A new industry collaboration between Flinders University, BAE Systems Australia and Adelaide-based high-tech welding manufacturer K-TIG will see a new research & development (R&D) facility created within the Line Zero – Factory of the Future facility at Tonsley.
The facility will demonstrate and further evolve the application of K-TIG’s innovative robotic welding capabilities.
Professor John Spoehr, Pro Vice-Chancellor – Research Impact at Flinders, welcomed K-TIG as a foundation research partner, in an initiative which will harness Flinders’ research expertise to advance K-TIG’s activities.
“The research & development facility is involving researchers and students by working with them to trial and test their innovative game-changing welding technology at the Factory of the Future facility,” said Professor Spoehr, who is also the Director of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute.
K-TIG Managing Director Adrian Smith said the aim of having the R&D facility within the Factory of the Future at the Tonsley Innovation District was to prove that K-TIG’s technology can not only expand Australia’s shipbuilding capability but has vast industrial applications. The Factory of the Future is under development by BAE Systems and Flinders University and will connect businesses and sectors, which are of growing importance to the national economy, including the $90bn defence shipbuilding industry.
“We are the smart welders of the future,” said Smith. “Put simply, K-TIG’s advanced welding technology means welding is stronger, faster and more cost-effective. A traditional multi-hour weld can be done in less than four minutes to a higher quality and standard. We can capture and push data out across every single weld creating a digital footprint across a ship. This makes for high-level repeatability and consistency which means ships are built faster and cheaper.”
BAE Systems Australia Continuous Naval Shipbuilding Director Sharon Wilson said the project had enormous potential.
“What K-TIG provides has the potential to deliver game-changing technologies to the broader industrial sector, making industry more competitive and this could see flow on benefits for exports,” said Wilson. “BAE Systems is delighted to support local companies with advanced capabilities. Line Zero underpins the philosophy of the Factory of the Future which focuses on industry collaboration and diffusion of Australian innovation in Industry 4.0 technologies. Contrary to what most people think, manufacturing in South Australia is alive and well and thriving.”