ways to separate forklifts and people. However, finding ways to do this effectively without creating inefficiencies or high costs has been a conundrum facing manufacturers and material handling organisations for decades. Indeed, every year since 2012, WorkCover Queensland has accepted an average of 430…

Austech has consistently provided a showcase for additive manufacturing as it has developed over the years, and today the Additive Manufacturing Pavilion is now an unmissable part of the show. The boom in interest in 3D printing continues to gain momentum, and Austech 2019 visitors will get a chance to see the latest innovations in this area first-hand. The Additive Manufacturing Pavilion will feature demonstrations of the latest 3D printers and services from a range of companies and organisations that lead the field of additive manufacturing. Exhibitors will include: Additive Manufacturing Hub 3D Printing Solutions 3D Printing Systems 3D Systems Asia-Pacific Bilby 3D CSIRO Emona Instruments Pty Ltd GoProto (ANZ) Pty Ltd Headland Machinery Pty Ltd HP & EVOK3D Imaginables Pty Ltd Konica Minolta LRM Technologies Markforged Materialise Metal3D MSC Software Corporation RAM3D Raymax Lasers Renishaw Oceania Pty Ltd RMIT Advanced Manufacturing Precinct Shining 3D Tech Co Ltd Thinglab Zeal 3D To complement the Additive Manufacturing Pavilion, AMTIL will be hosting UNLIMIT3D, a two-day conference on additive manufacturing and…

Fast forward to today and Headland provides leading-edge technology solutions to Australian clients such as Cochlear, Sistema, RUAG and Qantas – to name a few. It may be tempting to say things have changed a lot at Headland, but the fundamentals remain unchanged. Headland remains a family business where technological innovation and a solutions-based focus has always been and remains central to the way it does business. Before taking over the business in 1979, current Headland Director Peter Kloé worked as a Product Engineer for Siemens in Germany and Production Manager for the Ford Motor Company in North America. A pioneer of women in manufacturing, Co-director Dianne Kloé began writing machine software in 1981 when computer science was still in its infancy. The tradition of drive and innovation has continued with the Kloé children. Joint Managing Directors, Richard and Annaliese, have overseen Headland’s continued expansion and exciting diversification…

AMT: When was the Rail Manufacturing CRC established and what are its objectives? Stuart Thomson: We were established in 2014. We’re part of the Cooperative Research Centres program, co-funded by the Commonwealth Government. Our specific areas are rail manufacturing and rail development in general. The objective is to support, co-fund and assist the rail industry to collaborate on innovation and R&D programs. We have a lifetime of six years, so we have about 18 months left to run. Over our six-year period we’ll have worked with a number of manufacturers, which include first, second and third-tier manufacturing organisations, rail operators and Australian research institutions working in rail R&D. We’ve also worked with manufacturing and peak bodies like the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) and TrackSAFE Foundation.   AMT: What does the closure of the CRC mean to the greater rail industry? ST: Essentially, the closure of the Rail Manufacturing CRC is required – all CRCs can now only run for one term. In terms of what it means for the industry, I think…

Since its foundation in 1914, Ford has driven innovation in automotive manufacturing. Ford is constantly thinking ahead to accelerate vehicle manufacture through increased productivity, ergonomics, and quality control. Ford’s pilot plant in Cologne pioneers the creation of each new vehicle design before it goes into mass production. They have a complete small-scale manufacturing line, which develops cars up to several years before they go into production. Lars Bognar, Research Engineer at Ford’s Research & Advanced Engineering team, has been working on creating an optimised workflow to create jigs, tools, and fixtures for Ford’s manufacturing process. Ford’s employees use many custom tools during their vehicles’ production. These are often designed for one specific task and model. Creating these tools externally takes a lot of time and is very expensive. To get tools faster, the team at Ford decided to pilot 3D printing as a possible solution. A dedicated additive manufacturing team was founded, and started using fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology from Ultimaker. It provided a faster, affordable solution with less hassle compared to other 3D printing technologies. By having a…