Smart Manufacturing

Zone RV boosts capability with biggest 3D printer in Southern Hemisphere

Queensland manufacturer Zone RV has made a major investment in its production capability with the purchase of the largest 3D printing system in the Southern Hemisphere, supplied by CNC Design. Established in 2016, Zone RV offers a range of Australian-made off-road caravans that combine lightweight composite bodies with class-leading components. Headquarted in Coolum Beach, the company employs technologies from sectors such as aerospace and maritime to manufacture off-road caravans that are lighter, stronger and safer. The Zone RV team boasts more than a quarter-century of experience in true composite manufacturing across the marine, aeronautical and civil construction industries. In its ongoing pursuit of improved processes at its production facility, Zone RV recently turned to additive manufacturing as a means of expanding capability and raising productivity. In particular it was keen to streamline its mould-making operations through the adoption of 3D printing. Following extensive research, the company opted for a VSF122 large-area gantry-based machine from CNC Design, a hybrid additive-subtractive system capable of both 3D printing and machining in composite materials. Zone RV Dave Biggar commented: “At Zone RV we’re always looking for new ways to deliver a better product more efficiently, and the new 3D printer from CNC Design will undoubtedly help us achieve that goal. It will give us greater flexibility in terms of how we design and manufacture, while delivering big gains in productivity. “I think the fact that this will be the biggest 3D printer in the Southern Hemisphere demonstrates Zone RV’s ambition to be a true innovation leader in our sector and across Australian manufacturing.” The new system, scheduled to installed at Zone RV’s manufacturing facility in June, will be used for trimming and polishing moulds and for printing of blanks for mould production. CNC Design will work closely with the team at Zone RV in […]

RS Components & CRC Industries Australia announce partnership

RS Components are thrilled to announce a brand new partnership with CRC Industries Australia – a renowned manufacturer of high quality aerosol and bulk lubricants. This cooperation is a natural partnership for RS Components, who will now be providing CRC products as a part of its overall offering to engineers and procurement managers in Australia & New Zealand. The brand supplies a wide range of industry grade lubricants, anti-rust products and adhesives for customers in the manufacturing, marine, automotive and electrical industries – amongst others. CRC is a leader in product quality, performance and regulatory compliance which is key when working with clients who operate in the particular fields RS service, and CRC’s product offering has these three attributes in spades. Melanie Mangos, Head of Industrial Sales Trans-Tasman for CRC Industries Australia, says “CRC Australia is proud to be partnering with RS Components and sees great synergies. We have begun developing excellent key stakeholder relationships and are in the process of working on exceeding end user expectations with the team.” CRC’s prestigious history and longevity as a company is only surpassed by the quality of the products and services it provides. In short, CRC’s innovative research and development team continually develops new and improved products to help our clients perform their job faster, easier and safer. “CRC has a great reputation and industry recognition,” says Scott Philbrook, Managing Director RS Components AU/NZ. “It makes perfect sense to provide CRC’s fantastic range of products to our diverse customer base in Australia. We are proud to be working alongside such leading brands and are excited to see what the future holds for both RS and for CRC.” RS is proud to stock over 100 new CRC products in Australia ready for fast delivery.

Scaling your manufacturing business globally

Cynthia Dearin There are plenty of opportunities for manufacturers to scale internationally in 2022, but it’s not a risk-free exercise. For your international venture to thrive, there are key things that you need to get right. In this post, Here are three of the big ones. Use data to drive decisions When it comes to making decisions around taking your manufacturing business global, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of using data and evidence. This applies to market selection and to defining your ideal international client. Market selection The number of people who choose an international market on the basis of ‘gut feel’ or serendipity blows my mind. I know founders who picked export markets because they went on holiday somewhere and fell in love with it. One that springs to mind is the guy who went to Bali, couldn’t get a packet of Smiths Salt & Vinegar chips … and decided to set up as the agent for Smiths in Bali. Or the founder who says “I met this guy at a trade show and he loved our product, so we decided to work with him to expand our footprint into … “. It’s good to love the country you plan to sell to and it’s a privilege to meet people who love your product and want to support what you do. But relying on chance isn’t the right way to choose an international market, because it usually delivers mediocre results. Without evidence, it’s hard to know where the real opportunities lie. There’s probably no point trying to sell microprocessor chips made in Australia to Vietnam for $25/unit, when an equivalent product is already manufactured locally, is well-known and sells for $5/unit. On the other hand, if you manufacture high-end health supplements in Australia, you might find that there […]

Businesses’sharing’ staff to make the most of downtime

A Gold Coast company’s match-making service is helping businesses make money by ‘filling the gaps’ in rapidly evolving workplaces. Peaks and troughs are part of the ride for any business, but a company based on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia is helping those troughs potentially become valuable money-earners. Technology provider BenchOn, has re-imagined its “staff sharing portal” to help companies manage their workforces in new ways. Established by the City of Gold Coast, The Gold Coast Business Portal uses the established technology to further strengthen the local business community, connecting local companies experiencing high demand for specialist talent with those that have talent to spare. Springing out of the pandemic, the platform links businesses and helps them tap into another organisation’s under-utilised talent, or offer up their own staff, for profit, to help others fill the gaps. Founder and CEO Tim Walmsley said while the company started six years ago, it had hit its stride as massive change tipped traditional workplace operations sideways. “The foundation of BenchOn is all around workforce management and ensuring that we smooth out the peaks and troughs in business so we can match the workforce capacity to where it’s needed across industry,” Walmsley said. “The collaborative platform system allows businesses to request support or offer out staff if they have capacity. “The AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm matches companies that need staff with a company that has a person available at the right time and at the right price, and it works as a business-to-business subcontract, providing the support of a certain skill set for a certain period of time.” As the world’s first business talent sharing platform, BenchOn sits firmly within the modern-day share economy. It supports more than 3,000 companies from global firms to banks and energy providers, through to small-to-medium businesses and start-ups […]

Centauri 5 satellite successfully launched

Fleet Space Technologies has successfully launched its next-generation Centauri 5 satellite on the Space X Falcon 9 Transporter-5 mission. This was the company’s third launch with SpaceX, following the successful deployment of Centauri 4 on the Transporter-2 mission in June 2021. Centauri 5 will be placed in low earth orbit (LEO) at an expected altitude of some 530km (330 miles). A 6U sized microsat with a total weight of 12kg, it will add capacity, reduce latency and provide additional network redundancy in the existing six-strong Centauri constellation, which Fleet operates in collaboration with Tyvak International. Upgrades to the Centauri 4 payload includes enhancements that mitigate the effects of radiation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), direct communication links to Fleet’s ground station, and an extended S-Band range, allowing uplink at standard ground station frequencies. Digital beamforming provides extra gain, increasing the data rate, and also allows the S-Band frequency channels to be reused on the different beams. This combination increases the satellite’s data capacity by 2.6 times. In a world first, the all-metal patch antennas are all entirely 3D printed. The advances in 3D printing technology used in the construction of its patch antennal also feed into the development of the forthcoming fully 3D printed micro Alpha constellation, scheduled for launch during 2023. Together, the two systems will provide continuous coverage, data rates up to 520 kbps and tailored frequency bands servicing current and future generations of IoT devices. The combined constellation also enables Fleet Space’s ExoSphere system. This is transforming mineral exploration by using ambient noise tomography to locate critical resources up to 100 times faster and with far less environmental impact than conventional methods such as explosives, vibroseis machines and drilling. The Centauri 5 launch further strengthens Fleet Space’s position in the vanguard of the burgeoning Australian space technology industry, which the federal […]

Climate finance fund launched

Emit Capital Asset Management has announced its new socially responsible investment and ESG fund, the Emit Capital Climate Finance Equity Fund, will be open to wholesale investors from 1st July 2022. The long only fund will invest in globally listed companies that aim to reduce the impacts of climate change. The manager is targeting funds under management of $150m in its first year to capitalise on the market shift to net zero emissions. As an impact investor, Emit Capital believes the financial markets are fundamental to driving real change and mitigating the impacts of climate change. Through investment in companies that target decarbonisation, Emit Capital believes investors can outperform the broader market over the medium to longer term. The fund employs a thematic strategy focusing on four key climate finance sectors: energy transformation, transport and infrastructure, energy efficiency and storage, and water management. In addition to the thematic strategy, Emit Capital also evaluates environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards as part of its investment process. Emit Capital has secured the services of highly experienced former Vanguard fund manager, Roger McIntosh who will head up the investment committee. In addition, the fund manager has added to its research capability through an agreement with a North American investment manager based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Managing Director of Emit Capital Matt Dever said “This is an extremely exciting time for Emit Capital as we embark on this new investment fund. “The market for climate finance is rapidly expanding as both business and consumers increasingly target the reduction of emissions in a concentrated effort to the limit the rise in global temperatures. “As a socially responsible investment manager, our vision is to target investments that focus on decarbonisation and which will reward our investors over the medium to long term.”

CX will deliver market success to Australian manufacturers

By Jason du Preez, SVP Asia Pacific, SugarCRM One of the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak has been the acceleration of Australian manufacturers’ digital transformation initiatives. The Federal Government recently committed $750 million towards turbocharging advanced manufacturing, recognising that Australia needs to have more on-shore capabilities. In addition, the Federal Government will invest $44 million in four new artificial intelligence (AI) and digital capability centres, with grants of up to $11 million available for groups that “apply AI in ways that either advance the national manufacturing priorities set out under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, or the Digital Economy Strategy’s digital growth priorities.” The pandemic has fundamentally changed how we work and live, and has driven accelerated adoption of digital channels such as eCommerce and social commerce, across multiple industries. Australian manufacturers have pivoted their businesses to ride out the challenging environment. Many have responded to rapid change by shortening their supply chain, placing emphasis on just-in-time deliveries, and creating value for their customers. While this started before the pandemic, the trend towards direct-to-consumer selling (D2C) has accelerated and is set to continue. The pandemic has put a universal pressure on the need to maximise convenience and speed. Regardless of where your company operates or manufactures its goods and services, manufacturers that remain frozen with a fragmented, outdated, and incomplete view of their customers will see their competitors accelerate away from them and create an insurmountable gap that can not be closed. Advantages of digital transformation Manufacturers that invest in digital transformation to significantly improve the accuracy and completeness of their customer data will improve customer retention and acquisition and increase revenue share. CRM systems enable manufacturers to intuitively store customer details, such as addresses, telephone numbers, key contacts, purchase history and more. This data can be particularly beneficial to sales […]

RS Components & CRC Industries Australia announce partnership

Testcenter bei Lapp Kabel Stuttgart, U.I. Lapp GmbH, am 23.11.2016 in Stuttgart

Understanding dynamic load- bearing capacity in cable chains

Cable carrier systems with separation bars help to avoid tangling and disruption of power and signal transmission. Choosing the best cable for an industrial application is one of the most critical design decisions of any complex automated system. That said, cable selection is often an afterthought and not given the time or respect it deserves. As the lifeblood of the system, cables and wires are vital to transmitting power and sending control signals and data across wide expanses in a timely and reliable manner. Here we take a look at some of the most important factors to consider when specifying industrial cable. Wires and cables intended for use within cable chains are subject to enormous loads. Especially in highly dynamic applications, several factors should be considered when choosing the right cable – durability, reduced weight, a small minimum bending radius and the ability to fit within tight spaces. Many of today’s automated production environments must meet rigorous productivity benchmarks, often requiring components to handle speeds of 5 m/s and acceleration of 50 m/s2, along very lengthy paths. To meet these demands, every component in the system must be optimised to work together, including the cable, wiring, cable chains and carriers. Knowing the specific application and industrial setting in which the cable chain will be used will help determine the characteristics required in its interior parts—the cables and wires. A good place to start is understanding the physical forces acting on the system. Regarding mechanics, the following loads must be considered: Push and pull loads These forces act in the longitudinal direction of the wire. Static – Vertical forces such as gravity act on stationary cables (ex. fountain submersible pumps). Dynamic – Horizontal forces from acceleration/ deceleration act on the wires within the cable chain. Static and dynamic – Cables moving […]

Airborne virus removal boosts industrial safety

A laboratory-validated air filtration system is being introduced to Australasia to help industry fulfil product purity and OH&S obligations to protect plant workers on-site and customers downstream by helping to neutralise the spread of viral and other airborne health hazards within process, packing, office, logistics, and distribution plants. The US-patented, medical-grade system EnviroKlenz Air System Plus from Clean Stream Technologies has been third-party Intertek laboratory tested to demonstrate its removal of 99.9% of airborne viruses down to 0.025 microns, says Clean Stream Technologies. The system– which kills virus’ multiple times smaller than the Covid-19 virus – is already proven in service in US professional health, food preparation and in consumer environments responding to the Coronavirus pandemic and to other airborne health challenges, including different virus’, bacteria, pathogens, pollution, and seasonal allergens that affect millions of people in Australia and New Zealand. Lab-tested to TGA international standards EnviroKlenz is also 99.9 per cent effective in neutralisation of gram-negative bacteria (E. Coli) and 99.9 per cent effective against gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus epidermidis), according to the testing by Intertek Labs, which is audited/accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 or equivalent Standard. This quality, German-manufactured system is engineered as a major step up from mass-market air purifiers. It is highly effective because it goes much further than standard purifiers by combining medically proven ultraviolet UVC germicidal irradiation with safe and effective earth mineral technology originally developed for the US military and still used today to destroy chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals. The purifier is also highly effective against pollution and smoke intruding from the street or immediate environment. This can deliver a strong message to visitors to your plant and to staff in recognising you are taking active steps to protect them against multiple health hazards. The compact, self-contained, wheeled unit runs quietly, producing […]

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