Product News

The firm believes strongly in quality and design, and is constantly investing in research & development to ensure it continues to be a leading vessel and tank manufacturer. As part of this, they enlisted the external expertise of BOC to examine their workshops to address inefficiencies in their welding practices. BOC provided solutions that helped A&G Engineering deliver faster and better quality welds that have in some business areas increased output substantially. The challenges Moving to automated welding – A&G Engineering was welding dimple stainless steel sheets to regular stainless steel sheets by hand for their pressurised tankers at an operating speed of 220mm per minute. This at times created some visible inconsistencies in the welding process. Given the nature of this welding, with the main external sheet being only 2mm thick and the dimple plate…

In comparison with machining steel, aluminium and its alloys require much less cutting force, and therefore the cutting edge of a milling tool experiences relatively low mechanical loading. For the purpose of this article, we refer to aluminium and its alloys as aluminium. Aluminium exhibits high thermal conductivity, and therefore the chips produced when machining aluminium transfer high levels of generated heat, resulting in significantly reduced thermal loading of the cutting edge. Due to these properties, milling aluminium is characterised by extremely high cutting speeds and feeds. Nonetheless, this does not guarantee that milling aluminium is quite so simple. The material characteristics of aluminium result in the formation of built-up edge (BUE) when machined. This unwelcome phenomenon increases the mechanical load on the cutting edge making efficient chip flow more difficult to achieve, affecting the balance of rotating tools and causing…

In its flexible extension ranges encompassing the five-axis machine with its dynamic NC swivel rotary table, the DMU 65 monoBLOCK masters all disciplines in milling technology, from roughing through to finishing at an uncompromisingly high level and at a very attractive price. With its DMU 65 monoBLOCK, DMG MORI is offering a world-class machine for all fields of industry. The uncompromisingly high quality of the DMU 65 monoBLOCK is apparent in its design details. In conjunction with the high-speed rotary axes of the NC swivel rotary table, these have resulted in a remarkable increase in dynamics, and, amongst others, the 45mm wide roller guides maximise process stability. Moreover, the DMU 65 monoBLOCK impresses with its three-point support for shortest possible start-up times. With a footprint of 8sqm, it is the most compact machine of its class. Despite the small space requirement, the DMU 65 monoBLOCK has an extremely spacious machining compartment. With axis paths of 735mm x 650mm x 560mm (in X, Y and Z), the entire NC…

Banlaw has more than 35 years’ experience in designing and manufacturing fuel management systems for mining, ports (container handling), rail and transport industries, offering complete control of the delivery, despatch, cleanliness and usage of all hydrocarbons for unparalleled control of environmental risks, effectiveness and accuracy. No matter how harsh or remote the operating environment, Banlaw’s systems mean that vehicles such as locomotives, haul trucks, excavators, bulldozers, heavy trucks, buses, container lift machines and storage tanks can be safely fast-filled and individual vehicle usage can be monitored. The system can also help to eliminate fuel theft, cut machinery downtime and provide a safer, cleaner and more environmentally sustainable work place. Looking to the future, Banlaw selected CellPro, a pre-engineered, modular robotic machine tending system for Mazak machines which has been designed and developed by John Hart right here in Australia. For Banlaw’s production requirements, it brings together a Mazak Integrex j-200S CNC multi-tasking machine, a Fanuc M20iA six-axis handling robot and John Hart’s CellPro cell control software. This is…

Based in South Windsor, NSW, Nasa Stones specialises in creating high-quality stone products, from kitchen countertops to fireplaces to marble walls on the inside of elevators. The team at Nasa Stones needed a waterjet system to work as hard and efficiently as they did. Hmoozi visited a Techni Waterjet customer to evaluate a live waterjet, and knew immediately that Techni was the company he had been searching for. “I left the customer’s location and was excited about what I saw. I was impressed with the quality of the Techni product,” says Hmoozi. “Seeing the Quantum NXT electric servo pump and the PAC 60 in operation was truly what I was hoping to find. I’ve been doing my research. Techni Waterjet comes highly recommended.” The seven-year-old company has recently relocated to a larger facility. Incoming power supply was an issue for the new location, but it was not a problem for Techni Waterjet’s Quantum NXT electric servo pump and the Intec 713-G2…

Cutting tool data can in fact be gathered more accurately and used to create precise digital twin representations – a functionality that has become fundamental in the modern workflow to prevent errors at the machining stage. Today, such processes can be fully integrated with the user’s CAM software, and can be completed with a few simple clicks as part of an easy-to-use menu-driven process. In machining applications, it is not individual tool items such as toolholders, cutters and inserts that are used on machines, but tool assemblies. In many instances this creates a somewhat laborious task for the CAM programmer, where there exist several opportunities for error, not least failing to select the optimum tool items in the first instance. Furthermore, many typical tool assemblies can take up to an hour to create. With some components demanding the…

I worked in a machine shop from 14 years old. I did two years of vocational training, and at 16, I worked in a plastic injection moulding business. However, essentially, I’m self-taught. Although I enjoyed my work, my true passion was rallying, as a co-driver and navigator. I competed and won several big competitions, including the Spanish national championships. It was my interest in motorsport that brought Haas to my attention – through the company’s involvement in NASCAR. We only have one Haas machine – an ST-30Y turning centre with motorised tools and Y axis – but it has made a big difference to our activities.…

Leading the Okuma exhibit will be the popular Multus U4000 twin-spindle, twin-turret, 0.001-degree indexable B-axis multitasking turning centre. With 1,500mm between noses, the Multus U4000 features a 40-position tool magazine for the milling turret and a second 12-position tool turret below. The all-new OSP Suite on-board management system will set the standard for machine controllers and adds to Okuma’s award-winning machining navigation system, hobbing, skiving and gear generation, variable spindle-speed control, Okuma’s Collision Avoidance System and Thermo-Friendly Concept, API function and 0.0001mm control increments. Also in focus will be the all-new MU5000 V-L twin pallet, five-axis machining centre, which will feature Okuma’s unique five-axis auto tuning system for the extreme optimisation of all five axes’ alignments. The MU5000V lathe also has a table turning capacity of 800rpm and a maximum work piece diameter of 700mm and a height of 500mm. The MU5000 on display shares similar OSP controller options such as collision avoidance, super nurbs, machining navigation and API function, and is ideally designed for robotic…

Signing in at SPEE3D’s premises in Dandenong, it’s hard not to notice the mini golf green. A strip of astro-turf with a hole at one end, and a putter and ball laid out for anyone to chance their arm. It might seem a little frivolous – the sort of thing you’d expect to see at some inner-city “creative industries” outfit, rather than in the serious, pragmatic world of manufacturing – but it actually does a very neat job of demonstrating what SPEE3D is about. That’s because the head of the putter was manufactured by SPEE3D using its own innovative 3D-printing technology. “The issue today with 3D printing is that it’s too expensive and too slow,” says Byron Kennedy, SPEE3D’s CEO. “When we started this company, it was ‘How do we fix this issue, of both cost and speed, to produce parts?’ So the technology we developed is a very high-speed process and very low-cost.” SPEE3D’s technology can produce 3D-printed…

The turnkey robotic solution includes a number of ABB Robots, including the versatile IRB1200 and ABB’s flagship palletising robot, the IRB660. The system, designed and supplied by A&RT Systems, has streamlined the manufacturing, assembly and packaging of Décor’s products. Automating its manufacturing operations has enabled Décor to reduce costs while freeing up the production staff for more productive tasks. Rising demand Décor has been manufacturing plastic homewares products in Australia for more than 50 years. A homegrown success story, the company specialises in a breadth of homewares solutions that combine aesthetics, functionality, affordability and durability. From its base in Scoresby, Victoria, Décor manufactures an innovative range of plastic fridge containers enjoyed by customers around the world – from local department stores and supermarkets, to export outlets across Europe, America, India and Japan. With global demand rising for its fridge container range, Décor required a high-end robotic solution that was reliable and flexible enough to grow with…

The Robot Bike Co. story started in the late 1990s when Ed Haythornwaite, now the company’s CEO, met two other bike-mad students, Ben Farmer and Ben Arnold, at Bath University in the UK. “We spent far too much time riding bikes,” says Haythornwaite. “When we weren’t riding bikes, we were talking about bikes and how they could be made better than anything then on the market.” In 2012, Farmer had the ‘lightbulb’ moment, when he came up with the basis for the novel design that Robot Bike Co. is now producing. He took ideas from his background in the composites industry and from the world of additive manufacturing, and came up with the concept of using the two technologies to make the ‘ultimate’ bike that the friends had talked about when they were students. The new design uses a series of carbon fibre-reinforced tubes for the frames, which are joined by titanium lugs. This approach takes full advantage…

Steven Macdonald, CEO of Albins, tells a great story about the Bathurst 1000, the mecca of Australian motorsport. At the start of the race, every car in the starting grid has the same transmission in the back, a product that his company has been delivering for the Supercars contest since 2013. “As the red lights light up on the starter screen, the drivers sit, nervously anticipating the start,” says Macdonald. “The engines rev at 7,500rpm as they wait for those lights to go out. Then they drop the clutch, and power suddenly gets transferred through two shafts that we make, into that gearbox. The cars launch off the line, they reach 7,500rpm again, and the driver gets hold of the gear-knob and pulls. Once the load reaches about 15kg, the engine stops and the whole driveline relaxes; and that takes about 25-30 milliseconds. Once it relaxes, the change from one gear to the next takes about 12 milliseconds. Once it’s in the next gear, the…

Significant future improvements in metal-cutting productivity, quality and reliability will come from a data-driven fourth revolution in manufacturing technology – the latest stage of a lengthy evolution. The first manufacturing revolution involved the move from home-based crafting activities to production in factories with centralised energy sources powering manufacturing machinery. Mechanical shafts and belts distributed power from water wheels or steam. The more convenient, efficient use of electrical energy followed. The first factories turned out products one by one. In the second revolution, output expanded to mass production. The development of integrated systems such as assembly and transfer lines and automation expedited high-volume production of identical parts. The third revolution in manufacturing technology came with the introduction of numerical machine control, and later computer-based control and automation, increasing accuracy…