Developments

NMW 2016 finishes on a strong note

This year’s National Manufacturing Week (NMW) – May 11 – 13 in Sydney – has ended on a solid footing for the more than 200 exhibiting companies, 50 speakers and over 5,000 visits by attendees at the combined NMW-Safety First Conference and Expo event. Feedback to organisers, Reed Exhibitions, is that participants have gained new insights, information and all-important inspiration for growth in their businesses. This year’s events were defined by the twin themes of innovation and collaboration: with several Seminar Theatre sessions focusing on opportunities for manufacturers to break down the barriers to innovation. “The time for action is now,” urged The Hon Karen Andrews MP, Asst Minister for Science, in a Keynote Address on NMW’s final day, Friday May 13. “I know that SMEs have had some hesitation in the past around approaching the universities for partnership – due to barriers such as cost – but I invite businesses to come talk to the Department of Industry, or to me personally: because there are some real opportunities on the table, and we are keen to help business make connections that can support your growth.” The Assistant Minister’s comments were reflected throughout the NMW Seminar Theatre program: including in a Day 2 panel discussion focusing on funding for business innovation. Several SMEs,, including Marathon Targets, HMS Equipment and more, joined AusIndustry to share examples of how government assistance can help connect growth-hungry businesses connect with potential partners, and new ideas for growth. In a separate Day 2 session, Western Sydney University’s Dr Sasha Alexander challenged visitors with the observation that “Everytime a stranger enters the business, innovation happens.” Dr Alexander went on to explain how an outsider’s view of your business – from industry partners, consultants and even competitors – can challenge your assumptions, opening your eyes to new […]

Australian manufacturing is misunderstood

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Switch onto PowerTechED in Perth this May

PowerTechED is your passport to the ultimate ‘hands on’ experience featuring the latest motor control technologies all under the one roof. Rockwell Automation will be bringing PowerTechED to the Perth Convention Centre on 24-25 May 2016. This event is dedicated to motor control and energy technologies with a strong emphasis on intelligence, information and safety. “Motor control devices are growing rapidly in terms of connectivity. The information generated by these devices is really too valuable to ignore, whether it be for operational insight, maintenance or efficiency,” said Matthew Treeby, commercial marketing manager at Rockwell Automation. “PowerTechED is the only event of its kind that addresses evolving trends and technology in this space. Attendees can choose from four streams running concurrently that focus on industry topics relating to motors and drives, connectivity and intelligence, safety and operational visibility,” he said. This event will highlight the latest advances in the areas of network integration with drives and overloads, energy management software and network security. There will also be a strong focus on safety considerations for motor control. Featuring hands-on labs, workshops and presentations, PowerTechED will appeal to people from a wide variety of industries such as food & beverage and manufacturing through to mining and heavy industries. According to Rosanne Sabiston, business manager power control business at Rockwell Automation, “PowerTechED will provide the perfect opportunity to get ‘hands on’ with equipment and technologies for a wide range of industries; from small component based drive solutions to large motor control centres and multi-megawatt medium voltage drives.” Motor control devices such as variable speed drives and overload relays are becoming more intelligent. By connecting them over Ethernet, operators can proactively monitor where their energy is being used, providing information to enable decisions regarding where energy savings can be achieved. “PowerTechED will have a strong […]

Rockwell Automation and OSIsoft supply BHP Billiton

Rockwell Automation and OSIsoft have reached an agreement with BHP Billiton, the world’s largest diversified mining company, for the installation of an enterprise historian, a production intelligence platform, at the company’s iron ore operations in Australia. Design is underway with installation to be completed by the end of 2016. The enterprise historian will use FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition (SE) software from Rockwell Automation and the PI System from OSIsoft. The combination will provide BHP Billiton with visibility of real-time and historical production data across the company’s integrated supply chain of mines, rail and port facilities. Operators will also gain access to reporting and trending tools that provide insight into performance parameters. The information can be used to identify opportunities to reduce variability, lower costs and improve productivity in operations and across the supply chain. “An enterprise historian solution takes data and turns it into information,” said Ryan Cahalane, director of Software Product Management, Rockwell Automation. “Many producers are working on how to best leverage an intelligent automation infrastructure and the big data it produces. This is being outlined in smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and other global, manufacturing-modernization initiatives. “The BHP Billiton enterprisewide effort to standardize iron ore data collection, storage and visualisation will be a major step toward smarter production because it creates one version of the truth,” Cahalane explained. “The company will be able to use this solution to compare disparate assets and operations. This is the type of information that can be transformed into operating knowledge and wisdom,” Cahalane concluded. Brett Higgins, OSIsoft vice president of Asia Pacific, added, “The Rockwell Automation and OSIsoft combination brings together the best of industrial and enterprise data management. Our solution seamlessly leverages the company’s existing investments at a plant and enterprise level, and pulls in new information from mobile assets. With […]

Car industry discipline rubs off on medical device manufacturing |

Former Holden workers Adam Williams and Derek Rogers are working for Micro-X to help streamline production. An emerging medical device company is turning to the car industry to streamline its manufacturing. Micro-X has established its headquarters in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, in preparation for the production of its lightweight x-ray machines. Managing Director Peter Rowland said Micro-X had successfully produced an 80kg mobile x-ray machine – just a fraction of the size and weight of the 500-600kg machines traditionally used in hospitals. He said Micro-X had the rights to apply technology from a company in the United States that was commercialising the carbon nanotubes as the electron emitter within an x-ray tube. The company has recruited four workers from the Holden car manufacturing plant in Elizabeth, which is slated for closure in 2017, including Adam Williams. “The idea of sourcing talent from the car industry has proven to be an absolute breakthrough because it’s a mindset that nobody – at least in my knowledge – has ever thought of applying to medical devices,” Rowland said. “What I love about the car industry is the rigor and discipline because you cannot achieve the quality and cost and reliability that the car industry achieves without a lot of discipline and a lot of hard work. “Just bringing that thinking from Holden into our plant has been brilliant. “(Adam) said ‘at Holden,– there’s no variable speed on the production line – when you press go on a new model every operation has to take 100 seconds. It can’t be 105 because that stops the line so we put months and months of planning and checking and testing and training to make sure it happens in the number of seconds they budgeted every single time’. “The management out at Elizabeth is […]

The Internet of Drones has landed

H3 Dynamics has unveiled DRONEBOX,a revolutionary system that converges professional drone-enabled service activities with the Industrial Internet of Things. Welcome to the Internet of Drones. DRONEBOX is an all-inclusive, self-powered system that can be deployed anywhere, including in remote areas where industrial assets, borders, or sensitive installations require constant monitoring. Designed as an evolution over today’s many unattended sensors and CCTV cameras installed in cities, borders, or large industrial estates, DRONEBOX innovates by giving sensors freedom of movement using drones as their vehicles. End-users can now deploy flying sensor systems at different locations, and measure just about anything, anywhere, anytime. They offer 24/7 reactivity, providing critical information to operators – even to those located thousands of miles away. Besides innovating in the world of unattended sensors, DRONEBOX eases the scalability challenges for drone service operators. Such service providers use professional drones to provide their customers with detailed aerial land surveys in mining or agriculture, perform infrastructure inspections, or monitor the progress of construction sites. However, some remote locations need regular or prolonged visits, which increase travel costs and risks to drone service providers. From an end-user perspective, despite providing powerful new insights within an industrial context, the mass-adoption of professional UAVs is slowed by the special skills required to operate them. Conversely, by pre-deploying DRONEBOX systems at the right locations, travel to remote areas is no longer required, charging or handling drone batteries is eliminated, and sensor data is simply sent through a network for easy access and processing. DRONEBOXES can be installed anywhere so that drones can perform pre-programmed scheduled routines, deploy on demand, or be woken up by other drones or sensors as part of a much wider network of “things”. As a network, DRONEBOXES can increase their effectiveness and mission times using collaborative technologies. Such deployments could […]

ALMA sheetmetal software – More profitable nesting for PALFINGER

Every year PALFINGER processes around 20,000 tons of high-tensile steel panels to manufacture loading cranes and other loading and hoisting equipment. Off-cut optimization is therefore a key concern shared by the whole management team in the company. Thanks to Alma’s act/cut software, the sheet metal plates to cut can be automatically nested in half of the time with minimized off-cut. “The fact that Alma is internationally established has been a key criterion when we decided to choose act/cut software… Today, act/cut has become our group-wide nesting standard solution” “The software was not only faster but also almost as efficient as an experienced user… We estimated time savings of 50 percent throughout all plants” The more little parts of different geometry are contained in the nesting orders, the higher the off-cut. When processing big parts, we sometimes have considerably less than 20 percent”. To minimize the off-cut rate orders may be over-nested. If there is still some space left on the panel, the system places additional parts beyond the scope of the order. In addition to that orders may be declared as filler parts, in order to fill panels showing voids where necessary. Alma has programmed these additional functions especially for PALFINGER. Time savings of more than 50 percent The users have become much more efficient thanks to the automatic nesting with act/cut. “Orders, which were formerly manually nested by an operator during his working time, today barely take one third of the operator’s time. We estimated time savings of 50 percent throughout all plants”. Thanks to the time savings, PALFINGER is able to process with the same team much more nesting orders than in the past and accept special tasks, which can’t be automated as easily. The probably most important benefit from the company’s point of view is the stability […]

Autodesk and Siemens sign agreement to to help reduce manufacturers’ costs

AUSTRALIA, Mar. 2, 2016 — Autodesk and Siemens today announced an interoperability agreement aimed at helping manufacturers decrease the costs associated with incompatibility among product development software applications and avoid potential data integrity problems. Through this agreement, Autodesk and Siemens’ product lifecycle management (PLM) software businesses will take steps to significantly improve the interoperability between their companies’ respective software offerings. Today’s agreement brings together two computer-aided design (CAD) software leaders with the common goal of streamlining data sharing and reducing costs in organizations with multi-CAD environments. Today’s manufacturers are under increased pressure to get high quality products to market faster, with increased efficiencies and lower costs to the consumer. Many of these companies operate in environments consisting of various solutions from different CAD software vendors. These multi-CAD environments may exist internally between departments or externally with partners and supply chains. Interoperability among CAD software has therefore emerged as a critical issue for users of design and engineering software, and achieving it is a major challenge for manufacturers. This interoperability agreement announced today aims to decrease the overall effort and costs that are commonly associated with supporting these environments. In particular, interoperability between the offerings from Siemens and Autodesk will significantly improve the many situations where a combination of their software currently exists. Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will share toolkit technology and exchange end-user software applications to build and market interoperable products. “Interoperability is a major challenge for customers across the manufacturing industry, and Autodesk has been working diligently to create an increasingly open environment throughout our technology platforms,” said Lisa Campbell, vice president of Manufacturing Strategy and Marketing at Autodesk. “We understand that our customers use a mix of products in their workflow and providing them with the flexibility they need to get their jobs done […]

Australia’s bio-tech industries promise economic security

Australia’s future economic security depends on emerging technologies such as bio-manufacturing, says QUT Professor John Bell. “We have bemoaned the loss of Australia’s traditional manufacturing sector but we are on the cusp of a bright new era of high-value, high-skilled manufacturing,” said Professor Bell.“Bio-manufacturing includes technologies that produce sustainably derived and renewable feedstock and pharmaceuticals, and bio-remediation services. “The 3D bio-printing market, of which QUT is a leader, is estimated to be worth $3 billion by 2025. “We are finding more applications for industrial biotechnology and additive bio-manufacturing all the time and these processes are becoming more established internationally.” Professor Dietmar Hutmacher, from QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, is a world authority on the 3D printing of replacement human tissue using bio-inks, a process known as additive bio-manufacturing. “Australia is already well ahead on research and development of medical bio-printing, a strong facet of this emerging ‘fourth industrial revolution’ of bio-manufacturing. “Additive bio-manufacturing will become a pillar of Australia’s advanced manufacturing landscape and we must ensure we have the expertise to continue our lead in this area,” Professor Hutmacher said. “It is a multi-disciplinary area requiring understanding of chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, robotics and computer science. “QUT has already partnered with the University Wollongong and universities in the Netherlands and Germany to offer the world’s first dual Master of Biofabrication and is taking applications for the second intake of young scientists keen to make bio-printing their career.” “MBD is an example of a firm using biological processes, in this case algae, to clean up wastewater from aquaculture. The algae are then used to manufacture a range of high value products ranging from fertilisers and feed to high value nutrition products. “Bioremediation services are growing into an important industry for Australia and one that is expanding rapidly into Asia. […]

Automation delivers five-fold increase in productivity

Faced with increased international competition and a steep drop in mining construction, Doyalson-based Kmar Engineering sought to automate its structural steel coping process. As a result, the company achieved a 500-percent increase in production, better finishes and dimensional tolerances, and the ability to produce a wider range of profiles, including pipe work. Located in Doyalson on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Kmar operates out of two factories processing beams, structural steel, tanks, silos, hoppers, ladders, walkways, platforms and much more. The business looks back at a 30-year history, mainly focusing on the mining industry. However, the recent steep drop in mining construction and pressures of both domestic and global competition have led company owner Peter Learmonth to change the way he thinks and the way he works. “Working smarter, concentrating your time on value-adding activities means obtaining greater manufacturing efficiencies and increased productivity,” he says. Kmar Engineering owner Peter Learmonth: “We’ve been doing a fair bit of pipe work since we installed the Metaltek XB machine, cutting all angles, custom shapes, creating weld preps, slots and bevels, […] that’s fairly unique to be able to do that automatically.” Kmar Engineering owner Peter Learmonth: “We’ve been doing a fair bit of pipe work since we installed the Metaltek XB machine, cutting all angles, custom shapes, creating weld preps, slots and bevels, […] that’s fairly unique to be able to do that automatically.” In face of intense competition to drive labour costs down and with the relentless pressure from the market to reduce lead times, Kmar decided it was time to automate their factory. “My aim was to provide steel work to the local market efficiently and cheaper than before,” Peter explains. “We decided to offer custom, versatile steel processing services in the short term to the steel suppliers themselves, […]

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