Manufacturing Technology

Groundbreaking welding helmets

Generation 5 is the latest collection of Speedglas welding helmets that showcase a truly groundbreaking array of never-before-seen features. Each helmet is designed from inception to be uniquely tailored to a specific application, from heavy-duty welding in hard-wearing environments to critical precision TIG work. However, this is not to say these helmets are rigid in their capabilities. On the contrary, the Generation 5 series has been built on the premise that any high-performance welding helmet should be fully customisable to the preferences of each individual welder. The result, after extensive input from professional welders, is an elite welding helmet range that manages to be both highly specialised and versatile in equal measure. Speedglas G5-02: a new world standard in precision viewing As with past 3M Speedglas designs, the concept for the Speedglas G5-02 Welding Helmet originated from consulting professional welders. When it came to creating a helmet specifically for TIG welding, the feedback from TIG welders was unanimous: a wide view rated significantly higher than a taller view. The only way to achieve these exponentially wider views without the compromise of making the helmet wider was to invent a curved welding lens: and now, after dedicating two decades to this goal, Speedglas have delivered the world’s first curved auto-darkening lens! This groundbreaking new arrival has been designed to follow the shape of your head and maximise your natural range of vision by 100% when compared to a conventional flat lens. The curved G5-02 lens also provides highly advanced electronics, with four arc sensors that will detect an arc down to an industry-leading 1 Amp. This in turn ensures the lens can reliably react to the extremely stable arcs offered by the latest high-end inverter based TIG machines. Bluetooth enabled, so you can securely pair your smartphone to your welding lens […]

RS Components launches RS PRO Facilities Maintenance Solutions

RS Components (RS), a trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE: ECM), a global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions, has launched the RS PRO Facilities Maintenance solutions portfolio, which comprises quality-tested products for a host of industries and working environments. Aimed at a broad selection of customers in Australia and New Zealand, the range supports maintenance requirements within the process manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, utilities and energy, engineering services, mining aggregates and construction, wholesale and distribution, transport and defence sectors, and design and development laboratories. The expanded range introduces over 1,000 products to offer a comprehensive choice of quality products including site safety and lighting solutions, tool kits, janitorial & cleaning, test & measurement, workwear & personal protective equipment (PPE) and more. All products in the RS PRO Facilities Maintenance range have high in-stock availability and have been through rigorous testing processes to ensure reliability to meet design and compliance specifications. They are covered by the RS PRO Seal of Approval and come with a three-year warranty. “The RS PRO range increases the breadth and depth of choice for customers seeking facilities maintenance products that meet design and compliance specifications, at a competitive price,” said Ian Macgregor, RS PRO Product Manager, for Australia & New Zealand (ANZ). “We offer a huge variety of products for different applications to keep facilities and buildings operating efficiently and safely and help keep businesses running smoothly.”

D-Link launches new, sleek and discreet home security cameras

D-Link has launched its new DCS-6500LH Compact Full HD Pan & Tilt and DCS-6100LH Compact Full HD Sleek and Discreet Wi-Fi Home Security Cameras. DCS-6100LH Compact Full HD Wi-Fi Camera Sleek and discreet, the Compact DCS-6100LH Full HD Wi-Fi Camera blends enhanced Smart Home Surveillance features with a stylish, subtle design. IR Night Vision together with Sound and Motion Detection alerts you instantly when something unexpected happens, giving you extra peace of mind with the latest in home security camera technology. The DCS-6100LH brings crystal clear surveillance as it allows you to monitor your home in Full HD 1080p resolution with a wide-angle 110-degree Field of View (FOV), day or night, making it the perfect 24/7 home security companion. Designed to be stylish, subtle and simple to use, it’s ideal for discreet placement anywhere throughout your home. The DCS-6100LH’s built-in Sound and Motion Detection enables you to trigger alerts that are automatically sent to your mobile device and the video clip recordings let you stay aware of what’s going on at all times in your home – and yes, it’s ideal as a baby monitor or office camera as well. If you’re worried that you’ll lose all your camera footage the DCS-6100LH Compact Full HD Wi-Fi Camera lets you record snapshots and video clips to the cloud for anytime access. You can also play back recordings from the cloud or download footage to your mobile device from anywhere, anytime through the Internet. DCS-6500LH Compact Full HD Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi Camera The DCS-6500LH Compact Full HD Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi Camera gives you 340° views as its Pan & Tilt technology allows you to see virtually every angle of any room. With Motion and Sound Detection as well as Night Vision that provides up to five metres of monitoring in complete […]

Treotham has lubrication-free igus spherical balls

Heavy dirt accumulation, dust and swarf are commonplace for pillow blocks and fixed flange bearings. Constant lubrication and maintenance is therefore necessary. With the injection-moulded igus spherical balls, customers can resort to a lubrication-free and maintenance-free solution for their metallic pillow blocks. igus has now developed new spherical balls made of the high-performance plastic iglidur J, specifically for cost-effective sheet metal housings. Metal and lubrication are found close together in mechanical engineering. igus proves that this does not always have to be the case. The motion plastics specialist has developed its igubal exchangeable spherical balls especially for pillow blocks and fixed flange bearings with metallic housings. These consist of the high-performance polymer iglidur J, which reduces costs since lubrication and maintenance are eliminated. The use of polymers prevents dirt and dust from settling in the bearing, which additionally reduces the sealing and prevents an unplanned machine downtime. The use of exchange bearings is also suitable in agriculture and farming, in the food industry or in plant and mechanical engineering. The igubal spherical balls come directly from injection moulding and are therefore cost-effective. Within a few seconds, they can be mounted in place of ball bearings in existing classic metallic pillow blocks and flange bearing housings and now also in low-cost sheet metal housings. The bearing system consisting of sheet metal housing and igubal spherical ball is available from Treotham. The plastic spherical ball has a high durability and its service life can be easily calculated online. Lubrication-free operation thanks to iglidur J The spherical balls made of iglidur J are not only cost-effective, but also have a very low coefficient of friction in dry operation. The material absorbs only a little moisture, so that the use of the spherical balls is also suitable for outdoors. Due to the chemical resistance […]

DGL acquires freehold property of its chemical manufacturing operation in Victoria

DGL Group Limited a specialist chemicals business that manufactures, transports, stores and processes chemicals and hazardous waste, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a property at 120 Fulton Drive, Derrmiut, Victoria for a total consideration of $5.5mil. The site houses the head office of Chem Pack Pty Ltd (Chem Pack) and includes warehouse facilities purpose built for the formulation and storage of chemicals. The property is locatedapproximately 20km from the Melbourne CBD and benefits from access to the main arterials including the Western Freeway and Western Ring Road. Under the acquisition of Chem Pack, DGL obtained an option to purchase various properties owned by Chem Pack vendors that Chem Pack operates from in Fulton Drive. After completion of relevant due diligence 120 Fulton Drive was selected as the property most crucial to the business of Chem Pack and most complimentary to the broader DGL Group. The acquisition is in accordance with DGL’s broader strategy to own the specialised sites from which it operates, which also encompasses the relevant licenses that the business requires foroperations, thus ensuring that DGL can design and upgrade the properties to meet the bespoke needs of the business. Founder and CEO of DGL, Simon Henry, said: “DGL has always had a strong focus on owning its own sites. This allows us to invest for the long term in the capital-intensive infrastructure required for the safe production and management of chemicals. This is not always possible on a leased site.”

Marr awarded heavy lifting contract in WA

Marr Contracting Pty Ltd (The Men From Marr’s), has been awarded the contract to deliver specialised heavy lifting crane services on the construction of the East Rockingham Waste to Energy Project in Western Australia. The AU$511 million project located in the Kwinana Industrial Area, 40 kilometres south of Perth, will be the second large-scale waste to energy (WtE) plant in Australia. With capacity to process 300,000 tonnes of residual waste from non-recyclable commercial and industrial sources every year, East Rockingham WtE will deliver a cost-effective waste treatment solution and a vital source of dispatachable renewable energy to the City of Perth. After ACCIONA and their partner, Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), were awarded the lead contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on the project in 2019, ACCIONA contacted Marr Contracting to work with them to develop a lifting strategy and craneage methodology that supported thier modular construction. The geotechnical conditions of the greenfield site, which is located in a high wind area close to the coast, posed a number of challenges that ACCIONA wished to address based on experiences on similar projects completed or currently under construction. Their primary concern was to find a solution that would reduce the number of lifting activities during the construction of the project. Marr’s solution – using a 330-tonne capacity M2480D Heavy Lift Luffer (HLL) – will allow critical lifts, weighing up to 150 tonnes, to be completed by a single crane from a fixed location, with a total site covearge of over 32,000 square meters and an ability to place 25 tonnes anywhere within that coverage. “Working closely with ACCIONA’s construction team during the early stages of the project, we’ve been able to design a simple craneage solution that will help to reduce congestion and improve safety on-site. “This is a great example […]

Trisco ramps up shelf stable output with state-of-the-art retort

Leading Australian food manufacturer Trisco Foods has planned a major push into Australia’s local thermal processing market with the commissioning of a state-of-the-art steam rotational retort machine. The four basket retort machine produces a range of shelf stable foods for consumer and industrial use. Trisco Foods CEO Mike Tristram said the one-of-a-kind retort machine greatly increased the capability of the Brisbane-based, family-owned food manufacturing business. “The state-of-the-art machine will allow Trisco to ramp up production of our popular Precise range of products for the aged care sector,” Mr Tristram said. “This investment will also empower us to aggressively pursue a range of new contract manufacturing opportunities. “The retort is capable of producing a wide variety of shelf stable, low acid foods and we are eager to grasp new opportunities for contracts in this space. “The one-of-a-kind retort machine will increase production efficiency by reducing heating time while also increasing quality. “It’s all about our commitment to creating unique and innovative food solutions in Australia and across the globe.” The Steam and Water Spray Overpressure Retort with Thermal Process Programmable Logic Controller is designed for thermal processing with many kinds of containers including aluminium retortable pouches and plastic containers. With directed steam injection, continuous water spray from top and sides guarantees homogeneous heat distribution in the vessel during both sterilizing and cooling. It is envisaged that this technology will enhance and expand Trisco Foods’ existing product range and open up new opportunities in both the local and export markets.

Productivity growth has stalled since 2005 (and isn’t about to improve soon)

Peter Martin,Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Not long ago it seemed as if the future was going to get better and better — not long ago at all. The high point was around 2005, fifteen years ago. I don’t know if you can remember how you felt at the time, but for me the surge in living standards, driven by an ever-building surge in output per working hour (“productivity”) suggested things were building on themselves: each new innovation was making use of the ones that had come before to the point where…. Ray Kurzweil, now the director of research at Google, summed it up in a book released in 2005 itself, titled The Singularity Is Near. Singularity was “a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed”. Changes would build on each other to the point where everything changed at once. Kurzweil dubbed it the “law of accelerating returns”. Year by year in the leadup to 2005, Australia’s productivity growth had accelerated to the point where in the 15 years to 2005 it had grown 37%. If it kept accelerating… In the 1930s economist John Maynard Keynes foresaw “ever larger and larger classes and groups of people from whom problems of economic necessity have been practically removed”. On average the working week might fall to 15 hours. In the 1970s, futurologist Alvin Toffler spoke of a four-hour working day. And then from 2005 on productivity growth collapsed. In the 15 years since, Australia’s output per working hour (productivity) has grown by just 17%. Thirty seven per cent turned out to be the high point. And not only here. In the United States and other developed economies productivity growth is divided into “before 2005” when it […]

Pierlite to illuminate schools across NSW

Leading Australian lighting and controls solutions provider, Pierlite, has been appointed by Schools Infrastructure NSW to provide LED lighting across a large number of NSW public schools as part of a statewide Lighting Upgrade Program that will improve the wellbeing of students and teachers, provide energy savings, and create hundreds of NSW jobs. Pierlite will supply significant numbers of its innovative LED products to up to 1,000 NSW public schools, replacing existing fluorescent lighting and, in the process, slash energy consumption by at least 50 per cent. The majority of components and labour will be sourced from NSW-based businesses and manufactured at Pierlite’s Padstow facility. Pierlite’s solution is centered on its range of Vandalux and Unilux EP upgrade kits, providing rapid delivery and installation across a broad range of indoor school environments, including classrooms, gymnasiums, staff offices, halls and corridors. The fittings offer significant energy savings, reduced environmental waste and wellbeing benefits to those interacting in the installed spaces. Additional benefits include a 50 per cent faster install time, reduced installation risk, and a lower risk of exposure to ceiling contaminants. The initial phase of the project will see a number of new jobs created at Pierlite, its component suppliers and service providers. School Infrastructure NSW’s LED Lighting Upgrade Program (LUP) has been designated as a COVID-19 economic stimulus recovery program. In addition to delivering operating cost reductions in electricity and maintenance, the LUP program aims to support student learning behaviours by improving the indoor lighting environment across NSW public schools. Pierlite Australia CEO Gustav Arianto said, “This is a strategically important contract for Pierlite and we are proud to partner with SINSW to ensure successful outcomes for NSW public schools.” “Our commitment to local job growth and manufacturing has always been a strong focus for Pierlite. Throughout the seventy […]

Actuators reliable for sustainable energy generation

Low maintenance Airstroke actuators from Firestone provide a compact and easily installed way to facilitate robust and reliable engineering of clean green renewable energy installations needing to continuously orient solar and wind power arrays towards their source of energy. The simple pneumatic actuators can be installed in solar arrays and within wind power structures to continuously orient their generating surfaces in the most favourable position to optimise the amount of energy produced from natural sources. In actuation capacities from just a few dozen kilograms to more than 40 tons a unit, and functioning reliably for millions of cycles, Airstrokes are proven worldwide in demanding covered and outdoor applications ranging from conveyors and vibrating screens though to splitting a giant Australian mining dragline for maintenance. Their complementary fabric-and-rubber Airmount isolators deliver isolation efficiencies frequently exceeding 99 per cent to protect sensitive plant from damage from ambient noise vibration and harshness (NVH) and to reduce NVH emissions from installed plant. The rubber and fabric actuators solve the problem of stationary solar collection panels becoming inefficient as the sun shifts from a 90-degree angle to the panels, or where wind generators must be smoothly re-oriented to harvest the maximum energy from changing winds. Usually inflated or deflated by standard fixed or mobile compressed air (typically the ubiquitous 7 bar (100 psi) compressor equipment used throughout Australia), they can continuously reorient photovoltaic systems to minimise and angle of incidence between the incoming sunlight and a photovoltaic array, or to achieve the most favourable angle for Wind generation. Airstrokes are particularly beneficial for installations where continuous focusing through single or dual-axis arrangements enhances energy returns. Such installations – sometimes in remote locations and subject to climatic extremes over 24 hours – need extremely reliable actuators to continuously reposition payloads, including solar panels and reflectors. Airstroke […]

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