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aug15 Australian Manufacturing Technology

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Mining: After the boom PAGE 32

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Volume 15 Number 07 August 2015 ISSN 1832-6080

contents

MINING & RESOURCES After the boom On the rebound: Australia’s mining sector set to recover Game-changing drilling technology set for launch Aussie-made TED attracts world’s largest miners New highly sensitive method for detecting gold Unlocking millions of tonnes of nickel

32 36 37 38 39 40

CUTTING TOOLS Iscar – Part of the team What makes a good endmill great?

Controlling mechanical loads in milling operations

44 46 48

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING 3D printing – the bridge to the future 3D printing jigs and fixtures Additive in Australia – prototyping or manufacturing?

52 54 56

FORMING & FABRICATION Prima Power introduces Laserdyne 430 Versa Bending costs downward

58 60

MATERIALS HANDLING Creating the warehouses of the future Konecranes cuts Adsteel’s costs while improving safety

62 63

From the Editor From the CEO From the Industry From the Union

8 10 12 14

INDUSTRY NEWS Current news from the industry

16

PRODUCT NEWS Our selection of new and interesting products

27

COMPANY FOCUS Surdex Steel - setting itself apart

42

ONE ON ONE Geoffrey Brooks

50

AMTIL FORUM Forum Law Forum Training Forum Finance Forum OHS

64 65 66 67

Manufacturing History – A look back in time

68

AMTIL INSIDE The latest news from AMTIL

70

aug15 AustrAliAn MAnufActuring technology

your industry. your Magazine.

Mining: After the boom PAGE 32

.Mining & ResouRces

6 |

& Fabrication .Materials .Cutting Tools .Additive .Forming

Handling

AMT AUGUST 2015

32

After the boom Massive falls in the market value of the global mining industry are hitting the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services sector hard. However, by developing innovative technology, Australian companies are taking the bull by the horns and prospering despite the downturn.

42 Surdex Steel - Setting itself apart Surdex Steel started in 1952, but soon diversified into a broader range of structural steel and sheet and coil.

It distinguishes itself from its competitors by focussing on differentiated service and value. It has expansion plans when conditions allow and employs 200 personnel – a number that’s remained impressively stable despite difficult market conditions.

56

Cover By developing innovative technology for the mining industry, this sector can continue to be competitive globally.

With new mines being developed overseas, there are increasing opportunities for Australian Mining Equipment, Technology and Services sector companies to export their products, services and technology.

Page 32

Additive in Australia – prototyping or manufacturing?

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FROM THE

Editor William Poole

Battling a climate of uncertainty Anyone with a soft spot for superhero movies (or maybe with young children to keep them updated) might have spotted a theme recently. In the latest Avengers epic, Iron Man and the Hulk traded blows before uniting to save the world. The last X-Men film saw long-time foes Magneto and Professor X making peace for the good of humanity. And next year Superman and Batman will square off before – you guessed it – joining forces. One-time adversaries forming unexpected partnerships are all the rage.

Now another unlikely alliance has formed to tackle a global threat. The Australian Climate Roundtable assembles an array of organisations perhaps previously seen as rivals, with industry groups like the Ai Group and the Business Council of Australia lining up alongside the Australian Council of Trade Unions and WWF Australia, to seek “common ground on climate policy” (see page 16 for details). The group’s joint principles call for policies aimed at slashing emissions while promoting research into new technologies. Importantly, the Roundtable doesn’t solely focus on the challenge of averting climate change, but also on the economic opportunities that challenge presents – something AMT has sought to highlight in the past.

The Roundtable also stresses the need to avoid “delayed, unpredictable and piecemeal action” in terms of climate policy. In that regard there has been progress lately, with the prolonged stalemate over the Renewable Energy Target (RET) finally resolved in late June. However, as exemplified by the Carbon Tax, passed and abolished within two years, climate policy in Australia has remained dogged by uncertainty.

For example, while the RET deal means stalled investment in Australia’s renewable energy sector can resume, the delay significantly impacted an emerging industry that offers considerable opportunities for Australian manufacturers. Moreover, some were disappointed by the reduced target. Meanwhile, the Federal Government has advised the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to stop all new investment in wind power and household solar.

The Government argues the directive aims to promote “emerging technologies”, but critics warn it could threaten major projects such as the $2bn Kennedy Energy Park in Queensland.

This month AMT looks at the opposite end of the energy mix, with Mining & Resources as our main feature. Australia has undoubtedly prospered from mining in recent years, but the boom has faded amid falling prices for coal and iron ore, accompanied by a slowdown in investment and job creation across the sector in Australia. With international demand for coal falling – not least as countries like China seek to curb their own emissions – mining’s influence as a driver of the Australian economy seems set to dwindle.

Nonetheless, the decline shouldn’t be overstated. In a recent interview with the ABC, Tim Sims, Managing Director of Pacific Equity Partners, dismissed the notion that the end of the boom represented a crisis for Australia. According to Sims, Australian mining companies invested four times the money spent rebuilding Europe after the Second World War under the Marshall Plan, and this has set the sector up in an enormously strong position.

As Carole Goldsmith highlights in our main story on page 32, innovative Australian manufacturers are still thriving in the mining sector. Mining remains a hugely important, and lucrative part of our economy. But new sectors, such as renewables and clean-tech, are emerging. And we have the ingenuity to thrive in those sectors too – with, of course, the right policy support.

Editor William Poole wpoole@amtil.com.au Contributor Carole Goldsmith Sales Manager Anne Samuelsson asamuelsson@amtil.com.au Publications Co-ordinator Gabriele Richter grichter@amtil.com.au Publisher Shane Infanti sinfanti@amtil.com.au Designer Franco Schena fschena@amtil.com.au Prepress & Print Printgraphics Australia AMT Magazine is printed in Australia using FSC mix of paper from responsible sources FSC© C007821 Contact Details AMT Magazine AMTIL Suite 1, 673 Boronia Rd Wantirna VIC 3152 AUSTRALIA T 03 9800 3666 F 03 9800 3436 E info@amtil.com.au W www.amtil.com.au Copyright © Australian Manufacturing Technology (AMT).

All rights reserved. AMT Magazine may not be copied or reproduced in whole or part thereof without written permission from the publisher.

Contained specifications and claims are those supplied by the manufacturer (contributor)

Disclaimer The opinions expressed within AMT Magazine from editorial staff, contributors or advertisers are not necessarily those of AMTIL. The publisher reserves the right to amend the listed editorial features published in the AMT Magazine Media Kit for content or production purposes.

AMT Magazine is dedicated to Australia’s machining, tooling and sheet-metal working industries and is published monthly.

Subscription to AMT Magazine (and other benefits) is available through AMTIL Associate Membership at $165 (inc GST) per annum.

Contact AMTIL on 03 9800 3666 for further information.

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FROM THE

CEO Shane Infanti – Chief Executive Officer AMTIL

Do we need more public holidays in Victoria?

The current discussion around whether or not the Victorian state government should honor an election commitment and create two new public holidays in Victoria is starting to heat up.

In order to pass this legislation, the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 requires the completion of a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS).

The RIS process, including a mandatory public consultation period, will provide insightful and meaningful analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) of the benefits and costs of the public holiday on businesses and the broader community. This RIS process is expected to be completed by early August.

It is an interesting debate. PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its capacity as advisor to the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, has just released the RIS which attempts to assess the impacts on the community and economy by the introduction of two additional public holidays – being Easter Sunday and the Friday before the AFL Grand Final.

For the record, let me highlight the current number of public holidays each state and territory has just to put this debate into some perspective. In 2016, Tasmania has 10 public holidays scheduled, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland have 11, whilst ACT, New South Wales and Western Australia have 12.

Currently NSW is the only state next year that lists Easter Sunday as a Public Holiday.

The RIS goes some way to consider the impacts of the proposed changes but estimating the benefits and costs of the proposed holidays is difficult given the diverse effects it has on individuals and businesses. For example, how do you measure the benefit associated with increased wages for those employees working on public holidays against the additional labour costs for employers. This amount, estimated at somewhere between $252m and $286m, effectively represents a transfer of money from employers to employees with little effect on the economy as such.

Another benefit that is highlighted in the report is the additional leisure time people that don’t have to work will have to spend with family and friends. I’m not sure of how it has been calculated but the benefit of this leisure time has been estimated at between $156m and $312m.

We can also look positively at the figure of between $17m and $51m that Tourism Victoria estimates will be expended into the economy through increased tourism, particularly in regional centres.

Of course, all of this pales into insignificance when you compare it to the reduced economic activity of those companies that choose not to operate on a public holiday. This is the point of my editorial as this relates to most of the manufacturing sector that will effectively be made to close their doors for another day or two. This is particularly relevant to the proposed public holiday on the Friday before the Grand Final as the lost production and output cannot be made up given there are fewer working days in the year. A number of AMTIL Members have highlighted this to me over the past month and are concerned about the impact it will have on their businesses. The RIS

estimates the reduced economic output will cost the state between $717m and $898m but they have split the cost estimates across the two proposed holidays and the loss on Easter Sunday only represents between $37m and $46m of this figure.

It is worth noting that the Government’s proposed policy aligns to principles contained in the 2014 state election platform and specify: providing fair pay to those working on Easter Sunday; increasing opportunities for Victorians to enjoy coordinated leisure time; and acknowledging the important role performed by public holidays on religious and state occasions in uniting the community.

My view, for what it’s worth, is that there could be a case presented to suggest Victoria could come in line with New South Wales by making Easter Sunday a public holiday and bringing the total number to 12, the same as most other states and territories. This meets the principles set out in the election platform and, as explained above, effectively represents a transfer of money from employers to employees where the employers, to some degree, have the opportunity to recoup these additional costs through increased sales.

The suggestion of the Friday before the AFL Grand Final being a public holiday doesn’t make a lot of sense. It would put Victoria in a position of being the state with the most number of public holidays and that in itself is a good reason to knock it on the head. The killer blow is the loss of economic activity proposed to be somewhere between $680m and $852m, just so we can spend a day in the city watching the AFL parade! One must ask the question – Is Victoria not already vibrant, active and alive during Grand Final week? If the answer really is “no” then there has got to be a more productive way of uniting the community during this week.

Anyway, as I said it is an interesting debate and one that I am sure will be followed with interest in the lead-up to a decision being made final.

For more information, or to view the Regulatory Impact Statement visit http://economicdevelopment.vic.gov.au/ corporate-governance/legislation-and-regulation/regulatoryimpact-statements

The bigger picture in a smaller package Market your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

AMT & AMTIL Digital Media Kit 2015

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AMT AUGUST 2015

Your Industry. Your Magazine.

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Call Anne Samuelsson at AMTIL on 03 9800 3666, mobile on 0400 115 525 or email asamuelsson@amtil.com.au

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FROM THE

Industry Innes Willox – Chief Executive Australian Industry Group

Manufacturing employers hit by Ice epidemic The distribution, supply and usage of crystal methamphetamine, known as ‘Ice’, directly affects Australian employers by creating significant work health and safety risks, damaging working relationships, draining labour productivity and reducing workforce participation.

Since 2010 the frequency of Ice usage in the community, as well as the drug’s purity (and addictive qualities), has significantly increased.

And our members are feeling the effects of this. This is especially the case as research has shown that a significant amount of people who take the drug Ice work in manufacturing, construction, transport and hospitality.

On an industry level, the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) reports that amphetamine usage by employees is higher than the total workforce average (4.0%) in the industries of manufacturing, transport, construction, agriculture, retail and hospitality. This is more than double the rate of usage that was estimated by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for the entire population aged 14 years and over, at around 2% in 2010 and in 2013.

Within this group of methamphetamine users, the AIHW found that Ice usage is increasing while powders usage (e.g. cocaine) is decreasing.

The AIHW further found that correlated with this increasing Ice usage, more methamphetamine users were taking the drugs daily or weekly, up from 12.4% of these users in 2010 to 25.3% in 2013.

NCETA further reports that the weekly use of methamphetamine among employed respondents who reported using methamphetamine in the last 12 months was particularly high in manufacturing, at 17%.

Monthly use was highest in the mining sector (38%) and the agriculture sector (33%).

In addition to usage, NCETA reports that 2.5% of the workforce reported going to work under the influence of illicit drugs. Tradespeople (3.9%) and unskilled workers (3.7%) had the highest prevalence of going to work under the influence of illicit drugs, compared with professionals (1.3%) and managers (1.6%).

Employers in the construction, manufacturing and transport industries are particularly affected given both the higher-than-average use of Ice by employees in these industries and the industry prevalence of heavy machinery and vehicle operation. These are industries where work health and safety is clearly paramount.

Australian employers operate under rigorous work health and safety laws that impose statutory duties on employers and individuals to provide a safe workplace. Employer work health and safety duties therefore extend deep into the broader community. Community issues and behaviours, such as the reported prevalence of methamphetamines including Ice, are of strong importance to business. The intersection of community drug use and workplaces is a safety issue that businesses must manage. There can be critical safety risks and hazards if they are not managed.

Ice is a particularly insidious drug as its usage is often difficult to detect without testing. Unlike users of alcohol and other drugs, Ice users often have no prior history and initially show no unusual behaviour.

A key action to eliminate the safety risks associated with drug use by workers is for the employer to implement workplace drug and alcohol testing. Workplace drug and alcohol testing detects drug levels in persons at a workplace and enables employers to ensure workplace safety by removing persons affected by drugs. In some instances, the employment of staff who have tested positive for illicit drugs may be terminated, or the employees may face other disciplinary action.

Ice is a particularly insidious drug as its usage is often difficult to detect without testing. Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) members tell us that unlike users of alcohol and other drugs, Ice users often have no prior history and initially show no unusual behaviour. It was only when it was too late and an incident had occurred or when testing was conducted that the Ice usage was revealed.

In a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement’s inquiry into crystal methamphetamine (Ice) the Ai Group has highlighted the particular dangers of the ice epidemic for the manufacturing, construction and transport industries. Ai Group’s submission includes a number of recommendations for tackling Ice usage, including: • Recognising that drug and alcohol testing at the workplace is a key action that employers can take to protect the safety of employees and the community.

• Conducting work health and safety campaigns aimed at educating the community about the risks created by methamphetamine use in operating machinery and vehicles.

• Encouraging law enforcement agencies to provide liaison services and dedicated hotlines for employers and employees impacted

by Ice, including for those in regional and remote locations.

• Developing education resources to assist employers to deal with the impacts of Ice in their workplaces, including providing details of external support services for affected employees to complement existing employee assistance programs (EAPs) provided by many employers.

However, despite the safety concerns, instinctive opposition from some unions when workplace drug and alcohol testing is raised has inhibited many employers in managing work health and safety risks.

Unions need to drop their opposition and accept drug and alcohol testing regimes that will deter drug and alcohol use and lead to safer working environments. They need to work with employers to make drug and alcohol testing regimes effective.

12 |

AMT AUGUST 2015

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FROM THE

Union Paul Bastian – National Secretary Australian Manufacturing Workers Union

China agreement leaves manufacturing last Australian manufacturing continues to struggle in an environment of significant uncertainty, with depressed demand and investment amid intense international competition. New orders, production, employment and supplier deliveries all fell in June after brief growth in May while sales continued to fall for a record 13th month.

It was against this background that Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Government announced the finalisation of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (CHAFTA). Ministers initially heralded it as an economic ice-breaker but as more details emerged, the Government’s silence has become deafening. Little wonder, as CHAFTA will do nothing to turn the corner for manufacturing. In fact, it represents more of a risk than an opportunity.

The AMWU has long argued that ‘free’ trade agreements (FTAs) are nothing of the sort. They are more about providing preferential treatment to one trade partner over others and one sector of the economy over others. Manufacturing has been a losing sector. The resulting trade playing field for manufacturing isn’t fair, even or free – it is one whose significant valleys and peaks are determined by political interests and the influence of the most powerful stakeholders.

But there are other reasons FTAs, including CHAFTA will hurt rather than help the Australian economy, including manufacturing.

By excluding strong and enforceable environmental and labour standards, agreements such as CHAFTA don’t promote the efficient allocation of resources. Rather they promote the allocation of resources to firms and countries whose competitive advantage is built on the exploitation of workforces and the environment.

This is a particularly galling reality for manufacturing employers and for workers at risk of losing their jobs due to increased imports from FTA partners. It is bad enough to lose your job because your pay is higher than what overseas competitors pay their workers. But it is far more disturbing to lose your job because you are treated with dignity and have basic rights as a worker while your competition can exploit workers, denying them the most basic labour rights.

FTAs have increasingly become about protecting and expanding the market power of established multinational firms rather than a genuine fair and level trade playing field. They’ve evolved to be about legal dominance, about expansion of copyright and protection from legitimate government regulation. This is typified by the controversy around Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions, but this trend can be seen in intellectual property, service as well as investment chapters in FTAs. All of these criticisms are shared not just by the left, but by many conservative economists. Since 2010 our own Productivity Commission (PC) has been vocal in its criticism of FTAs. The PC is not alone, with the World Bank and numerous academic economists pointing out the significant flaws of FTAs and their poor record in delivering broad economic gains. Yet we continue to see these agreements being trumpeted as an economic panacea.

CHAFTA is susceptible to all of these criticisms, but its faults are even greater than the standard FTA. It includes several provisions and side agreements that have the potential to significantly impede Australians’ access to work, make migrant worker exploitation likely and pose safety risks for the broader community.

CHAFTA largely abandons already-lax labour market testing requirements for temporary migrant Chinese labour. This means that, before importing migrant workers, firms need not ask the question: are Australian workers available and willing to do the work?

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AMT AUGUST 2015

Under CHAFTA, 10 skilled trades including electricians and motor mechanics will have skills assessment requirements dropped, effectively meaning that Australia will now rely on Chinese skills assessment processes rather than our own. This potentially exposes all Australians to significant safely risks, as well as undermining the competitiveness of properly trained Australian workers. That’s just the start, as CHAFTA explicitly states that all skills assessments are to be removed within the next five years.

An Investor Facilitation Arrangement (IFA) is specifically designed to improve access to migrant Chinese workers on investment projects in Australia worth as little as $150m and with a Chinese interest as small as $22.5m or 15%. These IFAs explicitly don’t require labour market testing to ensure Australians are able and willing to do the work, opening the very real possibility that Australian workers will be locked out of work on these projects. Once granted, IFA status for a project means that the number of workers, their qualifications, occupations, language requirements and even minimum wage levels (as represented by the applicable Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold) will all be up for negotiation. This opens the very real possibility that not only will Australian workers be excluded from work on Australian investment projects, but that Chinese workers taking those jobs will be exploited.

The strategy of the CHAFTA seems perfectly clear. It’s an approach that tries to make Australia competitive by lowering our standards rather than raising our value. The Australian Industry Group surveyed members prior to the release of CHAFTA and unsurprisingly only 11% reported expecting benefits to their business as a result. Unfortunately, it seems these low expectations were perfectly justified.

Australian manufacturers know CHAFTA is symptomatic of an economic agenda that will see a race to the bottom on standards, wages and conditions, rather than equip our industry to compete at the top based on skills, quality and service. Australian workers and businesses deserve better from our Federal Government. Our relationship with our largest trading partner is too important to be based on such an inferior trade agreement.

industry news

Closure for FAPM as car-making nears end of road The industry body for auto components manufacturers has closed after almost six decades. role in building the automotive component industry.

The Federation of Automotive Parts Manufacturers (FAPM) has gone into voluntary liquidation and merged with the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC). The association, established in 1958, has around 110 members, who will be transferred along with its remaining assets to VACC, which will take over its role representing the auto components sector.

The news comes as Australia’s three remaining car-makers prepare to cease automotive manufacturing operations in the country. Ford will shut down local production in October of next year, with GM Holden and Toyota due to follow suit by the end of 2017.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, FAPM chief executive Richard Reilly said plans to wind down the association had been in progress for around 18 months.

Membership had dropped almost by half in the last decade amid falling sales and production volumes of locally manufactured cars. The winding up of the

“FAPM’s decision to merge its operations with the VACC is a tragic commentary on the state of Australia’s automotive industry,” said Senator Carr. “This is not the end of the industry, which I am confident can attract new investment. But it is a harbinger of things to come.”

Federation of Automotive Parts Manufacturers (FAPM) chief executive Richard Reilly.

group was endorsed by FAPM members at an extraordinary general meeting in June.

“Our members are in there doing it tough and we are also doing it tough as an industry association,” said Reilly. “It’s a natural conclusion.”

According to the New Daily, Shadow Minister for Industry Kim Carr praised the FAPM for its

VACC executive director Geoff Gwilym said his organisation plans to continue to service FAPM members beyond the end of mass vehicle manufacturing in 2017. The FAPM will continue to operate as a special interest group within the VACC. “Automotive manufacturing will continue to be important in this country,” said Gwilym. “Australian companies still build automotive components for niche manufacturers like Tomcar, as well as defence vehicles. Australia still has a high level of skill in manufacturing and design; we are still one of only 13 countries that can design and build vehicles in one place.

We have a proud history.”

New alliance calls for common ground on climate policy An unprecedented alliance of major Australian business, union, research, environment, investor and social groups has come together to seek common ground in the climate policy debate.

The Australian Climate Roundtable is the result of discussions involving business groups such as the Australian Aluminium Council, the Australian Industry Group, the Business Council of Australia, the Investor Group on Climate Change and the Energy Supply Association of Australia.

Other members of the coalition include the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Council of Social Service, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Climate Institute, and WWF Australia.

In a statement, the coalition said it came together because it believed Australia should play its part in global efforts to limit climate change to less than two degrees Celsius, citing “serious economic, social and environmental impacts that unconstrained climate change would have on Australia”.

The group stressed that its principles address the goals of climate policy, but do not end debate or prescribe a single solution, setting out common ground on which more detailed policy can be built. The Australian Climate

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AMT AUGUST 2015

Roundtable will continue to work together “to ensure that climate policy meets our nation’s economic, environmental and social needs”.

Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Innes Willox said: “These principles will help end the frustration and disruption that business has faced from ever-changing climate policy. The shared recognition that we need to maintain competitiveness while reducing emissions over time is a major advance and a solid platform for future policy stability.”

Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott said: “It is significant that a broad cross-section of groups have agreed to an important set of principles to send climate policy in Australia in the right direction and avoid years of costly policy uncertainty and reversals. There is now overwhelming common ground on the need for a more certain and meaningful approach to emissions reduction.”

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industry news

Abcor opens new Campbellfield facility Victorian Industry Minister Lily D’Ambrosio on 19 June officially opened a new multi-million dollar manufacturing facility in Campbellfield.

Abcor, an Australian-owned business designing and supplying fabricated components for the truck, automotive and defence industries, has invested close to $15m in buildings and equipment on the new world-class automated production facility in Melbourne’s north. The new purpose-built plant will create 30 new jobs and operate in conjunction with Abcor’s existing facilities to produce in excess of 12,000 steel bull bars per year annually for Toyota.

D’Ambrosio said the partnership between Abcor and Toyota Australia and the establishment of a new manufacturing plant is great news for Victoria.

“Abcor’s success is testament to the company’s world class engineering and design capabilities, and a welcome development for the local manufacturing sector and the broader economy,” she said.

“The new facility with its highly specialised manufacturing and assembly line equipment valued in excess of $5m has been purpose-built to supply the new generation Toyota Hilux with genuine steel bull bars specifically for the Australian market,” John Kaias, Director of Abcor.

“Abcor has a highly talented engineering and design team with a strong understanding of vehicle dynamics and Australian design rules which has been instrumental in the company securing this contract with Toyota. The investment in our new high-tech facility ensures we meet the very specific design and manufacturing demands of Toyota and enables us to continue our strong growth despite the well-known issues around local manufacturing.”

Toyota Australia President Dave Buttner attended the opening, saying Toyota was delighted with the business partnership between Toyota and Abcor, and Abcor’s commitment to world-class design and manufacturing in Australia.

“At Toyota, we recognise the importance of having globally competitive, sustainable and capable local suppliers,” said Buttner. “The bull bars are a highly specialised premium component unique to the Australian market. It is critical for a company such as Toyota to find a local partner able and willing to take on the engineering and manufacturing of such an important niche market.”

Abcor Founder Greg Kaias arrived in Australia from Greece in 1960.

Originally a boilermaker/welder he established Abcor, trading as Preston General Engineering, in 1971. Greg’s sons joined the business: John in 1989 completing his trade as a boilermaker/welder, followed

by James in 1993 as a CPA. It has since grown into a company currently employing more than 200 people with an annual turnover of more than $80m across automotive, truck and defence divisions that work closely with international brands.

“We are determined to keep skilled design and manufacturing alive in Australia,” John Kaias said. “The key will be for businesses to be able to respond quickly to the range of specific niche opportunities that do exist for Aussie design, engineering and manufacturing skills.”

“Our mission is to maintain and develop home grown design and manufacture expertise, using Australian suppliers wherever possible, to keep the manufacturing industry in Australia alive and competitive in the future,” added James Kaias.

Confidence steady in manufacturing despite market volatility Confidence within the manufacturing industry remains stable despite low-level hiring for manufacturing professionals. According to the 2015/16 Michael Page Australia Salary and Employment Outlook, most manufacturing employers do not expect to hire amid low economic confidence.

Findings from the report show more than half of manufacturing employers do not expect to increase headcount within the next 12 months (52%). This is despite encouraging sentiment from the industry, as 34% of employers state that their overall confidence within the industry is ‘fair’, while 28% rate it as ‘good’.

also been affected by off-shoring of major industrial manufacturers, specifically automotive.

“In the past five years we have witnessed the manufacturing industry in Australia in transition,” said Joe Vize, Director of Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Property, Michael Page Australia.

“The impact of the mining and resources boom and the consequent strength of the Australian dollar have had a volatile affect on the export market.”

In line with this positive sentiment, 75% of manufacturing employers will be rewarding their staff with a salary increase this year. In a volatile market, jobseekers continue to be attracted to businesses that are focusing on innovation and capital investment.

The strength of the Australian economy has also impacted the industry. Some 57% of manufacturing employers rate the current national economy as ‘fair’ while 21% rate it as ‘poor’. The sector has

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“As a whole, confidence is steady in the manufacturing industry, with increased confidence in the FMCG and dairy sectors,” said Vize.

“We expect hiring to remain consistent over the next 12 months.”

Hiring activity varies by state, with recruitment levels in Victoria and New South Wales remaining strongest. With continued investment in the dairy, FMCG and biomedical sectors, demand for individuals in these sectors remains steady for both operational leadership roles and technical and development roles.

industry news

Swinburne launches Advanced Manufacturing and Design Centre Swinburne University of Technology launched its $100m Advanced Manufacturing and Design Centre (AMDC) on 14 July, aimed at helping to enhance Australia’s manufacturing sector.

“For Australia’s industries to prosper, we need to bring together imaginative ideas with technological knowhow,” said Swinburne Vice-Chancellor, Professor Linda Kristjanson. “The Advanced Manufacturing and Design Centre will help make that happen. This building is a space for collaboration. “ Senator the Hon Scott Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training, officially launched the AMDC, which was built with the support of the Federal Government through its Education Investment Fund. Professor Kristjanson said the AMDC would give researchers and students an opportunity to use the latest manufacturing and design technologies.

“The experience students will gain, the relationships industries will forge, and the research that our academics will conduct in this space is only the beginning of what I believe is an exhilarating road to discovery.”

An exciting facility housed within the AMDC was also celebrated as part of the launch – Swinburne’s Australian Research Council (ARC)

Training Centre in Biodevices. With support from the ARC and industry partners, the Centre is making use of the cutting-edge manufacturing and design capabilities to produce innovative medical technologies and nurture the future leaders of the medical device industry.

Located at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus, the AMDC was designed

by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, in partnership with Jacobs Australia.

Fronted by a restored original two-storey Victorian façade, the 11-storey building provides 18,000 square feet of floor space, and has a 5-Star Green sustainability rating by the Green Building Council of Australia.

The building features laboratories, lecture theatres (including a 274-seat auditorium), teaching classrooms and workshops, an industry-engagement office suite, office accommodation and breakout areas. It also hosts the innovative Factory of the Future, a specialised facility dedicated to research and collaboration on new technology and innovation in manufacturing.

Middle East group takes 30% stake in K-TIG The United Arab Emirates-based Advanced Science and Innovation Company (ASIC) has made a significant investment in South Australia’s advanced manufacturing sector, taking a 30% stake in Adelaide welding technology company K-TIG. Winner of the 2014 Australian Industrial Product of the Year and the 2015 Defence Industry Innovator Award, K-TIG has developed an ultra-high-speed, full penetration welding technology that welds up to 100 times faster than conventional welding in materials up to 16mm in thickness – in one pass. The technology eliminates the need for wire, edge preparation and skilled operators while requiring just one twentieth of the gas and power needed by other welding processes.

“Welding technology has until now changed very little in the last 50 years,” said K-TIG CEO Neil Le Quesne. “In two short years, K-TIG has managed to turn the way we think about welding on its head and has developed technologies which have eluded the world’s largest welding equipment manufacturers in the US and Europe. This technology places a tool in the hands of fabricators which routinely reduces the time, gas and power required to weld steels and exotic materials by more than 90%.”

The Advanced Science & Innovation Company (ASIC) expects that K-TIG’s technology will be embraced by the global oil and gas industry, in addition to a wide range of other fabrication-dependent sectors.

ASIC General Manager Filip Matwin said K-TIG’s proprietary process was already bringing order-of-magnitude productivity gains to the global fabrication sector.

“Global 500 companies are achieving order of-magnitude cost savings by simply replacing their conventional welding system with K-TIG,” said Matwin. “The productivity gains and cost reductions being

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experienced by these companies is extraordinary, with payback on the technology achieved in months rather than years. We expect this to be a highly disruptive technology, and we are absolutely delighted to be a part of the company’s development.”

South Australia’s Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Kyam Maher said the ASIC investment was great recognition for a South Australian advanced manufacturing company positioning itself on the world stage.

“Attracting international institutional investors clearly requires world leading technology,” said the Minister. “It also requires a supportive business and policy environment, which is exactly the platform we have built through our strategic investment in industry development.”

K-TIG serves a wide range of industry sectors involved in precision fabrication including oil & gas, defence, aerospace, pressure and suction vessels, cryogenics, heat exchange, desalination, pipe making and minerals processing.

“Here in South Australia we have enormous capability, an exceptionally well educated workforce, superb collaboration between research organisations and industry, and a highly supportive Government and policy environment,” added Le Quesne. “We have the mix right – it’s now up to us as entrepreneurs, management teams and our workforces to capitalise on opportunities and bring to market the nextgeneration products and services which the international market is demanding.

industry news

Netherlands orders 12 new Bushmasters

UNSW opens $67m engineering complex

A dozen life-saving Bushmasters are going into production in Bendigo, Victoria, for export to the Netherlands, after the country’s Ministry of Defence ordered new vehicles from Thales Australia.

The vehicles will complement the 86 Bushmasters previously purchased by the Dutch customer between 2006 and 2009, and will be delivered by the middle of 2016.

“The Bushmaster has proven itself on operations with the Dutch military in Afghanistan, and is a vital component of their Light Brigade,” said Thales Australia CEO Chris Jenkins. “This export order shows their continuing confidence in the Bushmaster, its ability to protect troops in theatre and save lives.

“It’s also a tribute to the unique skills and in-depth expertise we have at our Bushmaster production facility in Bendigo, Victoria. Generating exports like this is good for us, good for our many local suppliers, and good for the economy as well.” The troop carrier variants will be fitted with additional composite armour, Remote Weapon Stations, and Thales’s market-leading SOTAS intercom system. The Dutch order, whose value remains confidential, follows other Bushmaster exports to Japan and Jamaica over the past 18 months.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull last month opened the new Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering precinct at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

Minister Turnbull toured the new facility with President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs and businessman and philanthropist Dr Len Ainsworth, whose substantial donations to UNSW Engineering helped make the $67m redevelopment possible. “Everything has a background in engineering,” Dr Ainsworth said. “My gift has helped UNSW educate our next generation of engineers.”

The Ainsworth Building forms the cornerstone of the precinct, which features state-of-the-art refrigeration, laser and mechatronics labs, as well as wind tunnels, a flight simulator, and machines for tensile and compression testing. The precinct also boasts innovative design studios and teaching spaces, and a solar thermal energy system on its roof, which doubles as a working lab. It will cater to 1,600 mechanical engineering undergraduates, 200 postgraduate coursework students and 130 research students.

Dean of UNSW Engineering, Professor Mark Hoffman, said Dr Ainsworth’s generosity had pushed the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering forward. “The facilities enhance students’ experiences, increase industry interaction, help us attract the best researchers and academics and, of course, pave the way for significant research advancement.”

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industry news

AutoCRC unveils ‘eBus’ Australia’s first designed, engineered and manufactured electric bus, developed through an international collaboration led by the Automotive Cooperative Research Centre (AutoCRC), was unveiled last month at the 2015 Maintenance Conference and Bus Expo in Melbourne.

The ‘eBus’ has been developed in a joint AutoCRC project with industry partner Bustech (Transit Australia Group), Malaysia Automotive Institute and researchers at Swinburne University of Technology and CSIRO. The bus represents a key step forward in the quest to provide sustainable environmentally-friendly transport options for Australia.

“As a country we need to be thinking about and acting on our national mobility to ensure our ongoing productivity and quality of life,” said the AutoCRC’s CEO Ian Christensen. “Our future mobility will require new technology, better use of data, multi modal transport systems and, of course, low emissions. The eBus illustrates the strength of Australian capability in all these areas and we would love to see electric buses becoming commonplace in Australia.”

One of objectives of the electric bus development was to come up with a future-proof concept, which will enable upgrades as the technology evolves. According to the AutoCRC, the development of the eBus marks an important step forward for Australian manufacturing and illustrates that Australia can be a ‘go-to’ nation for R&D and manufacturing capability for other countries.

“AutoCRC is very focused on finding and developing international opportunities for Australian manufacturers and researchers,” said AutoCRC Research Director Dr Gary White. “We have a strong and

mutually beneficial relationship with Malaysia through the Malaysia Automotive Institute, which had led to many fruitful collaborations, including the development of this exciting vehicle. This project is proof of viability not just of the new technology we have developed, but also demonstrates the capability of Australia generally and it illustrates just one way in which we can play a role in the global marketplace.”

Innovation, collaboration focus at Aus-Germany Conference The German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce has announced the return of the Australia Germany Business Conference, which will take place on 10 September in Melbourne’s International Chamber House.

This year, the Conference will focus on ‘Innovation and Collaboration’ and provide companies with a platform to discuss the future of entrepreneurship and innovation within Australia’s challenging business environment. In addition, it will explore how companies can overcome cultural, financial and administrative barriers to collaborative innovation as well as the global trends that are influencing Open Innovation. The program will showcase new ideas, business models and processes which deliver valuable insights into the strategies of “Innovation Champions” and give Australian and German companies the opportunity to share knowledge on how they became market leaders in their fields.

The agenda will also feature top-level speakers who will address the opportunities within the Industry 4.0 framework and discuss how companies can stay competitive especially in a harsh economic environment. Australia’s manufacturing industry, along with the rest of the world, is currently facing obstacles such as global competition, increased costs, shorter production cycles and increased market transparency as it undergoes a digital revolution. The panel will address Germany’s place at the forefront of the “fourth industrial revolution” and the increasing partnership between the two nations to build a successful and robust manufacturing sector in Australia.

In addition to the high-profile panel discussion, the conference

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will also be accompanied by ‘Breakout Sessions’ and provide guests with a networking opportunity with successful entrepreneurs and leaders of today’s startup economy. As industries face increasing disruption and increased production automation, it is important for companies to implement and adapt to the growing demand for Industry 4.0 and bring smart technologies such as 3D printers, CNC machines and laser scanning equipment into the workplace.

High-profile speakers and panellists include: Andrew Stevens, Chair (Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre); Grant Anderson, CEO (ANCA Pty Ltd); Doron Ben-Meir, Executive Director of Research, Innovation & Commercialisation (University of Melbourne) and CEO (University of Melbourne Commercial Limited); Jeff Connolly, Chairman and CEO (Siemens Ltd); Dr Eckhardt Franz, Director External Economic Policy (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy - BMWi Germany); and Scott Moffat, Managing Director (Pilz Australia & New Zealand).

The Conference will conclude with the annual Gala Dinner at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins. This social highlight of the year is open to all members and friends of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The Dinner features a prominent guest speaker, a three-course dinner and entertainment. Further details can be found at www.australia-germany.com

Hotspots is proudly owned and managed

by AMTIL

Looking for the right support? HotSpots can help.

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You need a specific component made, but don’t have the capabilities in house.

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Your company has landed a major project, but your workshop or your workforce just aren’t big enough to handle the volume required.

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HotSpots is a service designed to connect AMTIL members with opportunities to help their businesses grow. That piece of work that you need done might be just the sort of opportunity they’re looking for. And by featuring that opportunity as a HotSpot, you gain access to a wealth of Australian manufacturing capability and expertise.

Our regular AMTIL HotSpots email goes out to over 1,000 people every month, making HotSpots an incredibly powerful way to reach large numbers of key decision-makers from across the manufacturing sector.

Provided your opportunity meets our criteria for listing, inclusion in AMTIL HotSpots is free. If you have something you feel will meet our criteria, please forward it to AMTIL for assessment by emailing info@amtil.com.au with the subject line HOTSPOT. www.amtil.com.au/Membership/Hotspots

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government news

Boost your business with ICN Gateway For the past five years, the Industry Capability Network (ICN)’s unique online work packages tool – ICN Gateway – has been helping Australian companies find new work with major and regional projects.

ICN executive director, Derek Lark, said the site attracts around 40,000 users every month, including 12,000 supplier searches: “Best of all, we know it works because ICN Gateway suppliers have told us that they’ve been contacted directly by someone who found their details on our site.”

ICN has introduced a range of new options to help companies increase their chances of standing out from the crowd, with packages to suit everyone’s needs and budget. This means that some products and services will have an annual cost to companies (with a basic nocost offer available too). The product and services delivered by ICN are wide and varied.

“Broadly ICN links local companies with opportunities and we achieve this through a whole range of initiatives,” Lark explains. “Whether it’s organising a tendering workshop, bringing suppliers together for a briefing or identifying joint venture partnerships, we’re always on the look-out for ways we can help support local companies and their growth.”

On top of the support provided by ICN, Lark also encourages local companies to get onto ICN Gateway and get active.

“Submitting expressions of interest (EOIs) is an important function delivered by ICN Gateway, but you’re also part of a large business community that you can use to search for potential partnerships, seek new opportunities. You could even do some competitor research while you’re there.”

The basic listing on ICN Gateway – a company profile that ICN’s expert consultants can view and send notifications when suitable projects are online, allowing you to send an expression of interest –currently remains free. ICN consultants also research and identify local companies that meet the requirement of regional and major projects and pass these onto the project’s procurement team.

As of 6 July, however, it has cost a small annual sum of just $156 to appear in search results on the ICN Gateway. Lark stresses that is only about $3 a week and represents great value when compared with other marketing channels.

“It is also far less ‘hit and miss’ than other advertising options,” he adds. “On ICN Gateway you will be seen by people who are looking for exactly what you are offering.”

For companies who want to promote their business even more, ICN has released a “Be Compelling” package, which includes a higher listing, public profile and professionally-prepared capability statement.

Finally, ICN has released a Premium package, which includes the capability statement, a company-branded webpage – with a custom URL and company branding – a listing in the top of search results and much more. www.gateway.icn.org.au

Accelerating Commercialisation – 13 new projects announced Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has announced further funding for 13 innovative Australian businesses under the Accelerating Commercialisation element of the Entrepreneurs’ Programme.

A total of $5.1m in Australian Government funding has been offered via grants to 13 businesses to help them to commercialise their products in both Australian and international markets. Aimed at addressing a need for Australia to turn great ideas into commercial products to keep up with the global economy, the latest round of grants follow on from 18 Australian companies who received funding in early June under the Entrepreneurs’ Programme. The $5.1m in Government funding is being matched by businesses themselves, leading to a total value for the projects of $10.2m.

The Entrepreneurs’ Programme helps Australian entrepreneurs, inventors, commercialisation offices and small and medium businesses address the challenges associated with commercialising novel intellectual property. It aims to: • Accelerate the commercialisation of novel intellectual property in the form of new products, processes and services.

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• Create new businesses based on novel intellectual property with high growth potential.

• Generate greater commercial and economic returns from both public and private sector research and facilitate investment to drive business growth and competitiveness.

Commercialisation Advisers guide businesses through the commercialisation process. Eligible entities may also receive financial assistance in the form of a matching grant of up to $1m and the 13 new grants are the second group announced under Accelerating Commercialisation. The successful businesses will receive between $81,000 and $800,000 to invest in commercial products across a range of sectors to increase their competitiveness and sustainability.

More information on the recipients can be found at www.business.gov.au/ac-grant-recipients. Details about the Entrepreneurs’ Programme can be found at www.business.gov.au/entrepreneurs-programme

VOICE-BOX Opinions from across the manufacturing industry

Manufacturers must embrace technology With strong competition from overseas manufacturing companies, Australia now more than ever, needs to embrace emerging technology to maintain a competitive advantage. By Bruce Minty.

According to the CSIRO report Equipping Australian Manufacturing for the Information Age 2014, many businesses are significantly under-utilising modern information technologies. Only 39% of small manufacturing companies are able to accept orders over the internet, while this figure rises to 81% for larger companies.

But by increasing their rate of technology adoption, manufacturing organisations can improve operations, benefit from increased return on investment (ROI) and be leaders of innovation.

Here are five key trends currently influencing the manufacturing sector in Australia.

Getting smarter with data Big data is not a new trend. However, manufacturers are now starting to think about the information they have available to them and how it can be used to make smarter decisions for the business.

Accenture’s Mobility Research 2015 report found that 34% of executives ranked analytics as their top priority and the most critical digital technology area in 2015.

Manufacturers have realised that just having access to data is no longer enough. It’s about how they analyse the data that provides the valuable information staff need to improve the company.

In light of this, we will see more manufacturing businesses implementing software to provide greater analysis of data and drive better-informed business decisions around product performance which in turn leads to better design considerations. Using this ‘smart data’, manufacturers can achieve a competitive advantage.

An interesting example is when Dixon Group, world leaders in manufacturing hose fittings and accessories, recognised the need to gain better insights into its manufacturing operations. Dixon was looking for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that could improve distribution performance by providing access to real-time data on stock-in-hand availability and stock available to promise. By implementing Pronto Xi business management software, Dixon was able to gain greater visibility into real-time financial management and report generation, improve efficiency and make valuable business decisions. Using this smart data, Dixon was able to seamlessly integrate all systems and improve productivity.

Robotics revolution Robots are transforming the manufacturing industry. According to a 2014 report by PWC and The Manufacturing Institute in the US, as robots become smarter and cheaper to produce, they are able to take on more human traits and therefore perform more jobs traditionally performed by humans.

These jobs include transportation of materials or supplies, picking and packaging, product testing and inspection. With robots controlling these actions, it frees up the human workforce to focus on higher-level tasks.

What’s interesting about this trend is that the report states the rise of robots will not lead to the reduction in staff or jobs. A robotic workforce can even increase the need for human employees to train, repair and grow the large robotic workforce. The report also revealed that the biggest impact for manufacturers will be new job opportunities to engineer advanced robots and their technology. Manufacturers will then focus on greater collaboration between man and machine to improve productivity.

Go mobile Many leading manufacturers are already using mobile devices to control operations and equipment, facilitate communication and improve productivity. Manufacturers need to keep up with this shift towards mobility to remain competitive and improve business performance. A key driver for companies to go mobile is to enable travelling staff to access business information wherever they are and on any device. For example, field technicians can have full access to customer service history when conducting repairs on site as well as accessing technical documents to assist technicians through complex repair routines. Manufacturers realising the advantages of offering aftersales service to their customers can schedule routine maintenance checks, help prolong equipment life and monitor performance.

Manufacturing in 3D The rise of 3D printing is transforming the manufacturing industry in Australia as it’s now much easier for businesses to produce prototypes for new products and generate short-order runs. According to a 2014 PWC innovations survey, 70% of manufacturers believe that 3D printers will be used to produce obsolete parts in the next three to

five years with 57% using it for after-market parts. The faster development of prototypes will then speed up the product development cycle and push products to the market faster, leading to better ROI. 3D printers have also become more commonly available. For example, Officeworks has begun offering a 3D printing service for its customers. This greater accessibility will enable manufacturers to explore new ways of working and develop innovative solutions.

With this trend we are likely to see huge leaps in innovation in the sector.

Moving to the cloud More manufacturing businesses are moving to the cloud to house essential systems such as CRM and financial information.

Recent research has found the majority of manufacturers worldwide are currently using public (66%) or private (68%) cloud for more than two applications. The same survey also reveals moving to the cloud will benefit a manufacturer’s IT operations, with 35% of respondents believing it will also benefit supply chain logistics, sales and engineering.

By moving to the cloud, manufacturers can store critical business information in a costeffective and safe way, whilst accessing it anywhere on any device via a web browser.

Managed services delivered through a cloud agreement optimise software upgrades and reduce security risk and disruption to the customer’s business. It also reduces the need for manufacturers to invest heavily in hardware, resourcing and infrastructure.

With the Westpac-ACCI Actual Composite index rising to 58.4 in the second quarter of 2015, conditions in the manufacturing sector appear to be improving. Recent export statistics suggest that, due to the low dollar and slow wages growth, we’re witnessing growth in Australia’s equipment manufacturing and export activities. With this in mind, now is a great time for manufacturing companies to adopt greater integration with technology.

Incorporating data analysis into the business can help companies make better-informed decisions, 3D printing technology can boost innovation in the sector, mobility can improve productivity and robotics can open up new jobs in the sector. By staying on top of these trends companies can remain competitive and boost productivity.

Bruce Minty is Product Marketing Manager – Manufacturing at Pronto Software. www.pronto.net AMT AUGUST 2015

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Tech news

UK: Composite moulding times reduced by breakthrough

Australia: Real-time sensor measures engine oil quality

Surface Generation unveiled its new Multiplexing compression moulding technology for high-volume manufacturing that dramatically improves throughput. Parts taking more than six minutes using traditional compression moulding can now be produced in two minutes using Multiplexing, which uses a unique transfer process with a pressure containment cassette that allows mould faces and laminates to be held at predefined loads, even outside the press.

PtFS technology is central to the system, allowing temperatures to be dynamically controlled. Traditional transfer processes use laminate preheating, with cold tools to speed production. With PtFS and Multiplexing, the mould heats, stabilises and cools parts, allowing the press to open early and freeing this expensive bottleneck to run again.

Changing the oil in your car every 10,000 km could be a thing of the past after researchers in Perth developed a low cost, small, rugged sensor that can monitor oil quality in engines as they are running.

The sensor can be used for any process that involves using oil for lubrication, including for the monitoring of oil pipelines, large industrial machinery or airplanes This development would not have been possible without the university’s in-house multi-million dollar Micro/ Nano-fabrication facility.

Surface Generation

Europe: 3D-printed rocket chamber’s baptism of fire In a world-first, a 3D-printed platinum-rhodium alloy combustion chamber and nozzle have been tested under realistic, demanding conditions. Part of a European Space Agency project, the series of firings lasted for more than one hour, going through 618 complete ignition cycles and included a continuous burn of 32 minutes. This proved that the 3D printed version of the chamber and nozzle performed in a comparable way to a conventional thruster.

3dprint.com

UK: Cheaper and greener de-gassing of aluminium Having proved that ultrasound degassing of molten aluminium alloys is cleaner, greener and cheaper than current methods, scientists have taken the breakthrough a step further. The most common current method of de-gassing aluminium alloys melts - argon rotary degassing - is energy intensive, involving rotating brittle parts and expensive argon gas. The team wanted a continuous process that would allow the application of degassing to much larger melt volumes and upstream from the casting mould. Experiments showed that a plate sonotrode gave a continuous degassing efficiency of at least 50% in the melt flow rising to 75% in batch operation. It is believed that much greater efficiencies are waiting to be unlocked and an industrial partner is sought.

Brunel University

Australia: First commercially viable robotic bricklaying FastBrick Robotics aims to commercialise the technology of its globally patented robotic bricklaying system. From the CAD of a house structure, this 3D Robotic bricklaying system handles the automatic loading, cutting, routing and placement of all the bricks to complete a house structure within two days. “Hadrian” the robot will be commercialised first in WA, then nationally and then globally. Laying 1000 bricks per hour, working day and night, it has the potential to erect 150 homes a year. It works by creating a 3D CAD laying program of a structure, then calculates the location of every brick and creates a program that is used to cut and lay the bricks in sequence from a single, fixed location.

Fastbrickrobotics and mixed

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Edith Cowan University

China: Water filters with nanotubes Crowd-sourced computing has helped an international research team – including researchers from the University of Sydney - discover a new method of improving water filtration systems and water quality. The team enlisted more than 150,000 computer volunteers worldwide to conduct the research. Together they created a network which was able to simulate water flow in carbon nanotubes at very low speeds – an activity that would normally require the equivalent of up to 40,000 years of processing power on a single computer. Ultimately this will help design new carbon nanotube based membranes for water filtration with reduced energy consumption.

University of Sydney

USA: Start-up unveils “3D printed” supercar prototype The aim of Divergent Microfactories is to radically reduce the materials, energy, pollution and cost of car manufacturing, and to put new tools into the hands of small teams (“microfactories”) around the world. This ‘disruptive’ new approach to auto manufacturing incorporates 3D printed metal alloy nodes connected by carbon fiber tubing that results in an industrial strength, composite chassis that is up to 90% lighter and can be assembled in approx. 30 minutes. The Blade prototype ‘supercar’ showcases this technology. It is equipped with a 700 horsepower bi-fuel engine – can use either CNG or petrol, accelerates from zero to 100kmph in two seconds, and weighs just 635kg. The motivation of the company’s CEO – Kevin Czinger – was to find an alternative to the high environmental cost of electric vehicle production – encompassing the entire automotive lifecycle. The technology allows nearly infinite customization (the same parts can be used to build sports cars, trucks, and minivans). This means fewer production lines, fewer costly machines, and lightened environmental impact.

Divergent Microfactories/mixed

Netherlands: 3D printing with metals achieved At present, 3D printing is mostly limited to plastics. Metals melt at high temperatures, making controlled deposition of metal droplets highly challenging. Researchers have made a major step: they used laser light to melt copper and gold into micrometre-sized droplets and deposited these in a controlled manner. A pulsed laser is focused on a thin metal film that locally melts and deforms into a flying drop. The researchers then carefully position this drop onto a substrate. By repeating the process, a 3D structure is made. However the high laser energy also results in droplets landing on the substrate next to the desired location.

This will be investigated.

University of Twente

Product news

Amada’s Techtember customer event Amada will be holding Techtember, a special customer event at the Amada Solution Centre in Bella Vista, New South Wales, on 23-24 September.

Amada holds a number of customer days throughout the year. Held in partnership with other industry leaders, Techtember represents a unique opportunity to go beyond the hustle and bustle of a trade fair and find out about the latest solutions and production processes.

Representatives from Amada, BOC Limited and other industry leaders will be on hand to talk with visitors during the event.

Amada has organised Techtember in response to the current climate surrounding the industry, with visitors able to gain insights into enterprises that combine laser cutting systems, automation, punch and press brake technologies, all the way through to welding and fabrication processes. Experts from all fields affecting the sheet

metal industry will be available to share their expertise, and visitors are encouraged to make the most of the opportunity.

Techtember aims to promote the unfiltered exchange of information between suppliers and customers. Amada is also going one step further by hosting an Industry Network Evening (INE Techtember) where individuals can get together over some fingerfood and beers and discuss the issues their businesses are facing. According to Amada, Techtember will represent an authentic, practically oriented platform for visitors to grow their knowledge in the manufacturing industry. www.amada.com.au/techtember

Liebherr’s energy-efficient Kaeser solution In building its new remanufacturing facility in Adelaide, Liebherr-Australia chose Kaeser equipment to deliver an energy-efficient supply of compressed air on demand.

Since 2004 Liebherr has remanufactured used components from its own construction, handling, maritime and mining equipment. Built to the same quality standards as original new parts, the Reman Program allows Liebherr to deliver high-quality components while saving energy and material.

In 2012 Liebherr-Australia began building a remanufacturing and warehousing facility at its Adelaide head office complex. With a number of Liebherr sites worldwide already satisfactorily using Kaeser compressors, Stefan Stübiger, Industrial Engineering Project Manager at Liebherr Australia, called upon local Kaeser distributor Mobile Compressed Air to design and supply the compressed air system for the new warehouse.

The site required large quantities of compressed air at varying locations across the extensive factory floor. From the dismantling area to the reassembly area, compressed air would be required to power large torque and rattle guns, grit blasting as well as the painting booth. It was anticipated that the demand for compressed air would vary significantly throughout the working day. Liebherr-Australia therefore required a system that could rapidly scale up or down to match demand in the most energy-efficient manner.

To meet these requirements, Mobile Compressed Air recommended installing a CSD 125 series rotary screw compressor, a CSD 105 SFC series frequency controlled rotary screw compressor, a BSD 83 series rotary screw compressor and a Kaeser Sigma Air Manager Master Controller.

Manufactured in Germany to exacting quality standards, the Kaeser CSD series of rotary screw compressors provide the user with significant energy savings. Every CSD rotary screw compressor incorporates a premium-quality screw compressor block equipped with Kaeser flow-optimised Sigma Profile rotors. The Kaeser Sigma Profile can deliver power savings of up to 15% compared with conventional screw compressor block rotor profiles. All Kaeser rotary

screw compressor blocks feature this energy-saving rotor profile and are designed to ensure maximum energy efficiency.

In addition, the CSD 105 SFC rotary screw compressor includes sigma frequency control. Kaeser SFC compressors are able to directly match air demand by continuously adjusting the compressor block speed within the given control range. The result is significant reductions in energy consumption. The CSD / CSDX (SFC) rotary screw compressors from Kaeser are available with drive powers up to 90kW, working pressure 7.5, 10 or 13 bar, and with free air deliveries from 1.07 up to 16.16 cubic metres per minute.

The inclusion of a Sigma Air Manager (SAM) station controller would allow Liebherr-Australia to enjoy further considerable savings. Able to control up to 16 compressors, the SAM controller precisely adjusts the loading and operation of all compressors within the system to achieve optimum station energy efficiency, while its patented 3D control allows a significant reduction in air network system pressure.

The Kaeser equipment was installed along with large compressed air distribution manifolds. Designed and manufactured by Mobile Compressed Air, these manifolds provided Liebherr-Australia with the compressed air equivalent of a power board. With seven outlets installed at different points throughout the facility, compressed air would be highly accessible when and where required.

The project was completed in December 2014. Since installation, Liebherr-Australia continues to rely on Mobile Compressed Air for its on-going compressor and maintenance requirements.

“The compressed air system is providing us with a reliable source of energy-efficient compressed air,” said Stübiger. “We have since chosen to install Kaeser compressors in four further nationwide warehouses.” www.kaeser.com.au

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product news

Haas DT-1 drill/tap centre now available with 20k spindle The highly popular DT-1 drill/tap centre from Haas Automation is now available with a 20,000rpm inline direct-drive spindle, giving customers the ability to run higher feed rates for small tools and highspeed machining operations.

The optional 20K spindle is ideal for applications that require high spindle speeds, and powerful enough to mill hardto-machine materials. It allows rigid tapping to 5,000rpm - with up to four times retract speed to reduce cycle times. The spindle is powered by a 15hp vector drive system that yields 21.7Nm of cutting torque, and the motor is coupled directly to the spindle to reduce heat, increase power transmission, and provide excellent surface finishes.

The DT-1 is a Lean-style machining centre with a compact footprint that allows multiple machines to be placed side-by-side, allowing for the most efficient use of valuable shop floor space. It features a generous 508mm x 406mm x 394mm work cube and 660mm x 381mm T-slot table, while maintaining a very small footprint.

The machine provides cutting feed rates to 30.5 m/min for high-

speed milling, and the 20+1 side-mount tool changer swaps tools quickly to reduce non-cutting time. High-speed 61.0 m/min rapids combine with high acceleration rates to shorten cycle times and increase throughput.

For efficient chip removal, the DT-1 features steeply sloped internal sheet metal. Optional twin chip augers transport chips to exit at the rear of the machine, allowing multiple machines to be placed close together. A 170-litre flood coolant system is standard, with options for a programmable coolant nozzle and high-pressure through-spindle coolant systems.

Built in the USA by Haas, the DT-1 drill/tap centre is backed by the worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets. www.haas-australia.com

BOC launches EWM Xnet welding software Gases and engineering company BOC has confirmed that its new EWM Xnet welding monitoring software is now available in Australia for use on selected EWM welding machines.

The Xnet welding workshop monitoring software solutions allows companies to record and track data from each of their welding machines in real-time, also giving them access to all historical weld information. The Xnet software is available for use with all EWM high-performance welding machines. Xnet offers businesses a userfriendly factory software package that gives workshops the ability to connect and track performance of all their EWM welding devices in one centralised hub.

“Users can easily identify inefficiencies in welds and when maintenance of welding machines needs to occur – ultimately helping them make savings and improve productivity,” says Patrick Fenemor, BOC Application Sales Engineer. “Each machine can be connected via WIFI or LAN cable to the centralised hub, giving each welding machine its own IP address. Xnet also lets users monitor each machine’s wire and power consumption in real-time.”

Consumption data recorded by EWM Xnet gives users a breakdown of how much wire and power is being used by each machine daily, weekly and monthly, as well as how many hours each machine is being used and on standby. Consequently companies can accurately identify the volumes of consumables used on a project, how long a machine is on for, and also how long it is not being used.

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“Xnet also gives welders a true and complete record of what volts, amps and program they are using, ensuring that the integrity and compliance of the weld is maintained,” adds Fenemor. “Xnet is also able to calculate heat input in real time to make sure that finer grain steel welds retain their strength even after the weld is made.”

Companies using Xnet are able to easily access historical welding data to prove that welds produced are meeting industry regulations and standards. www.boc.com.au

Product news

Tecnomors grippers offer range and reliability Dimac Tooling is the sole agent in Australia and New Zealand for Italian company Tecnomors Robotic Grippers.

Robots are commonly used by CNC operators for putting parts into a machine – parts which must be gripped and picked up. Tecnomors’ pneumatic grippers are purpose-designed to work with robots and can also be used as mounting adaptors and rotary actuators.

Established in 1967, Tecnomors has specialised in producing highquality, precision-made grippers for use with robotics. Over the years the company has built up an enviable reputation for quality and longterm reliability, with a wide range of sophisticated designs guaranteeing the best solution to any automated gripping requirement.

“Tecnomors grippers can pick up virtually anything and have a varied range of styles and options for holding different types of workpieces,” explained Dimac Managing Director Paul Fowler.

Tecnomors offers gripping mechanisms that can be utilised in a diverse range of industries for picking up metals, plastic sheets or many other types of material, even extending to picking up boxes for the packaging industry. This is achieved through the use of a gripper that utilises vacuum force, ‘cat grip’ needles and a cryogrip, which uses vaporised water to grip. There is also a version that features a rubber membrane that is inflated and deflated to pick up delicate workpieces.

“You name it, Tecnomors has a solution no matter what your requirement,” added Fowler. “One of the key differences between Tecnomors and other products available in the marketplace is that there are no external cables – they are all self-contained in the gripper unit for added safety and reliability.”

Dimac has more than 30 years of experience in CNC machine tool accessories and is the agent for many highly respected brands, such as Kitagawa, Cooljet, Reven and Eron. The company also manufactures soft and hard jaws in its own CNC-equipped machine shop.

“Like all the products we sell, Tenomors grippers are supported by the full back-up and support of Dimac technical personnel to ensure the right product is specified and operates at optimum performance,” Fowler concluded. www.dimac.com.au

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product news

Open Mind rolls out hyperMILL 2015.1 The latest version of Open Mind’s CAM/CAD suite hyperMILL has now been launched to deliver a host of new optimisations, machining strategies and intuitive features that can further exploit the possibilities of modern CNC machines whilst enhancing ease of use.

There are five noteable highlights in the latest package, including new functions for 2D and five-axis machining. These features can considerably reduce programming times and enable efficient machining whilst numerous powerful extensions in hyperCAD-S, the CAD system for CAM users will deliver real added value.

The most important expansion in hyperMILL 2015.1 is a five-axis helical drilling strategy. This helical drilling cycle generates helical tool paths with the tool plunging into the material quickly. This eliminates the need for pre-drilling operations. By setting the milling tool inclination based on five axes, the user can benefit from efficient and tool-friendly machining with rapid swarf removal. Particularly suited to difficult-to-cut materials, this strategy improves cycle times and tool life considerably.

With internal process quality control becoming increasingly important, there are three new probing cycles featured in hyperMILL 2015.1.

These include the measurement of rectangle and circle elements as well as measuring parallel to the axis. The touch probe is easy to program in all cycles, just like a tool in hyperMILL. This enables users to choose between three measuring functions, the Informative Process Control, Active Process Control and Zero-Point Definition.

With the Informative Process Control feature, it is possible to create measuring data for the individual component geometries and access it from the controller, a major plus for any machine shop. Active Process Control allows probing cycles to be integrated into the machining process in order to actively control parameters. Deviations in dimensional accuracy can be processed in the controller for actual machining based upon the off-set value. This benefit is complemented by the new Zero-Point Definition tool. This new addition makes it possible to quickly and reliably define the component zero-point, providing more precise and efficient machining. In addition to this, all movements are checked for collisions on both three- and five-axis machine tools. hyperCAD-S, the CAD element within the hyperMILL suite is also unveiling new innovations. Toolbars can be individually customised

and the desired commands can be pasted into or deleted from the toolbars via a drag-and-drop facility. This enables the programmer to personalise the system for streamlined operation and programming times.

Another new feature is the improved clipping plane. The clipping plane function is used to generate a planar section through a component.

The selected clipping plane remains active within other functions, but does not affect the existing geometry of the component. This function makes it easier to analyse components while tool and tool paths remain unaffected.

Another highlight is the ‘Print box’ function. This is a powerful tool for creating manufacturing plans. Users can compile or print out individual views as well as clipping planes and areas to create manufacturing documentation. Component dimensions and text information are automatically adopted into the view and can be moved, hidden or shown there. All these functions have been developed to make hyperMILL work even faster and smarter for the end user. www.johnhartsoftware.com.au

Walter’s shoulder milling cutter becomes an all-rounder Wiper indexable inserts have extended the field of application of Walter’s Xtra·tec F4042/F4042R shoulder milling cutter.

The Xtra·tec F4042/F4042R shoulder milling cutter is one of the most universal representatives in its category. The 90-degree approach angle tool is capable of shoulder-milling, ramping, pocketing, facing and interpolating. Now, with a new wiper indexable insert fitted instead of a conventional indexable insert, the F4042 has extended its field of applications even further.

The main features of the new wiper insert are that it is precision-ground and double-edged, has positive geometry and axial projection, and requires no adjustment.

As a result, the F4042/F4042R becomes not only a roughing and finishing face milling cutter that enables the production of outstanding surfaces (Ra down to 0.2 microns), when fitted with the wiper indexable insert, it

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also fulfils all the prerequisites necessary for turn-milling.

Moreover, the user is spared the effort and expense of additional work steps and tools. Occasionally, he will be able to perform complete machining operations on just one machine, while also enjoying an overall reduction in expenditure.

A variety of different cutting tool materials allow the tool to be used for machining steel, cast iron difficult-to-cut material workpieces. The F4042/F4042R is consequently suitable for all metalworking industries. www.walter-tools.com Image: A new wiper indexable insert enables the Xtra·tec F4042/ F4042R shoulder milling cutter to now perform finish-milling and turn-milling operations in addition to its other applications.

Product news

Solid Carbide Guide Pads for T-Deep drilling Creating deep holes in extremely difficult materials takes not only nerves of steel but also the right cutting tool – one that alleviates the stress of standing over the machine hoping that the work is performed efficiently and effectively.

In order to make sure that deep hole drills are following the correct path, TaeguTec is introducing solid carbide guide pads for the T-Deep line of deep drilling heads and gun drills. The numerous advantages of solid carbide guide pads make their use more economical both in price and performance over brazed guide pads. Lower power consumption, longer tool life, fewer required items covering the same diameter range relative to the competition as well as the introduction of advanced carbide grades all help to make this new line an optimal productivity solution.

TaeguTec’s solid carbide guide pads are ideal for any industry that needs to drill deep through various materials. They are used to achieve economical and productive deep hole drilling in the automotive industry’s fabrication of diesel engines and truck bodies, the energy industry’s production of heat exchangers, the creation of oil holes used in hydraulic parts and heavy industry’s manufacture of ship propeller shafts.

Guide pads are equally important in the aerospace industry, where landing gears and gas turbines have to follow strict safety requirements, or in the defence sector, where artillery barrels need to follow precise manufacturing requirements in order that ordnances reach their intended target. Guide pads are crucial in producing vital coolant holes in the die-and-mould sector, the steel industry’s billets, machine builders’ spindles and the construction machinery sector’s production of the incredibly resilient track shoes.

The new line of guide pads are available from PAD-06 to PAD-18 sizes and two grades. For general deep hole drilling where both oil and emulsion coolant are needed, the SB grade is suitably adapted to these cutting conditions. Where higher tool life is needed, a supplementary SA grade using only oil coolant aimed at preventing insert failure in stable cutting conditions is the perfect choice. The guide pads are wholly precision-ground providing superior tool life and productivity relative to their brazed equivalent. www.taegutec.com

[CORRECTION: The July 2015 edition of AMT included a story on Taegutec’s Mill2Rush TNMX 18 inserts (pg34). The article was unfortunately accompanied by pictures of a different product. The article has been amended in the AMT e-magazine, which can be viewed on AMTIL’s website]

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Mining & Resources

after the

BOOM Massive falls in the market value of the global mining industry are hitting the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector hard. However, innovative companies are taking the bull by the horns and prospering despite the downturn.

By Carole Goldsmith.

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Mining & Resources

Released in June, PwC’s 12th annual global report, Mine 2015: The Gloves Are Off, painted a gloomy picture for the global mining industry. The overall market values of the world’s 40 largest mining companies plummeted by US$156bn last year, a 16% fall, while net profit was down by 9%. The financial results were driven by continued pressure on commodity prices, with iron ore, coal and copper prices falling 50%, 26% and 11% respectively throughout 2014. The slide has continued into 2015, with a 12% drop in the price of iron ore in the first third of the year, and a 5% and 6% drop for coal and copper.

How is this downturn affecting the METS industry in Australia?

According to Christine Gibbs Stewart, CEO of Austmine, the fall is having a highly detrimental impact. Throughout April, May and early June, Austmine, Australia’s peak body for the METS industry, surveyed 432 businesses in the sector.

“Our survey asks the question, what impacts has the mining downturn had on your company?” says Gibbs Stewart.

“Responses reveal that in the past 12 months, 79% have had a decrease in revenue, 61% a decrease in profitability, 59% have lost customers and projects, and 52% said they had decreased employee numbers. In terms of diversification, 54% are also supplying the oil and gas industry as well as the mining sector,

and some are moving into other areas such as agriculture, defence and infrastructure.”

For smaller METS companies, ongoing cash flow is a major issue affecting their business. Gibbs Stewart explains that mining companies are traditionally slow payers: “Financing growth is a key challenge for the small-to-medium METS businesses.

Survey responses show that for 22%, finance is a challenge and 20% said that lack of finance is delaying or preventing their export growth.”

The Austmine study also revealed that 66% of the respondent companies are exporting, with some 49% of companies supplying to Indonesia, and 40% to New Zealand. Gibbs Stewart says that the Australian mining sector is very developed and conservative in nature. “With new mines being developed in Central and South-East Asia, as well as Austmine South America, there are CEO increasing opportunities for Christine METS companies to export Gibbs Stewart. their products, services and technology there.”

Continued next page

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Mining & Resources

The Python is an award-winning, environmentally conscious mining plant solution.

Gekko’s InLine Leach Reactor uses fast reaction kinetics to treat a diverse range of ore concentrates.

Continued from previous page

In this regard, Gibbs Stewart reports that the feeling is very positive regarding Australia’s recently signed free-trade agreement with China: “China has huge export opportunities for our industry and so has India. But the Indian market for Australian METS companies has proven to be much more difficult, because of its strict regulations on market entry.”

A strong focus on collaboration is Austmine’s strategy moving forward. It already works closely with mining companies and Austmine conducts many events at which mining speakers talk about their project and their supplier requirements to member companies.

Future collaboration will apply to working relationships with miners, other METS businesses, R&D organisations and government. Gibbs Stewart believes the forthcoming Industry Growth Centre for the METS sector, part of the Federal Government’s Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda, will be a positive step in bolstering collaboration.

“The METS Industry Growth Centre currently being developed will provide a key platform for companies all across the mining value chain to collaborate,” she says. “We all need to work together to develop a sustainable and productive mining industry for the future.”

Austmine’s Chairperson, Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, has been appointed to chair the METS Growth Centre. In her day job Lewis-Gray is the Co-Founder, Chairperson and Managing Director of Gekko Systems, one of a number of Australian companies that are forging ahead by supplying innovative advanced equipment, technology and services to the mining industry.

Gekko Systems – Modular mineral processing Headquartered in Ballarat, in regional Victoria, Gekko is a world leader in gold, silver and mineral processing and low-energy mining solutions. Lewis-Gray, a stockbroker by profession, founded the business in 1996 with her husband Sandy Gray, who as Technical Director is responsible for the company’s technology innovations.

Since its establishment, Gekko has grown very quickly, with offices now in Perth, Johannesburg and Vancouver, as well as agents for its products in Peru, Ghana, Argentina and Brazil. It employs 120 people, 95 of which are based in Australia, designing and manufacturing modular mineral processing plant for the global mining industry.

“At our Ballarat manufacturing site, we build entire processing plants for our clients, and our core Python processing units sell for between $10m and $20m,” says Lewis-Gray. “It’s our innovative low-height modular design that sets us apart from other companies and makes our product very attractive to the mining industry.”

Traditional mineral processing plants can be up to seven stories high, often resulting in complex and costly maintenance and health and safety issues. Gekko’s low-height, skid-based system is ideal for companies that wish to operate processing plants underground or in remote locations, or to pre-concentrate satellite deposits. Increasingly

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miners are also considering the benefits of numerous smaller plants operating close to the mine face rather than the traditional single large processing plant.

“Currently we are building a plant to go into Canada’s Arctic Circle for a gold mining company,” Lewis-Gray adds. “It is required to operate in a small footprint, with a shed, and will have minimal environmental footprint on the location.”

Gekko was initially founded to market its first product, the InLine Pressure Jig (IPJ). The IPJ rapidly and efficiently pre-concentrates high-value ore particles using gravity separation, mechanics and fluid dynamics to separate the lighter gold and other mineral particles.

Growing demand for energy efficient devices spurred the company to modify the product and advance traditional processing equipment.

Reducing the carbon footprint of processing equipment is also high on Gekko’s business strategy.

“One of the advanced products that we’ve developed is the InLine Leach Reactor,” Lewis Gray adds. “That treats the gold, silver and sulphide concentrates we produce from the IPJ and other concentration devices, and leaches it chemically into a liquid. Then, using electrowinning, it converts it into a gold bar.”

Gekko largely sources its components and other supplies from within Australia, with electronics and electrical components often imported.

Among its mining clients are global giants such as Gold Fields, BHP, Barrick and Newcrest Mining.

Gekko exports a lot of what it manufactures into West Africa, in particular Ghana, and also into South America where mining sites are in abundance.

All its exports are shipped out of the Port of Melbourne, Australia’s busiest container port.

A wear plate being cut at Davies WPS’ Esperance manufacturing facility

When asked about the decline in the global mining industry affecting Gekko’s sales, Lewis-Gray answers: “We certainly work in a sector where we have highs and lows. This year is okay, but last year was difficult, and next year will be strong. When times are tough, you need to develop a business strategy that provides the platform for the next stage of growth.”

In her role as Austmine Chair, Lewis-Gray is in contact with many other METS companies. She says that the industry is facing very difficult conditions, particularly with the decline in the coal and iron

Mining & Resources ore mining industry. “Wages were very high at the peak of the mining boom. Now businesses are downsizing with cost reductions across the board, which together with the declining Australian dollar is essential to remain competitive.”

Davies WPS’ EzyLock and Taper-T single-sided attachment products.

As Chair of the forthcoming METS Growth Centre, Lewis-Gray advises that the Government has identified the industry as one of five key growth sectors. “The METS Growth Centre, which will be operating from the end of August, will develop a strategy for the Australian METS sector and examine how its research will be prioritised.”

Davies WPS – Improving safety and lowering costs Davies Wear Plate Systems (Davies WPS) CEO Rod Houston describes the company as: “An innovative supplier of unique wear management products. These enable faster, safer and lower costs of installation and removal of wear plates across the mining industry.”

Speaking from the company’s Perth headquarters, Houston explains that Davies WPS has been delivering customised wear plate solutions for many years. Establish over 20 years ago as Davies Engineering, the company was founded by Brian Davies, now its Technical Director.

downtime. The EzyLock System, as well the company’s range of other patented bolting and locking wear solution products for their wear plate systems, are all manufactured at the Esperance manufacturing site.

“Brian has always been the key innovator of the business and he has developed many customised solutions for the mining industry across Western Australia,” says Houston.

The mining wear plate business is a $300m industry in Australia, according to Houston. Davies WPS is progressively winning part of this business by supplying its wear plate systems to an ever increasing number of leading mining companies, including the big four – Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), Rio Tinto, BHP and Roy Hill.

The company’s manufacturing and product development site is at the beautiful WA coastal town of Esperance, around 700km south-west of Perth and 400km south of Kalgoorlie, where a number of mining sites are located. The business employs 16 people including a full-time R&D team who work on developing new ways to design, construct and maintain wear management systems for mining operations.

Davies WPS is able to access a national network of approved steel wear plate suppliers along with Davies’ internal manufacture of attachment systems, enabling supply to clients in Australia and globally. Although its export market is quite small right now, Davies WPS plans to increase its export market opportunities in the future.

Houston’s appointment as the company’s inaugural CEO just over six months ago is part of a drive to take Davies WPS’ innovative products to a larger national and global market. He has over 27 years of experience as an engineer and business leader in the commercialisation of innovative products and processes in the automotive and resources industry.

He explains how wear plate systems are used in the mining industry: “At iron ore mining sites, large mined rocks containing the iron ore are picked up by trucks and tipped into the ore processing fixed plant.

All the ore fixed plant equipment, where the iron ore is sliding over, utilises sacrificial wear plate surfaces. With the constant movement of iron ore rocks on these surfaces, the wear plates wear out and need to be changed-out at varying intervals. The downtime and labour costs from the wear plate change-out can be reduced by up to 80% using the Davies WPS single-sided wear plate attachment system.”

With the constant wear from the various ores, wear surfaces need replacing as quickly as three months or can last up to three years. At that time operators need to shut down the fixed plant to do repairs and replace the wear plates. That is where Davies technology comes in.

“They have all seen our technology and the benefits of changing wear plates quickly, so reducing costs and providing a safe work place is of great interest to mining companies,” says Houston.

Among the many projects it is involved in, Davies WPS is providing over 400 tons of wear plates and 20,000 EzyLock Systems to the massive Roy Hill iron ore mining project currently being built in the Pilbara region in northern WA. It has also provided FMG’s $US3.5bn Solomon iron ore project, also in the Pilbara, with the EzyLock solution for five stockpile hoppers, and a single-sided wear plate that enables optimised design of feed chutes with no need to access outside walls.

According to FMG’s website the Solomon site has three crushing hubs, a 125MW power station, its own airstrip and three camps to house 3,000 people.

When asked what the challenges are for small-to-medium companies supplying to large mining giants, Houston responds: “One of the biggest challenges is to keep the cash flow moving. Although initial deposits are paid for the products, the bulk of the money is not paid until we have supplied the entire wear plate systems. You need your working capital carefully up front.”

What should the Federal Government be doing to assist the METS sector? Houston suggests, “The government needs to be encouraging innovation. Australia is not a low-cost country, but we are a smart nation. By developing innovative technology for the mining industry, the METS industry can continue to be competitive globally.” www.austmine.com.au www.gekkos.com www.davieswps.com www.business.gov.au/IndustryGrowthCentres Close-up of installation of EzyLock from the wear side

“Using the Davies wear plate system, the removal and installation of the wear plates is a much faster and safer process with all the work carried out from the wear side only,” Houston explains. “No more struggling to remove the standard attachment systems which can require external scaffolding and oxy torches to remove.”

Over the past ten years, Brian Davies has developed an innovative new bolting system to change over plates in a much more efficient way than they traditionally have been replaced in the industry. Houston says the Davies WPS EzyLock System enables quick single-sided installation and removal of wear plates, minimises maintenance costs and increases mining operations efficiency and safety procedures.

This is resulting in a 50% reduction in labour costs and 80% less AMT AUGUST 2015

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Mining & Resources

On the rebound: Australia’s mining sector set to recover After a period of declining revenue, several major Australian mining industries are expected to bounce back in 2015-16, according to IBISWorld.

New research from IBISWorld has revealed that Australia’s mining division is set to recover in 2015-16, following a dramatic drop in both revenue and exports in 201415. This substantial year-to-year volatility has been driven by increased production of some of Australia’s key resources, which resulted in a global oversupply and a subsequent slump in commodity prices.

Plummeting commodity prices in some of Australia’s largest mining industries – iron ore mining, oil and gas extraction, and black coal mining – caused revenue in the mining division to decline by 10.0% in 2014-15, to reach $211.8bn.

“It is anticipated that 2015-16 will offer a much rosier picture for some of the nation’s largest industries, but black and brown coal mining may struggle to recover,” said IBISWorld senior industry analyst Spencer Little. “Key commodity prices are set to rebound, while additional capacity in several key industries is also expected to come on line in 2015-16.”

Iron ore, oil and gas As the largest industry in the nation’s mining sector, global supply factors in the iron ore mining industry have underpinned the division’s poor performance in 201415. World iron ore prices declined at an annualised 34.6% over the two years through 2014-15, falling to US$57.91 per dry tonne.

A sharp fall in the world price of crude oil also led to struggles for the oil and gas extraction industry.

The world price of crude oil declined at an annualised 26.0% over the two years through 2014-15, as a result of global oversupply. Like the mining sector’s other major industries, this price drop caused revenue and exports to fall in the oil and gas extraction industry. Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) export prices are based on the Asian LNG market, which typically dictates long-term contracts linked to the price of oil.

“Large LNG projects were downgraded or written down, with some production put on hold as the fall in prices threatened the viability of several major projects,” Little said.

Bouncing back Despite a weak performance in 2014-15, IBISWorld expects Australia’s mining sector to rebound in 2015-16, albeit from a low

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base. Sector-wide revenue is forecast to grow by 8.6% in 2015-16 to reach $230.1bn.

Improving conditions in two of the nation’s largest mining industries – iron ore mining and oil and gas extraction – are set to be the driving forces behind this recovery.

IBISWorld expects world iron ore prices to strengthen in Australian dollar terms following consecutive years of large price drops. This is expected to assist Australian iron ore miners as production volumes continue to rise. Iron ore mining revenue growth in 2015-16 will likely be driven by the expansion projects of Rio Tinto, the largest player in the industry, while oil and gas extraction is also set to bounce back.

“Additional capacity in the oil and gas extraction industry is projected to come on line in 2015-16, including some of the first east coast LNG export facilities,” said Little. “These gas projects are expected to contribute significantly to capital expenditure in the mining division in 2015-16 and also drive strong export growth.”

Black and brown coal While the iron ore mining and oil and gas extraction industries have rebounded strongly from 2014-15, other key mining industries have struggled to bounce back.

For black coal miners, revenue and exports have declined due to falling prices. However, unlike other key industries, black coal mining is unlikely to recover in 2015-16.

Deposits are abundant in Australia, where brown coal is found close to the earth’s surface and is therefore cheap to extract.

“Unlike black coal miners, brown coal miners have been unable to develop export markets,” Little said. “This is because brown coal is too heavy, unstable and low in energy value to make overseas transport or use in other domestic applications economically viable.”

Demand for brown coal is determined by energy demands in the downstream fossil fuel electricity generation industry. Brown coal mining firms are typically vertically integrated along the entire energy supply chain, from mining and generating to distribution and retailing. Weaker demand for brown coal inputs at these operators’ power stations therefore negatively affected the brown coal mining industry’s performance in 2014-15.

This trend is expected to continue, causing a further drop in revenue in 2015-16.

Uranium mining The uranium mining industry expanded dramatically in 2014-15, in the face of a struggling mining sector, with strong growth in uranium revenue and exports also projected for 2015-16. Rising global demand for uranium has boosted world prices.

Despite ongoing environmental concerns, the continued expansion of nuclear electricity generation facilities – particularly in China, India and South Korea – has driven global demand for uranium oxide.

“The continued depreciation of the Australian dollar is expected to contribute to uranium revenue and export growth,” Little said. “Australia’s total uranium production and export volumes are likely to rise due to new mine developments and several expansion projects.”

“World prices for both steaming and coking coal, which are used in electricity generation and steel manufacturing, fell in 2014-15 due to an oversupply in the global market,” said Little.

The brown coal mining industry also struggled in 2014-15, but a range of different factors contributed to the industry’s poor performance. Brown coal is essentially a product in search of a secure market.

Overall, Australia’s mining division is expected to recover in 2015-16, after facing several major supply challenges in the previous year. Despite declines in black and brown coal mining, growth in the division’s larger industries is expected to boost overall revenue. Rebounding prices for iron ore and crude oil, and additional LNG export capacity are projected to underpin stronger division performance in 2015-16. www.ibisworld.com.au

Mining & Resources

Game-changing drilling technology set for launch A ‘game-changing’ product, designed and built in Australia, will be available next year to the world’s biggest mining and drilling companies The TruProbe technology was developed by Adelaide-based Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DETCRC), which has signed an exclusive commercialisation deal with Boart Longyear following a tender process. The product will be distributed from Boart Longyear’s Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Adelaide.

Mining giant BHP is among a host of mineral exploration companies who will receive preferential access to the new technology, which is expected to be available and operational around the globe in the first quarter of 2016.

The new technology involves drilling contractors using gamma geophysical survey sensors inside drill strings to help mining companies identify precious metals and minerals. The product is able to replace conventional gamma geophysical surveys but at a much smaller cost and with significant time savings.

Currently gamma surveys require a team of geophysicists, extensive equipment and expensive laboratory time. The surveys are normally conducted at the completion of the borehole before the drill rods are removed, requiring the drill crew and rig to wait while the geophysical crews conduct the survey. With the TruProbe technology, drilling crews will be able to conduct the gamma survey while removing the

drill rods, eliminating costly stand-by charges. Boart Longyear’s Director of Strategic Information, Michael Ravella, said the cost and time savings provided by the new TruProbe technology will be a game changer for the mineral exploration market.

“There isn’t anything else like this technology available in the mining industry at the moment,’’ said Ravella. “Boart Longyear is currently in the beta (secondary) testing mode of the product. Many mining and geophysical companies are aware of this new product from publications from the DET CRC. When I attended the ASEG Geophysical conference in Perth recently it was a topic everyone wanted to discuss. We expect to put this product into the market quite quickly around the globe with drilling services providers.”

Australia, North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa are expected to be among the first regions to use the TruProbe technology.

DETCRC has an agreement with its partners who help fund and support this type of technology support. As part of the agreement those companies will be the first to have access to the technology.

“For mining explorers the TruProbe technology will offer immediate and significant costs savings,” added Ravella. www.detcrc.com.au

www.boartlongyear.com

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Mining & Resources

Aussie-made TED attracts world’s largest miners An Australian designed and manufactured remote control belly plate lowering and elevating device for tracked vehicles is being introduced to the USA after achieving outstanding success in its home market.

The Tracked Elevating Device, TED – now being introduced to the US by distributor Safety Mining Industrial Trade Suppliers (Safety MITS) – eliminates the human element from the critical lowering stage underneath equipment by employing remote control of the lifting device to remove and lower belly plates and other heavy components.

Removing belly plates from bulldozers and other tracked vehicles requiring maintenance of internal components can be fraught with extreme physical hazard, downtime and expense. The plates – made of hundreds of kilograms of steel and often weighted down further with accumulated debris on top – are traditionally loosened by mechanics who may have to crawl underneath giant machines to line up the bolt holes. Deaths and crush injuries may result.

“Factors such as safety and time-efficiency have already helped us to make our first sales in the US to global companies, which like it because it means they can safely do maintenance in the field, rather than having to take heavy equipment back to the workshop,” says Timothy Lightfoot, Safety MITS Director of Product Development.

“Safety and avoidance of downtime are huge factors in the mining, energy and contracting industries, where thousands of heavy tracked vehicles are at work every day.”

Safety MITS has opened a US office in San Diego to service North American demand. The opening of the Safety MITS USA office follows Australian sales to companies such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Glencore, Peabody, Rio Tinto, Thiess and Yancoal. The technology is applicable globally, with the company initially focussing on markets including Australasia, Asia and North and South America.

TEDs can travel across any terrain and can safely lift up to 800kg. It has a 360-degree turntable at the top, which makes lining up ball joints safer, quicker and easier than the conventional methods using slings and chain block. In addition to belly plates, TED can also be used for equaliser bars, cutting edges, steer cylinders, load rollers, sound suppression equipment, engine sumps and many other applications.

“In addition to making belly plate removal safer, it also makes it significantly more efficient,” says Lightfoot. “Safety MITS collected customer data from major mining and contracting companies over a one-year period and found that by using TED to remove and install belly plates they were able to reduce work time by 73.5% while using one less mechanic.

Lightfoot adds that, traditional belly plate removal techniques present a higher risk of injuries as a mechanic has to crawl under the vehicle to line up the bolt holes. These vehicles are often large dozers, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms, with heavy belly plates that are also prone to accumulating debris over the course of their normal operations, increasing the weight further and obscuring the critical components that secure them in position.

“The belly plate can be locked, secured or restrained, but the biggest safety concern is still having the mechanic placed directly underneath the dozer, or heavy vehicle,” adds Lightfoot. “If the plate is not appropriately restrained or supported, uncontrolled movement can

occur when loosening nuts or bolts, which poses a huge safety risk if a mechanic is working directly underneath 500kg of steel.”

If a dozer needs servicing while still in the field, other problems can occur, such as poor lighting, poor ventilation or inadequate space.

These create significant hazards for a mechanic, who needs to be positioned underneath the dozer to carry out maintenance.

“From a safety point of view – and to minimise downtime too – it is far better to remove these issues altogether with a multi-purpose machine such as the TED, which has been proven on some of the world’s busiest worksites,” says Lightfoot.

TED is designed and manufactured in Australia and is built to withstand the harsh environments that heavy equipment works in every day around the globe. It is built with total compliance to Australian and New Zealand mining standards (ASNZ 4240), which are respected globally in ensuring the highest levels of safety are achieved. TED comes with a range of attachments, which can be easily installed and removed at a moment’s notice. These include: • The Rhino Stand Locator, which allows users to locate stands underneath elevated bulldozers without crawling underneath the suspended load.

• The Cutting Edge tool, designed to assist in the safe removal and installation of cutting edges on bulldozers, graders scrapers and loaders.

• The Load Roller Cradle, designed to assist in the easy removal and installation of track roller components on bulldozers, drills and excavators.

• The Tie Rod and Steer Cylinder Cradle, to assist in the safe removal and installation of steer cylinders and tie rods.

The cradle conveniently bolts to the turntable on top of TED allowing it to rotate 360 degrees. www.safetymits.com

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Mining & Resources

New highly sensitive method for detecting gold at drill sites Researchers at the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing have developed a portable method for detecting trace amounts of gold in ore samples - on-site at the drilling rig.

Using advanced photonics, Dr Agneszka Zuber and Associate Professor Heike EbendorffHeidepriem’s method can find gold nanoparticles at detection limits a hundred times lower than current methods such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF).

on real rock samples.

“The project we are working on is sponsored by the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DET CRC) ,” says Dr Zuber.

“They have a drilling site in Brukunga, close to Adelaide, and we have used drill samples from there. They are preliminary, but the first results are promising.”

“We are working on two optical methods. One of them uses fluorescence and the other is The only comparably sensitive Figure A shows no fluorescence and no gold nanoparticles. Figure B shows absorption,” says Dr Zuber. “The method of detecting gold in a green fluorescence, indicating the presence of gold particles. most popular methods are XRF such low concentrations at the and XRD. These methods work moment is with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP but the problem is the level of detection is quite high - around five MS). That is a large off-site machine. Samples have to be sent to the to ten parts per million. It means that some ore deposits can just be lab and prepared through special methods such as fire assay and acid missed. Our aim is to detect gold in parts per billion.” The project digestion before testing. Results can take weeks to arrive. could save explorers from missed opportunities when drilling for gold.

“It’s about time and place,” Dr Zuber says, “the point is to analyse it It’s a timely project, as gold isn’t limited to use in jewellery – it’s an quickly and at the place of drilling. We can achieve similarly sensitive increasingly important and in-demand component in electronics results with a very small setup with a very easy to use method.” and medical devices. Dr Zuber and Associate Professor Ebendorffwww.adelaide.edu.au/ipas Heidepriem have already been able to detect trace amounts down to 70 parts per billion of gold in water, and are currently undertaking tests

AMT AUGUST 2015

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Mining & Resources

Unlocking millions of tonnes of nickel A new method of extracting nickel from Australia’s low-grade laterite reserves could make millions of tonnes of untapped nickel laterites economically viable.

Around 70% of the world’s nickel reserves are found in the form of laterites, which are soils rich in mineral ores. Many of these reserves remain untapped due to the complexities of extraction from laterites.

Australia has abundant nickel laterite reserves, but until now extraction of nickel from these laterites has been challenging and expensive, resulting in the generation of large amounts of waste chemicals.

Traditional techniques for the processing of nickel laterite use large quantities of sulphuric acid at high temperatures and pressures, resulting in expensive waste treatment and disposal of the chemicals used in the extraction process.

Nickel laterites are becoming a priority for mining companies as traditional nickel sulphide reserves are depleted. In 2010, global nickel production from laterites exceeded nickel sulphide-based production for the first time.

In collaboration with Direct Nickel, a Sydney-based SME, CSIRO is testing a new extraction process that could make millions of tonnes of untapped nickel laterite reserves economically viable. Direct Nickel has developed a more cost-effective and efficient way to extract nickel from laterites using small amounts of nitric acid. About 95% of the nitric acid can be recycled and reused as a processing reagent, which vastly reduces the amount of waste produced and avoids the costly neutralisation and disposal of used acid.

With only a few kilograms of nitric acid used per ton of laterite, compared with at least half a ton of sulphuric acid per ton of laterite, this new method offers a more environmentally sustainable and costeffective processing option. To facilitate the transition from laboratory-

scale to industrial-scale mineral processing CSIRO invested in a pilot plant at its Waterford site in Perth, for large-scale testing of the new method. The new process has been successfully demonstrated at pilot scale.

Direct Nickel has signed an agreement with Indonesian mining company, PT ANTAM, to co-operate in the development of nickel laterite deposits and processing plants in Indonesia. The agreement promises to significantly improve the efficiency and economics of nickel laterite processing and unlock the world’s nickel laterite supply. www.csiro.au www.directnickel.com

Duromer – tough handling for underground applications Australian thermoplastic polymer specialist Duromer Products produces a range of tough lightweight materials and engineered solutions for underground and confined spaces applications.

The corrosion and chemical-resistant nylonbased products – including two material grades approved to MDG 3608 relating to non-metallic materials for use in underground coal mining – are suitable for materials handling components including conveyor rollers, roller components and conveyor accessories. The products are approved for Fire-Retardant Anti-Static (FRAS) safety standards Available either as an off-the-shelf product or as a suite of custom-engineered solutions suited to individual needs, the range is also suitable for a wide variety of materials handling and process engineering components, including pulleys, brackets, diverse rollers, elevator buckets and pull switch accessories such as “Pigs Tails” “In prime applications such as coal, these FRAS-approved and MDG 3608 compliant materials have significant advantages in addition to high performance and durability in aggressive environments,” said Duromer Applications Engineer Aldo Mostacci. “These include weight savings, cost savings and flexibility in manufacture.

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“As a replacement for metal, their FRAS rating and resistance to chemicals and corrosion make them suitable for use across a range of confined spaces applications and a broad range of industries. Applications include situations where designers are contending with aggressive environments, including primary and food product processing, minerals processing, ports and maritime materials handling, infrastructure and energy projects, oil and gas installations and water and waste water plants.”

Conveyor rollers are a prime application of Duromer’s FRAS-approved products.

An underground conveyor roller employs Duromer’s FRAS-approved solutions.

An Australian-owned and operated business, Duromer offers extensive technical assistance and local industry experience to customers. The company’s resources include mechanical and polymer engineering expertise, as well as chemists and service personnel with many years experience in polymer moulding. Offering assistance with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Mould Flow Analysis, the company can support the entire manufacturing process from design to part manufacture. www.duromer.com

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company focus

Surdex Steel – Setting itself apart While primarily a distributor of a commodity product, Surdex Steel distinguishes itself from its competitors by focussing on service, value, and meeting its customers’ needs. By William Poole.

Surdex Steel started life in 1952, when Reg Geary opened a small steel warehouse on Sydney Road in Brunswick, north of Melbourne.

Geary’s initial emphasis was on building products, but the company soon diversified into a broader range of structural steel and sheet and coil. Meanwhile the business grew steadily, taking on premises in nearby Campbellfield, Keysborough and then Wodonga.

In 1988 Surdex was acquired by the Southern Steel Group, based in Sydney, and further expansion followed in locations such as Shepparton, Bendigo, Warrnambool, Geelong and Morwell. Around ten years ago Surdex purchased a plate-profiling business in Dandenong South, while moving into a purpose-built headquarters nearby.

Today the company operates from 11 sites located around Victoria or just across the New South Wales border in Albury, and employs around 200 personnel – a number that’s remained impressively stable despite difficult market conditions in the years since the global financial crisis (GFC). Surdex distributes steel products throughout Victoria (with each of the other states covered by sister companies within the Southern Steel Group) primarily focussing on carbon steel.

“Some of our regional branches sell engineering steels and speciality metals but they are not our main focus” says Surdex’s General Manager David Ferguson. “It’s really more around sheet and coil, tubular, structural steel, merchant bar, plate and related constructiontype materials. We still do quite a lot of building products – roofing and purlins – mainly through our regional branches. But the focus has moved away from building products more into steel for construction and sheet and coil-type products.”

Surdex’s primary customer base is made up of fabricators supplying into the construction industry. It has supplied steel for a host of major building projects, such as the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and the Bendigo Hospital (both currently under construction), and The Green Chemical Futures building recently completed at Monash University’s Clayton Campus. Alongside those large projects are numerous smaller ones, including warehouses and industrial premises around suburban Melbourne and regional centres such as Bendigo, Shepparton and Warrnambool.

Another significant market is the transport sector, with Surdex providing steel that goes into trailers or trays for trucks, caravan chassis and the seats that go into the Ford Territory. The company also supplies tubular steel for furniture manufacturers.

“We typically buy locally produced material,” Ferguson adds. “The vast majority of both our flat product and long products are sourced locally.

But we supplement that with some imported product from time to time, as market conditions dictate or based on product availability. But it’s a relatively small quantity.”

While the provision of raw material remains core to Surdex’s business, the company has also deliberately expanded into value-added services supplying semi-finished components to meet the customer’s needs.

Processes that it can offer include drilling, rollforming, slitting, shearing and profile cutting, involving both sheet metal and long products. For Ferguson, this is an important part of Surdex’s offering, delivering significant savings to the customers that it supplies, both in terms of time and labour.

“Our whole group searches for ways to be different and one of the ways we can differentiate ourselves is to provide some sort of additional service,” he explains. “Our customers are trying to become more efficient all the time. If they can take something they’re inefficient at and give it to someone like us, it takes the cost out of the chain and that’s a good thing for everyone. Our processing services are generally more efficient than those of our customers. It is a growing part of the business, something we’ve focussed on, so we want it to grow.”

Providing processed components is in line with an overall emphasis on delivering real value for the customer and providing service of a quality that matches the product. The team at Surdex boasts a wealth of industry experience and knowledge, in a field that is often poorly

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company focus

understood and where mistakes can prove expensive. This equips the company to provide its customers with a level of advice and guidance that can be invaluable. For Ferguson, that added value is crucial in setting Surdex apart.

“If you’re not adding value, you don’t belong here,” says Ferguson.

“Essentially our products are all commodity, so we need to differentiate our services from everyone else to succeed. The industry is changing, and I think the businesses who are going to succeed are the ones that can provide a differentiated service, because the product is almost the same. So we have to do things differently: profile plate, profile long products, provide crane trucks, provide training and technical advice that goes with our products, just to create a point of difference.”

Supply and demand Ferguson is a veteran of the steel industry, working at BHP Steel for 20 years and occupying a variety of roles in the sector both in Australia and overseas. That background affords him a considerable degree of insight into the challenges facing the sector today.

“The biggest challenge is weak demand in the market,” says Ferguson.

“The supply side of steel is in surplus and we don’t have an offset on the demand side. We’re not pulling through additional demand, which means that prices are suppressed, making it very difficult for anyone in the steel industry to be profitable. That’s a real challenge.

The real issue for us is not enough demand world-wide. World-wide steel demand is running at about 72% of rated capacity.”

Ferguson goes on to cite confidence, both among consumers and businesses, as factors that have huge influence on demand.

Confidence in government projects – in particular steel-intensive projects – have a particularly significant impact on the overall industry, and on Surdex. For example the industry faced a notable setback recently with the cancellation of the East-West Link freeway project.

“I think that really took the wind out of everyone’s sails in the steel market,” says Ferguson. “Because everyone was thinking ‘Ok, things are tough, but we’ve got that to look forward to’, and now it’s ‘Things are tough and we’ve got nothing much to look forward to’. There was probably two hundred thousand tonnes of steel going to be used in that project. That really hurt.”

Fortunately, cases like the East-West Link are relatively rare, though delays in projects are a problem that Surdex must often contend with. “That is the nature of the construction sector”. In addition, more broadly, Ferguson believes that Australian manufacturing is going through extremely difficult times.

“I think everyone’s done to death with saying it’s tough,” he says.

“The reality is I don’t think anyone working today has encountered conditions as tough as they are now. There’s a lot of businesses just hanging on. After the GFC our industry was hit particularly hard and I think everyone expected recovery, but I don’t think we’ve seen that recovery. The market has just bumped along the bottom.”

The sustained strength of the Australian dollar has been a key factor in this, and Ferguson believes the manufacturing sector remains under pressure as a result.

Nonetheless, there are ways in which Ferguson believes Government can have a highly positive impact, particularly with regard to infrastructure projects, and establishing a sense of certainty where those projects are not so easily derailed by changes in the political climate. He cites recent moves to increase Victoria’s ports, with the plans initially focussing on Hastings, then shifting to Geelong, and now less certain, all the while leaving businesses unclear on what direction to take. He also believes more could be done to ensure these projects create opportunities for Australian companies.

“Local content for us has got to be local material content, not just the services around infrastructure projects,” says Ferguson. “Whether they’re building trams or trains or ports or roads, if Australian accountants and financiers are involved that’s fantastic, but if we’re supplying steel or timber or paint, that’s even better. And the Victorian governments of both persuasions have been pretty strong at doing that. The steel industry would hold Victoria up as the model for state governments to follow around the country in terms of local content.

They’ve done really well.”

Despite the challenges facing the industry, Ferguson maintains that Surdex is still well on track, and the business is making plans for the future.

“We have a fantastic footprint in the Victorian market with great facilities.” he concludes. “We have expansion plans to implement when conditions are appropriate. This will involve expanding our range of services, improving the supply chain’s efficiency and making Surdex an even more valuable supplier.” www.surdexsteel.com.au

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Cutting Tools

Iscar – Part of the team For V8 Supercars team Nissan Motorsports, ensuring its cars perform on race-day is the culmination of a collective effort that begins in the workshop, and in employing the very best in manufacturing technology, which is why its relationship with Iscar is critical to the team’s success.

Motorsport is a cut-throat business. Each driver is fighting for every tenth of a second to be one place ahead of their rivals. The faster you are, the better chance you have of winning. Or of taking home a trophy. Or of having your photo taken on the podium with the grid girls. Regardless of the motivation, being quicker than the rest is ultimately the aim of the game.

However, it’s not all about accelerating earlier or braking later. Modern motorsport is a high-pressured game filled with a mix of technology and speed. V8 Supercars team Nissan Motorsport knows the importance of technology and speed – both on and off track – and cutting tools company Iscar is a key factor in the off-track arms race to get the team to the front of the field. Iscar has been a technical partner of Nissan Motorsport for many years, supplying all of the technologically advanced cutting tools to the team’s state-of-the-art machine shop.

To set the team apart, Nissan Motorsport is one of few V8 teams that manufacturers all of its components in-house. The components are cut micron-perfect, ensuring they are fast, reliable and affordable. The end results are thousands of beautifully machined components that live inside the team’s four Nissan V8 Altimas.

Moreover, it’s not all about having picture-perfect products. The team places a huge emphasis on how quickly they can produce the machined parts – and that is where Iscar’s technology and expertise is best utilised.

“We’ve halved cycle time times using tool recommendations with the assistance of Iscar and its representatives,” says Sam Barclay, Nissan Motorsport’s machine shop chief. “We’ve found that two of Iscar’s products – the Chatterfree solid carbide endmills and the HighQ line milling inserts – have dramatically reduced the roughing time. It gets the job finished sooner and allows you to move onto the next project.

“V8 Supercars is a fast-moving industry. You need to be one step ahead of the next team, so we need to act fast, and this is where Iscar’s expertise has been a huge bonus for us.”

Todd Kelly, the team’s owner, race driver and technical leader agrees.

“It’s very similar to what we do on the track – it’s all about going as fast as you can without having a crash!” says Kelly. “That philosophy

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is almost identical in the machine shop. You can go too fast when you’re trying to machine a job and cause all sorts of damage to the machine. The benefits are quite obvious. It’s a massive benefit to us to machine a billet to the final product, taking bigger cuts, speeding up the process without compromising the final product.”

Iscar understands that machining intelligently increases productivity and output; components spend less time in the machining process thus reducing the overall costs in the manufacturing process. It is surprising how similar motor racing and advanced manufacturing is – both have a strong focus on time-in-cut or lap time, and downtime or pit time.

Iscar’s focus has always been to reduce time-in-cut, with innovative new high-feed technology, and to reduce down-time using quickchange techonology, with SumoCham and MultiMaster allowing tool changes on the machine that greatly reduce set-up time and other delays.

The reduction of price of a tool or the increase in tool life has very little effect on reducing the cost of manufacturing. Generally an increase in productivity of 20% offers a 15% cost reduction in the manufacturing process. Implementation of Iscar’s new cutting technology allows this increase in productivity.

Cutting Tools

Sam Barclay, Nissan Motorsport’s machine shop chief.

Todd Kelly, Nissan Motorsport’s owner, race driver and technical leader.

Close collaboration According to Nissan Motorsport, Iscar is also acutely aware of the demands of Lean operations, the difficulties caused by ever-increasing material and technical challenges, and the ‘cost-down’ pressure placed on manufacturers by their customers. As manufacturers require increased levels of support from their supply partners, Iscar strives to work closely with customers. The company constantly develops new technologies that not only meet emerging needs, but also maximise the value of investments in modern machinery by increasing equipment utilisation and optimising performances.

cases even more important is the machining tools. You’d be surprised how many different tools it takes to run those machines – and they all have their own specific intricate shapes and profiles. You need a different tool to make all of those different surfaces that we create.

“It’s great to stand in front of the tool chambers, seeing them all spin around throwing all of the different tools at it to create a part. You soon realise how much goes into the process. The quality of those tools is critical. If they’re out just a fraction, then everything is out of tolerance.

The quality of the end product is dictated by the tooling.”

Meanwhile, though the end game is to be the best on the race track, Kelly says that you need to have your off-track elements in order before you can think about giving your victory speech.

“It’s a matter of getting through as much as we can and getting the parts on the cars to make the cars faster,” he says. “For that to happen, the machine shop has to be operating at its optimum.

“That’s where really good relationships with quality brands like Iscar come into play. Talking through the different jobs, the different materials that we use and finding the most efficient way to get from a raw piece of material to the finished product – you need to get that spot on. If you don’t have the tools to do the job quickly and effectively, the race is over before you’ve even started.”

Kelly says that your chances of on-track success are only as good as the investment placed in every component in the four Nissan Motorsport V8 race cars: “Of all the parts that you have in your race car – whether they are outsourced or whether they are made in the machine shop – the end result is the car you have on the track is only as good as what you’ve invested.

“It’s the same philosophy in the machine shop. It’s easy to see a design of a cylinder head, a valve cover or a beautifully machined part for the car and admire the finished product, but a lot of people don’t see all of the steps in between. We have unbelievable CNC machinery in our shop making those parts, and just as importantly, and in some

Kelly drives the #7 Nissan Altima V8 in the V8 Supercars Championship.

He is a former Bathurst 1000 winner and has competed at the top level of Australian motorsport for close on two decades. The V8 Supercars Championship is Australia’s premier motorsport’s category.

It competes in every state of Australia, as well as the Northern Territory and New Zealand. In 2016, the championship will head to Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia, for the first time, adding to China, Bahrain, United Arab Emarites and the United States that the championship has competed in past years.

According to Kelly, without the team’s in-house machining capabilities, maintaining the high-level of development needed to push forward in the sport would be a difficult task, if not impossible.

“We feel as though we have pretty good set-up in our race team – second to none in Australian motorsport – and it’s because of the partners that we have,” he says. “If we didn’t have the capability of manufacturing our components, the team would be non-existent.

There’s that many parts that are on the cars, being updated constantly, it’s mind-blowing.

“You take people through the team, we have four cars to run, which is a giant workload on its own, but then you look at the machine shop and people ask ‘The race cars is surely only 10% of what you do – what other things are you doing?’ The capacity that we’ve got and the amount of things that are being created for the race cars is hard to imagine. It would be a good business if we were just a machine shop and we were selling our parts to the team!” www.nissanmotorsport.com.au www.iscar.com.au AMT AUGUST 2015

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Cutting Tools

What makes a good endmill great?

With so many companies around the world producing endmills, how do you tell the difference between one design and another? By the Evolute grind shop team.

As an apprentice I can remember blunt, rusty, threaded shank high-speed steel slot drills tucked away in a corner of the machine shop. No one would dare throw them away in case they could be reused. The truth was they would gather in a pile mixed with swarf until someone was annoyed by the cluttered mess and they would be thrown out.

For most modern machine shops, the need to chase cycle time has taken precedent over hoarding (we hope). The humble endmill has also evolved. It has proven to be an asset in any productive machine shop. Its ability to remove metal with speed, accuracy and long tool life gives it an advantage over its indexable counterparts. With such a variety of styles, brands and price points to choose from, what makes a “high-performance” endmill different to its “general-purpose” relative?

This article will give you a simple overview of the difference between basic and highperformance endmills, and how to tell the difference.

The main influences of design of solid carbide high performance endmills are: • Workpiece material.

• Machining processes (roughing/ finishing).

• Rigidity of set-up and machine.

The main factors in the design of solid carbide high-performance endmills are: • Tool geometry.

• Carbide substrate.

Tooth profile

• Variable helix: The flute helix angle changes on opposing flutes, progressively equalises at the flute length midpoint and then changes again.

A roughing tooth profile (RMR) is not as rough as it suggests. The carefully timed design of a chip breaker ensures uniform chips are produced with an even tooth load. This will provide lower cutting forces and give the endmill ability to achieve higher feed rates and depth of cuts.

Different angles on opposing flutes

• Both: The combination of both variable index and helix design.

Core design Within the heart of a high performance endmill is the core. The size of the core is dependent on the operation of the endmill. A finishing endmill performing full-flute-length cutting would have a thick core with shallow flutes to give the endmill rigidity, preventing vibration but leading to poor swarf evacuation when roughing. A roughing endmill would have an open flute pocket with a narrow core, giving it good swarf evacuation properties, but also having a negative effect on rigidity and causing the endmill to vibrate. A compromise is a tapered core, which gives the best of both worlds. One-times-diameter slotting is achievable with half of the tool having enough clearance to evacuate swarf while the other half of the tool still maintains a thick core for full-flute-length finishing operations.

Endface wiper flats When cutting on the face, wiper flats provide a greater quality of surface finish. Without a wiper style on the end geometry the endmill may cause a scratchy surface finish, especially in soft material.

• Pre-coating edge preparation.

• Type of coating.

• Polishing (post coating).

We will focus on some of the main aspects of tool geometry.

Variable flute design Popular with most high performance endmill manufacturers is the variable flute design.

This design can reduce vibration and allow for greater depth of cut, higher feed rate and longer tool life. This can be achieved in three ways: • Variable index: The endmill flute starts at different index positions. This can be seen with the tool end on. The difference is subtle at only 5 to 10 degrees.

Wiper flats ground on the end tooth Cross section view of a tapered core endmill

Clearance design: Eccentric vs Faceted Eccentric relief provides better finish and improves the structural strength of the tool.

Faceted relief with a micro land or circular margins provide stability of the tool.

Faceted relief with micro land

Eccentric relief

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End dubbing An endmill without end dubbing has a higher chance of fracture at the corner on initial cut engagement. Without compromising the endmill’s profile of square end or corner radius, end dubbing ensures the strength of the tool tip. www.livetools. com.au

Cutting Tools

One milling cutter, five applications For users with constantly changing tool requirements and a high demands on machining flexibility, Guhring has developed a new Ratio endmill that covers five operations with one tool: RF 100 Diver can perform drilling, ramping, slotting, roughing and finishing operations.

Alongside its versatility the Ratio endmill also offers impressive cutting values, proven by application examples. In addition, the RF 100 Diver sets new standards especially with steep ramping: the multi-functional endmill is capable of plunging at a ramping angle of 45 degrees.

Thanks to their unequal helix angle, Guhring’s RF 100 high-performance endmills have delivered performance and quality. However, until now plunge milling at a maximum angle of 15 degrees was the measure of things.

Where competitors as before hit their limit at an angle of 8-15 degrees, RF 100 Diver achieves a plunging angle of 45 degrees.

Thanks to this unique technical feature, the RF 100 Diver can achieve a seamless transition from slotting to drilling, in most materials.

The steep plunging angle makes enormous material removal possible. The simultaneously excellent chip evacuation, thanks to the optimised cutting edge geometry, results in higher process reliability. In combination with the high feed rates the RF 100 Diver can be applied to achieve high metal removal rates.

With drilling, RF 100 Diver displays the best characteristics up to 2xD and also here it

Highest feed rates are possible with slotting operations – and even when plunging. The RF 100 Diver scores points with a high metal removal rates and undersize for precision slots.

Despite the high feed rates, RF 100 Diver enables smooth operation and process stability. The smooth operation is achieved by the different helix angles of 36 degrees/38 degrees. The unequal helix angle interrupts the occurring vibration resonance, encourages vibration-free running as well as high feed rates, and simultaneously reduces the undesired draw action because of the “corkscrew effect” during the milling process. The reduced vibration allows higher cutting data for a higher metal removal rate. is clearly superior to its competitors, they already start struggling at drilling depths below 1xD. The RF 100 Diver is ideally suited as a pre-drilling tool for reamers. For slotdrilling, roughing is performed undersize and then the RF 100 Diver finishes to a perfect fit. This enables the production of precision slots to all tolerances. A separate pilot tool is not necessary, as the Diver can drill and pilot drill in all diameters and on curved or oblique surfaces.

With roughing operations in steel, the RF 100 Diver achieves double the cutting speed than usually possible. With finishing operations it achieves a 100% longer tool life. In parallel the innovative geometry reduces the power consumption in comparison to conventional milling cutters, permitting the application under unstable conditions and on lowperformance machines. With finishing operations, high cutting parameters are also achievable in alloyed heat treatable steels. www.guhring.com.au

Thread milling range offers multiple benefits Dormer Pramet has launched a comprehensive thread milling program to provide a reliable and versatile threading option.

Available under the Dormer brand, each of the new cutters is recommended for machining most materials, including steel, stainless steel, cast iron, titanium, nickel, copper, aluminium and plastics. An Alcrona Pro coating and solid carbide substrate provides a tough and wear-resistant structure, offering security and reliability, as well as increased performance and longer tool life. A total of 10 versatile milling cutter (J2xx) families have been developed with a mix of popular thread forms including, M, MF, UNC, UNF, G (BSP) and NPT, with or without internal oil feed.

Thread milling offers numerous advantages compared to conventional threading, including increased reliability, smaller chips – supporting continuous machining - improved tool life and accurate tolerance adjustment, whilst it is also suitable for dry machining.

The same cutter can be used for many materials and diameters, as long as the pitch is the same, while Dormer’s J200 and J205 ranges offer the additional possibility to chamfer, providing better quality and accuracy compared with conventional taps.

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“Thread milling is a relatively slow process with measurable time savings on larger diameters,” said Ricky Payling, Dormer Pramet’s application specialist for rotary tools. “However, the quality of finish and level of accuracy can greatly compensate for the speed of machining.

“The new range of thread milling cutters provides numerous options for the end-

user, whether it’s left or right hand internal threads for the vast majority of thread forms and for any material. A controlled machine that can make circular paths is required, but our online product selector will suggest the most appropriate thread milling cutter with the relevant data and CNC programme, to make the choice as easy as possible.” www.dormerpramet.com AMT AUGUST 2015

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Cutting Tools

Controlling mechanical loads in milling operations While turning generates steady mechanical loads on a single-edge tool, milling subjects multiple cutting edges to rapidly changing intermittent loads. As such, attaining success in milling requires a number of milling-specific choices and considerations. By Patrick de Vos, Corporate Technical Education Manager, Seco Tools.

The first and most basic step in planning a milling operation is choosing a milling cutter and cutting inserts or cutting edges designed to produce the features desired on a part. Tooling suppliers offer face mills, end mills, disk mills and other cutters in roughing or finishing geometries engineered to produce nearly any required part feature.

Whatever cutter is employed, in operation its cutting edges will repeatedly enter and exit the workpiece material. Loads on the milling teeth go from zero before entry, to peak values during the cut, and back to zero at exit. The goal is to moderate the intermittent loads of the milling process and thereby maximise tool life, productivity and process reliability.

Cutter positioning, entry and exit strategies, and control of chip thickness are the key elements that lead to achievement of the goal.

can cause edge chipping and increase tensile stresses. Surface finish may suffer because chips drop in front of the cutter and may be recut.

The full-thickness entry of the cutting tool in climb milling subjects the tool to heavy mechanical loads, but for most cutting tool materials that is not a major problem. Modern tool materials including carbides, ceramics and high-speed steels are powder-based products that have good compressive strength.

When discussing cutter positioning and tool entry strategies, machinists should note that positioning the cutter to one side or the other of the workpiece centerline is always preferred. Central positioning mixes the forces of conventional and climb milling, which can result in unstable machining and vibration.

Exit strategies How the cutting edge exits the workpiece is equally important as how it enters. Experimental results show a clear relation between the positioning of the cutter at exit and cutting tool edge life. If the exit is too sudden or uneven, cutting edges will chip or break. On the other hand, attention to the exit of the tool can result in as much as a tenfold increase in tool life.

Approaching the workpiece Loads on the cutting tools in milling are determined largely by the way the cutter and its cutting edges enters the workpiece. In conventional or “up” milling, the cutter rotates against the direction of workpiece feed. In climb or “down” milling, the cutter moves in the same direction as the feed.

As a result, in conventional milling the cutting edge enters the workpiece at minimum chip thickness and exits at maximum chip thickness. Conversely, the cutting edge in climb milling enters the work at maximum chip thickness and exits as the chip thickness decreases to zero. In either case, the operation produces a tapered chip.

In most situations, tooling suppliers recommend climb milling because it minimises the rubbing and friction that occurs at the shallowthickness entry of conventional milling. In climb milling, entering the work material at full thickness also facilitates heat transfer into the chip, protecting both the workpiece and the tool. Chips flow behind the cutter, minimising the risk of recutting them.

In some cases, however, conventional milling is preferred. Face milling with the climb method generates downward force that can cause backlash movement on older manual machines. Conventional milling, in which the cutter pulls up on the workpiece, may be a better choice with less-stable machines, especially in heavy cuts. Conventional milling also can be effective when milling rough-surfaced or thinwalled materials, and the gradual entry into the workpiece material can protect brittle super hard cutting tool materials from impact damage. On the other hand, the excessive friction and heat that can occur in the shallow entry characteristic of conventional milling may have detrimental effects on a tool. Uneven force on the tool edge

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The critical value is the exit angle, defined as the angle between the milling cutter radius line and the exit point of the cutting edge. The exit angle can be negative (above the cutter radius line) or positive (below the radius line). Tool edge failure is more apparent with exit angles between approximately minus 30 degrees and plus 30 degrees. The width of the workpiece area encompassed by those angles is roughly half the diameter of the milling cutter.

Another way to improve the intermittent nature of the loads on the edges of a milling cutter is to maximise the number of cutting edges engaged with the workpiece at any one time. Applying smaller diameter, close-pitch cutters and larger radial depth of cuts puts more teeth in contact with the workpiece and more evenly distributes cutting forces.

Chip thickness The thickness of the chips produced in milling strongly influences cutting forces, cutting temperature, tool life and chip formation and evacuation. If chips are too thick, heavy loads are generated that can chip or break the cutting edges. When chips are too thin, cutting takes place on a smaller portion of the cutting edge and increased friction creates heat that results in rapid wear.

Chip thickness is measured perpendicular to the effective cutting edge. As discussed earlier, the chips generated in milling continually

Cutting Tools change in thickness as the cutting edge passes across the workpiece. For programming purposes, tool suppliers utilise the concept of “average chip thickness”. The average thickness is the numerical average of the chip’s thickest and thinnest dimensions. Toolmakers provide average chip thickness data for specific tool geometries that when applied and maintained will produce maximum tool life and productivity.

Machinists use that data to determine cutter feed rates that will maintain the recommended average chip thickness. The radial engagement of the cutter, the diameter of the cutter, the cutter positioning and the cutting edge angle of the cutting edge are factors in determining the correct feed rate. Radial engagement is defined as the ratio of the radial depth of cut (ae) to the diameter of the milling cutter (Dc). The greater the radial engagement of the cutter, the lower will be the feed rate required to generate the desired chip thickness.

Similarly, with lesser cutter engagement the feed rate must be higher to achieve the same chip thickness. The cutting edge angle of the cutting edge also affects feed requirements. Maximum chip thickness occurs with a cutting edge angle of 90 degrees, so lesser angles require a higher feed rate to achieve the same chip thickness.

Sharp cutting edges produce lower cutting forces but are also more fragile than honed or chamfered edges. Mechanical load on the cutting edge must be limited to prevent chipping and breakage, so smaller average chip thicknesses are recommended when applying sharp cutting edges. In this case, the cutting edge geometry used determines the correct average chip thickness and vice versa.

Machinists can utilise these principles and methods in basic milling applications to control the intermittent stresses on milling tools. However, as part requirements become more complex — even at the level of simply milling into corners — manually changing feed rates to maintain recommended average chip thicknesses is essentially impossible. For those cases and beyond, including very complex five-axis milling, makers of CAM software and advanced CNC equipment have developed techniques such as trochoidal milling and corner peeling as well as constant tool engagement tool path programs such as Dynamic Milling, Volumill, or Adaptive Clearing. These software and machine control advances represent the high-tech evolution of the basic concepts of management of tool entry, exit, and chip thickness to control the effects of the intermittent milling process on the cutting tool.

Manufacturers have employed milling machines and tools for more than a century, producing countless parts in high volumes and top quality. Over that time, the basic milling process has remained the same, namely the use of a rotating cutter on a workpiece to machine a surface. The intermittent cutting nature of the process has remained the same as well.

Milling machines and milling tooling have evolved to an unbelievable extent, but in many cases their users are not taking full advantage of that technical progress. Recognising the unique interaction of workpiece and tool that takes place in milling and working to moderate the intermittent stresses involved in the process enables manufacturers to achieve the rarely-attainable triple goal of maximum productivity, quality and tool life. www.secotools.com

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+61 (0J24017019s I 13/07/2015 16:12:34 AMT AUGUST 2015 | 49

One on one

Professor Geoffrey Brooks is the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Future Manufacturing) and Professor of Engineering at Swinburne University. He spoke to William Poole AMT: Let’s start with your background and how you came into your current role.

Geoffrey Brooks: I started originally in chemical engineering. After I graduated I started working in a lot of small companies that were building and making and fabricating things. I got involved with all sorts of things; I ran a plastic fabrication business for a while. After a few years of that I did a PhD in pyrometallurgy (the science of making metals), and most of my research in the last 20 years has been in that area. I’ve worked in Canada, the USA, and I’ve been at Swinburne for the last 10 years. Personally I’m a specialist in the science of making steel, and I’ve also done a lot of work in aluminium and magnesium.

A few years ago the university asked me to take over the role of co-ordinating all the manufacturing research at the university. And Swinburne has a lot of manufacturing research across all sorts of

areas: IT, electric vehicles, nano-materials – it’s a very broad church.

I’ve spent the last few years coming to grips with that, co-ordinating it, trying to link it to industry, develop new facilities (particularly the Factory of the Future). I’m quite a long way from steel-making, but I’m having a good time. It’s been a positive experience.

AMT: What might an ordinary day involve?

GB: One of the things I most enjoy is visiting companies. I’m amazed at how many clever people there are. That’s the experience I get from going to all these companies. It’s quite inspiring. Of course there are negative stories, some people are struggling, but there’s a lot of people with good ideas, and it’s quite exciting.

I do a lot of walking around factories, trying to see if I can help people. One problem is that a lot of companies would like to be more innovative but they struggle, they don’t know how to do it. They know how to do one part but they lack some other part, and they’re looking for help. Another barrier is that they’ve got this sense there’s some clever people at the university who could help them, but they’re not sure how you work with them, and they fear they might end up wasting their time. I try to address both of those problems. I try to find out what they’re really interested in and try to find a way to help them.

AMT: Encouraging research collaboration and the pooling of knowledge is often cited as a big obstacle for Australian manufacturing.

GB: It is. What universities are researching is often very disconnected with industry. There was a study two or three months ago that showed that, when you talk to companies in Australia, 50% of what they’re interested in researching is something to do with engineering, and 30% of what they’re interested in is to do with IT. But when you look at Australian universities, I think the numbers were 9% of all research is on engineering, and 3% or 4% is on IT. There are good reasons for that: medical schools and all those good things obviously. But there’s a very large mismatch. It’s probably less of an issue at Swinburne – we have a lot of engineering research and IT research. But in general, there’s a mismatch between what universities work on and what industry’s interested in.

And the structures are a problem. A good example would be the Government’s official system for doing research through the Australian Research Council. You put in an 80-page document, and nine months later you find out if you’ve got the money or not. That’s completely out of sync with the business cycles of Australian industry. It’s not just an issue of having the expertise, it’s an issue of the systems we have. We could be a lot cleverer in that area.

AMT: How overcome?

can

those

problems

be

GB: There have been good attempts.

Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) have their strengths and weaknesses, and I agreed very much with the recent review into CRCs and those issues. We need systems that are much more responsive to helping industry directly. A good example of a system that works like that is the voucher system that the previous Victorian State

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Government had, which I think the current Government is relaunching.

That’s an honest attempt to help companies innovate on an affordable scale. We should have more of that.

We have to put a lot of energy into improving current products and developing new ones.

The other side is industry having more sophisticated ideas themselves.

There’s universities having the right systems and the right thinking to help industry, but you also need clever ideas within industry. When we say ‘industry-led innovation’, that’s a responsibility as well. It’s asking: ‘Beyond my narrow interest of making my business work better, how am I going to help industry in general? What sort of research do we have to do?’ And that means groups like AMTIL have a role as well, which is to get people to talk, to think. That’s an important aspect.

GB: Probably things we take for granted. We have a well-educated, well-trained workforce. We have a lot of inter-connected companies throughout Australia that know each other, circulate among each other. We have a well-regulated, well-structured workforce. And we have clever people. We are generally a bit more expensive as a workforce, but there’s certainly a lot of positives about our workforce, our cleverness.

They’re all problems, but I think they’re solvable.

AMT: Tell us about some of the projects underway at Swinburne right now.

GB: One of the more interesting ones is we’ve just got a new research centre funded by the Government developing new bio-devices. What’s interesting about it is that the projects are defined by industry partners in collaboration with the students. The structure is that the companies sign up for it and get some government money to help the whole thing work, and they define projects with PhD students. This is trying to do two things: it’s trying to get new bio-devices and new ideas in a promising area; but it’s also a new model for how PhDs should be done. A lot of PhDs in Australia are disconnected from industry; this is actually intertwining the process from day one. The dream is that we end up with all these clever, well-educated people who understand industry and products very well. That’s an exciting project.

We’re also doing a lot of work bringing lightweight materials into structures like cars, trains; we’ve got some really good people in that area and we’re trying to bring that kind of thinking into electric vehicles. We’ve got a lot of work with the Malaysian government trying to develop electric buses. It’s not just lightweighting, it’s how you make the battery system efficient, how you make it part of an interconnected network. That’s an exciting area.

AMT: More generally, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing Australian manufacturing today?

GB: Ultimately I think it’s developing new products, or improved products. In a highly competitive global scene, making products that are “just okay” is not a good long-term game, and we have a bit of that going on. We have to shift to making things that are special or different or highly desirable in some way. Then not only can we sell in our own markets, but people outside the country want to buy those products, and they can withstand fluctuations of currencies.

If I could just illustrate: I’m sure movements of the euro and the Australian dollar will influence whether people buy BMWs, but generally speaking we think BMWs are a pretty nice car, and people are willing to pay money for a BMW car, or a Dyson vacuum cleaner, because we have faith in the product. I don’t think Australia has enough products like that. We need products that are special, different or new, that people will pay money for. Of course we have got things like that, but we need more of them.

AMT: Can you name a few examples?

GB: Well, companies like ANCA: they can probably live with currency fluctuations. They’re really clever and they make really nice products. I went to Wilson Transformers the other day, they make something they can sell with confidence in the Australian market, but also externally.

There’s other things that are not so high-tech: you look at Jayco and they’re making a product that people are willing to pay money for, and they’re trying to get better all the time – it’s not high-tech as in precision machining, but it has its own cleverness. Part of it is just being cleverer and better in making desirable products of any kind.

AMT: What strengths do Australian manufacturers have to offer?

I’m not sure if we’ve got that lined up the right way, otherwise we wouldn’t have had some of the failures we’ve had recently. Obviously the closure of the auto industry is hardly something to be happy about, but I see other industries opening up. One spin-off from our university is Minifab: they started off as one professor (Errol Harvey) who took his ideas and started a company making specialised medical equipment, and they’re doing well.

So we’ve got some clever people, we have a well-trained workforce, we’re a well-regulated, well-run country. These things are heavily in our favour. We just need to be focussed on maximising those advantages.

AMT: What would you like to see Government doing to help?

GB: I would like the Government to have a bit more focus on how it invests in R&D. It needs to make sure it’s putting money towards things that have got a big chance of succeeding, and avoid just propping things up. If industry is willing to try to get to a smarter place and needs some assistance, that’s worth putting money into.

I think the Government knows that, but I wish they were a bit more committed to it. I get the impression there’s a lot of money in our innovation system spread out fairly thinly.

Another important thing is to talk up Australia’s cleverness, highlight what we’re clever at. All of us should have a discussion about what sort of country we are. We hear all this discussion about manufacturing that’s just in terms of economic benefits, but that’s very narrow. We should ask ourselves what sort of people we are. If we stop making things or we can’t make things, what does that say about us? I’m sick of manufacturing being presented as this issue about jobs and money. It’s also about who we are. What country do we visualise ourselves as being?

The country I find inspirational and that we could learn a lot from is South Korea. They’ve got a fantastic steel industry, they’ve got a great car industry, they’ve got a great electronics industry and they’re very good at shipbuilding. And that’s not an accident! It was a concerted effort over a long period of time. Back in 1976, Australia did pathetically at the Olympics, and people quite rightly said: “This is not who we are. Australians are not people who are third-best. We aim to be really good at sport. How are we going to do that?” And wasn’t that a spectacular success?

People bought into that because we believed in it. We need more of that in Australia. And that means talking up our manufacturing successes. It’s not just an issue of making money. It’s an issue of what sort of people we are, what sort of things we are doing. I personally think that our country would be a richer and nicer country to live in if we had more emphasis on making stuff. www.swinburne.edu.au

AMT AUGUST 2015

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Additive Manufacturing

3D printing – the bridge to the future A company in the Netherlands is building a bridge across a canal in Amsterdam using 3D-printing robots.

It seems that such attention-grabbing headlines appear regularly to declare how 3D-printing is destined to revolutionise manufacturing of all kinds. If the idea that key manufacturing products such as cars, aircraft, or indeed bridges built by 3D printing sounds like hype, you’re mistaken, writes Ian Todd.

It’s human nature to be suspicious of new things: we find them both attractive and worrying. The manufactured world around us has been made by cutting and casting and forging for many centuries.

We are very comfortable with those processes and we believe that engineers and scientists can exert complete control over them, using these technologies to create the safe and predictable world (on an engineering level at least) we inhabit. This new way of making through 3D printing, in contrast, seems to have appeared suddenly and, somewhat reminiscent of the way it creates, almost out of thin air.

3D printing, or additive manufacturing as it’s also known, has in fact been in use since the 1980s, beginning as a means of prototyping objects through various stages of development. Decades later, we have gained a huge wealth of knowledge and understanding of how the process works. We may marvel at the wonder of it all – and the weird and wonderful shapes that can be created through 3D printing.

But the main concern for many is that the properties of 3D-printed materials are equal to their conventionally manufactured equivalents.

To answer this concern, generally speaking a 3D-printed component can have comparable properties to one made conventionally. For example, some surgical implants are already made in this way. Many people have a 3D-printed hip implant, for example, and we know that 3D-printed parts have been a feature of Formula 1 cars and military aircraft for years – and perform very well in those applications.

What we are seeing now is that the technology is becoming more mainstream – and that change is helping drive a huge explosion of creative thought about how, and where, we make things.

Many of the more ambitious ideas about large-scale 3D printing emerge from laboratories and studios of artists and architects who see this as an opportunity to give their ideas physical form, enabling bespoke creations using free-form fabrication. Take for example this bridge in Amsterdam using torch-wielding robot welders: the company behind the project, MX3D, which was formed by Dutch architect and designer Joris Laarman, demonstrated its technology last year and has shown the courage of its convictions in performing this “research” in public.

Aerospace is another great supporter of emerging technologies, and large aerospace companies and supply chains are very clear that they intend to employ 3D printing as a means to manufacture airframes and engine components. In the US, GE, Lockheed Martin and Pratt and Whitney, and Airbus, Rolls Royce and GKN Aerospace in Europe have all made recent investments and announcements of products that employ 3D printing in the direct manufacture of complex components.

It’s even a technique used for the manufacture of spacecraft.

Despite all these high-profile, major industrial users, there is a feeling among many, still, that 3D printing is all hype that will blow over soon – that there is an element of the Emperor’s New Clothes about it.

If I were to draw a comparison with another field: in 2001 just as the internet was truly taking off worldwide, the author Douglas Adams made a radio programme called the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future in which he recalled a number of conversations with those working in publishing, music and broadcasting. They were interested to know what impact the emergence of computers would have on their industries – clearly hoping, he said, that the answer would be “not very much”. Of course 15 years on we know just what a significant impact digitisation and the internet has had – changing business models, consumer behaviour and expectations beyond imagination.

The reality is that we don’t know where 3D printing will lead us but its potential to change the way we manufacture the things we use in our lives is enormous. As with those in Adams’ programme, perhaps hoping that the impact of this emerging technology will also be “not very much” is not the right approach. Instead, as with the revolutionary effects it has had on the media, embracing the opportunities it affords us as manufacturers could take us in directions we hadn’t previously considered possible.

Iain Todd is the RAE and GKN Chair in Additive Manufacturing at the University of Sheffield in the UK. This article was originally published in The Conversation. www.theconversation.com www.sheffield.ac.uk

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Additive Manufacturing

Rapid prototyping boosts automotive innovation Locally delivered 3D printing technology is helping power Australian automotive designers to global prominence, with GM Australia’s Design Studio scoring major honours at the recent North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Hailed as a celebration of Holden’s local design capabilities, the Buick Avenir concept car was designed and built by GM Australia’s team in Port Melbourne. In keeping with the local manufacturing theme, the prototype grill featured on the large luxury vehicle was produced at the Melbourne headquarters of 3D Systems through its Quickparts Solutions service, playing a small but significant role in the team’s award wins for ‘Best Concept Vehicle’ and ‘Best Innovative Use of Colour, Graphics and Materials’ at the prestigious EyesOn Design Awards 2015.

3D Systems, whose world-leading integrated rapid prototyping and 3D printing system produces functioning prototype models and components directly from digital input, worked closely with Holden’s Fisherman’s Bend design studio. According to the Quickparts team, its involvement in the award-winning Avenir – French for ‘the future’ – underlined Australia’s ability to deliver rapid-turnaround, groundbreaking manufacturing innovation. With the local automotive industry undergoing dramatic change, Avenir is an example of design knowhow marrying with sophisticated manufacturing capability to deliver a customised, cost-effective solution for the major car players.

Citing the complex nature of the grill design, Quickparts deployed its latest-generation sPro60HD Selective Layer Sintering (SLS) technology to deliver the finished prototype considerably faster than traditional methods. In the case of the Avenir, the grill component was produced in three days instead of the two weeks more typically required for conventional CNC projects of this kind, delivering significant cost savings while improving quality control.

According to 3D Systems, Australia’s major automotive players are turning increasingly to 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions as they strive to innovate and gain a competitive edge. In particular, the company has seen rapid advances among the local automotive sector in the production of under-the-bonnet prototype components as part of vehicle manufacturers’ concept design work. The company believes that demand among the automotive industry for leadingedge 3D printing will continue to grow as the major players embrace the benefits of rapid prototyping as part of both the design and manufacturing processes. www.3dsystems.com/quickparts

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AMT AUGUST 2015

| 53

Additive Manufacturing

3D printing jigs and fixtures Tools such as jigs and fixtures are common throughout manufacturing operations, but making them takes time, labour and money. However, 3D printing allows you to deploy more jigs and fixtures while gaining the ability to optimise their performance. By Joe Hiemenz of Stratasys.

By simply substituting 3D printing for your current methods of making jigs and fixtures, you can reduce costs and accelerate delivery. In these terms alone, 3D printing systems are easily justified, with short payback periods. But this ignores the larger impact on the bottom line.

3D printing lowers the threshold for justifying a new tool, which allows you to address unmet needs throughout the production process.

If you were to look around the manufacturing floor, assembly area and quality control lab, how many new opportunities would you find for a jig or fixture? What would the value be? Could it reduce scrap and rework, decrease labour time, improve process throughput, or enhance process control and repeatability? And how much more profit would be gained?

More importantly, why aren’t jigs or fixtures currently being used in these operations if they have value? Most likely, they were not justifiable.

Although there is a benefit in having the jig or fixture, the return on investment (ROI) isn’t large enough to warrant the effort. You may have found that your time and money were better spent elsewhere. Deciding when and where to use a jig or fixture is no different from any of the other daily decisions we make. 3D printing lowers the justification threshold by increasing your ROI and decreasing the obstacles between a great idea and a solution. It does this by simplifying the process, lowering the cost and decreasing lead time.

When using fused deposition modelling (FDM) to make jigs and fixtures, the process has just three steps: prepare the CAD file, build the tool, and post-process it. Unlike conventional fabrication methods, FDM requires little experience and minimal direct labour.

In many cases, jigs and fixtures are manufactured with only 15 minutes of hands-on labour. More importantly, they are manufactured with little need for training or prior experience. Combined, this makes FDM an ideal “self-serve” option for jigs and fixtures. According to Natalie Williams, Quality Manager at Thogus Products, an injection moulder that specialises in low-volume manufacturing and highly engineered materials, “it is so much easier for me to model a fixture and print it myself than it is to design it and work through an outside machine shop”.

For Thogus, 3D printing is easy and fast. Williams says: “For one 12-cavity CMM fixture the lead time, if outsourced, was 7-10 days. I built it overnight.”

Manufacturers using FDM to create custom manufacturing tools often experience lead-time reduction of 40-90%. 3D printing also can increase ROI substantially by reducing the cost of a jig or fixture. Typically, companies realise savings of 70-90% percent when compared to outsourced fixtures that are machined or fabricated. For Thogus’ 12-cavity fixture, the savings were 87%.

“The machine shop wanted $1,500 for the fixture. I made it for less than $200 in materials,” says Williams.

Making tool fabrication faster and more affordable, 3D printing will increase the number of jigs, fixtures and other manufacturing tools, improving the bottom line. It can also optimise tool performance.

Before 3D printing, designs that were sufficient to do the job were acceptable for jigs and fixtures. Due to the expense and effort to redesign and remanufacture them, revisions were reserved only for those that did not work as specified. Although “good enough” may have added a few seconds to an operation or increased the scrap rate by a small percentage, the savings might not have warranted further investment in the tool.

3D printing changes that thinking. For a few dollars, it can deliver the next-generation manufacturing tool and have it in service the next day.

A tool that has marginal performance requires only a little time and

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According to Thogus, it is simpler, faster and less expensive to make its own FDM fixtures than to outsource them to a machine shop.

initiative to redesign it. Doing so may only drive out a few seconds from an assembly operation, for example, but that time adds up. If the fixture makes 500 items per day per worker, a two-second savings reduces direct labour by 70 hours per person per year. For the same part, a 1% reduction in scrap would save 1,250 parts per year.

Implementing a 3D printing approach Before creating your first 3D CAD model and uploading it to a Fortus 3D Production System, take materials and dimensional tolerance into account. While 3D printing is ideal for many manufacturing tools, it isn’t right for all of them. The main consideration for materials is whether plastic will suffice. Traditionally, jigs and fixtures have been fabricated in metal.

For some, metal may be a requirement. For others, metal may have just been a practical option because it is conducive to milling, turning, bending and fabricating. In this case, 3D printing may be an option.

The range of FDM materials can offer chemical resistance (petroleum, solvents), thermal resistance (up to 200 degrees Celsius) and resilient mechanical properties.

Plastic manufacturing tools may also deliver unexpected advantages.

For example, Thogus uses FDM-made robotic attachments that absorb impact. In the event that the robot arm crashes into an obstacle, the FDM part is likely to isolate the arm from damages, which prevents expensive repairs and downtime. In another example, BMW uses plastic hand-held tools because they are lighter and easier to handle, reducing worker fatigue.

When deciding whether to try 3D printing on some initial tool-making projects, for dimensional accuracy, pick tools requiring tolerances larger than 0.127 mm. Tighter tolerances are possible, but as a rule, stick with this value when keeping the process simple.

Design Your current inventory of jigs and fixtures were designed with consideration for the capabilities and limitations of the fabrication methods used to create them. By adhering to design for manufacturability (DFM) rules, you made them practical, kept cost to a minimum, and made lead times reasonable. These rules don’t apply to 3D printing. They have no bearing on time, cost, quality, performance or practicality. In some cases, adhering to old DFM rules may actually have the opposite effect.

The additive nature of the process gives you unmatched freedom of design. What may have been impractical is now realistic and reasonable. Jigs and fixtures can have complex, feature-laden and

Additive Manufacturing When machined fixtures were quoted at $12,000 and seven days, Thermal Dynamics opted to make them with FDM, saving $10,000 and several days.

NASCAR team Joe Gibbs Racing uses FDM to make fixtures, some of which have been in service for more than two years and have cut lead time and expense by an average of 70%.

freeform configurations without adding time and cost. In fact, added complexity may even reduce cost and time. For example, pockets, holes and channels reduce material consumption, build time and total process time.

To leverage 3D printing, let the function and performance of the jig or fixture dictate the design. Digital Mechanics capitalised on the freedom of design for a vacuum-assisted robotic gripper. Conventionally made, the gripper had external hoses hanging off it. With 3D printing, each finger of the gripper was given an internal vacuum channel that eliminated the hoses. For BMW, freedom of design allows assembly line workers to have a tool that reaches under, behind and inside the rear of the bumper. Manufacturing engineers focused solely on the function, which resulted in an organically shaped bumper-reach tool.

Design freedoms can also improve the ergonomics of manufacturing tools. The weight, balance and position of the tool have direct effects on technician comfort, process cycle time and ease of access and storage. To achieve optimal ergonomics, simply design it into your tools. For example, BMW redesigned a badge alignment fixture to improve balance and reduce weight. This reduced worker strain and improved the cycle time for badge attachment.

One very simple way to leverage the freedom of design is to consolidate assemblies into single parts. Often, jigs and fixtures are composed of many pieces. This is unnecessary with 3D printing. If reproducing an existing tool, start with a redesign that consolidates as many components as possible into one piece. If designing a new item, create it as one piece. Only split off parts when it is advantageous to the operation of the jig or fixture. Integrating parts into a single component has many advantages, eliminating tolerance challenges, eliminating assembly time, and reducing documentation and overhead.

Management It’s time to stop considering jigs, fixtures and other manufacturing tools as assets. Instead, think of them as expenses, and disposable. As assets, jigs and fixtures are stored (inventoried) between uses. They remain in inventory until the product line is retired or they are worn beyond repair. With the time, cost and effort of making manufacturing tools through conventional methods, they are too valuable to be discarded as a disposable, expensable item.

This approach carries many indirect costs, however. There is cost for the shelf space (warehousing expense); cost to manage and track the inventory; and cost to locate a jig or fixture when needed. For sporadically used tools, these costs can be quite significant.

The opposite can be true with 3D printing. Often, it takes more to inventory the jigs and fixtures than it does to remake them. So, companies adopt a management approach called digital warehousing where only the digital file is carried in inventory. It may seem unthinkable to scrap a perfectly good manufacturing tool, but for those with infrequent use, this approach reduces cost and labour.

Make a fixture when it’s needed. When its job is done, send it off with the scrap material for recycling. Then digitally warehouse its design between uses. This print-on-demand approach is also handy when a replacement is needed for a broken manufacturing tool or duplicates are needed for increased production to meet an unexpected surge in sales.

Conclusion 3D printing can lead to big changes that maximise profits by driving out every wasted second and penny from the manufacturing process. For those who aren’t ready to toss out long-established design guidelines, simply replace the usual fabrication processes with 3D printing. Either way, the savings on the manufacturing floor and in jig and fixture production will be substantial.

If you have a 3D CAD drawing and access to a 3D printer, you are ready to start making manufacturing tools with as little as 15 minutes of hands-on labour. Combine the simplicity with typical time and cost reductions of 40-90%, and you will understand why 3D printing spurs companies to make more jigs, fixtures and other manufacturing tools than ever before. www.tasman3dprinters.com.au

www.scan-xpress.com.au

Company Profile Scan-Xpress specialises in 3D Scanning Services and GOM 3D Optical Metrology Systems.

For more than 15 years Scan-Xpress has delivered industry leading 3D scanning, reverse engineering & consulting services and World Class GOM ATOS Optical scanning, measuring, inspection & reporting products to Australian industry.

Scan-Xpress Services: • • • • •

Non Contact 3D Scanning.

Reverse Engineering.

3D Optical & Probe Inspection.

Inspection & Quality Reporting.

Design & Engineering Consultation.

3D Optical CMM:

GOM’s 3D Co-ordinate Measurement integrates Optical Metrology in industrial process chains.

• Non Contact 3D Inspection.

• Semi-Automated Inspection.

• Off Line Programming.

• Auto Scan Sequencing.

• Automated ATOS ScanBox. • Automated ATOS Inspection Cell.

Fully Automated Measurement

Scan-Xpress Pty Ltd

42 James Street, Northcote VIC, 3070 Australia.

T +613 9946 1086, M 0416 188 479, E. Barry@scan-xpress.com.au, ABN: 51 005 337 057 AMT AUGUST 2015

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additive manufacturing

Additive in Australia – prototyping or manufacturing?

With the Federal Government recently announcing increasing support for additive manufacturing, and amid increasing availability of additive manufacturing technologies, the time is right to make the shift towards a new manufacturing future that will put this country on a globally competitive footing. By Lexie Henderson-Lancett of Raymax Applications.

There are two key types of process used for commercial purposes in metal additive manufacturing. One is the powder bed system or selective laser melting (SLM), which uses a layered process as an initial build; the other is laser melted deposition (LMD), where metal powder is simultaneously fed and melted through a guided laser nozzle building onto an original product to create new functions or repairing worn parts. Both processes offer advantages to additive manufacturers and both are radical departures from the traditional subtractive manufacturing process, presenting challenges and requiring a paradigm shift in thinking. The advantages are already being experienced, as David Joyce, CEO and president of GE Aviation, stated in March: “I think what additive gives us is a whole different degree of freedom on how we think about component design. We no longer have to understand what the limits of machining are.”

To embrace this new technology requires an understanding of the techniques involved. Additive manufacturing is variously represented as ‘3D printing’, as the products are first designed in digital, or CAD files on a computer. This process alone helps to cut down the production development step. The 3D model is then used to build the product ‘adding’ metal powder and guiding the laser beam.

This additive process is in sharp contrast to manufacturing processes that traditionally relied on technologies that cut objects from large blocks or sheets of material to then be machined and welded. The obvious initial benefits are material savings, reduced wastage and reduced energy costs.

Greater benefits lie in the opportunity to produce products or enhance components not possible before using conventional subtractive technology. Companies must choose the solution that best suits their needs and company direction.

Laser Melted Deposition (LMD) LMD, also referred to as shaped metal deposition, is a process where the laser energy is transformed into thermal energy through interaction with a stream of metallic particles, or metal powder, solidifying into a dense deposit with excellent metallurgical bond. The advantage of LMD is that with a high-brightness laser source, users have the ability to focus the laser spot down to micron range, resulting in accurate part building.

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The coaxial nozzle is the key to the process allowing more disciplined control over the stream of metal powder carried by inert gas and resulting in a better deposition quality than comparative processes. This deposition method results in uniform, dense metal deposits with technical qualities comparable to parts produced by forging and founding processes.

Turnkey machines are available that provide three- or five-axis capability, improving handling in a controlled atmosphere. Recent developments provide options where the deposition head moves with the workpiece remaining stable, or the deposition head remains stable with the workpiece moving.

This facility offers real advantages for prototyping and design iterations of new parts, and for reparation of different metal structures. As the powder feed model has a large build volume, several companies in Australia have already installed lasers operating on robots to enable the repair of large parts such as mining equipment, turbine fans, or even centrifugal screen equipment, reclaiming fatigued or worn industrial parts.

The real benefits are savings on replacement parts and the prolonged life of repaired parts. Metallurgically bonded surface repairs have been shown to outlast original part life, making this an economic proposition for additive manufacturing. The technique also provides for near-net-shape component

builds, adding functions to parts already in operation giving never before opportunities to clients.

A final consideration is the acquisition of metal powders. Powders provide a more economic use of raw materials through optimisation in nozzle control. LMD uses powdered metal of a quality already available for other industrial uses and does not require very fine metal or alloy powders. Micronsized powders from 45 to 75 and up to 125 microns are all usable in the specifically designed nozzle. A full range of metals and alloys are available including stainless steel, tungsten carbide, nickel alloys such as Inconel, and cobalt alloys such as Stellite.

Companies who choose to invest in this range of technologies may find powders are supplied by the laser company itself, minimising powder sourcing issues.

Safran Snecma, a French aircraft company that has an ‘Open Innovation’ collaborative program, worked with French laser company BeAM to explore the opportunities offered by the LMD process. The outcome, announced in June, was the adoption of this technology in Safran Snecma’s additive manufacturing department for use in the development of new parts as well as for repairs. Clearly this form of additive manufacturing is finding its way into the commercial realms of industry meeting immediate needs as well as opening new opportunities for innovators.

Additive Manufacturing Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

So how did GE reach this pinnacle of production using new technology? It found small companies who independently built expertise in these areas and bought them.

It formed a joint venture, CFM International, with Safran Snecma. It took several years, committed innovation and risk, but at this year’s Paris Air Show, GE celebrated the first flights of the LEAP-1A engine on board the A320neo, and took over 8,000 orders for this new engine, each bearing 19 nozzles made using 3D printing. Commercial viability had become a reality!

Developed at the Fraunhofer Institute of Laser Technology in Germany, SLM enables the production of parts using complex geometries without the need for part-specific tools or pre-production costs. The 3D CAD model to be manufactured is broken down into layers. These layers are transferred to the SLM machine, which uses the generic information to define the scanning path of the laser beam. The SLM machine deposits defined thin layers of metal onto a substrate and then passes the beam over them, melting the metal within a tightly controlled atmosphere of inert gas. The geometric information then defines the scanning path of the laser beam in melting the powder. As one layer is completed the process is repeated until the product is finished. A complete melt provides a density of approximately 100%, achieving mechanical properties that can be matched with traditionally manufactured parts.

With additive manufacturing, parts must be redesigned, not transitioned from previous processes. The 3D CAD design offers greater options not available to tooling processes, as manufacturing complex aesthetic shapes is no longer a problem. 3D CAD design parameters allow the design of very complex structures inside a part.

For example, the fuel nozzle for aircraft engines manufactured by GE in the USA when using traditional processes comprised 20 separate parts that had to be machined together. Now, using SLM technology, there is one single part, and it is five times stronger.

Advantages of time to completion are evident, while less joining provides for a stronger end product, a major attraction where parts are used in high-stress environments such as aircraft.

Metal powders required for SLM fabrication need to be very fine. Ti64 is one of the most widely used materials in the manufacture of aircraft parts due to its low density, high strength, excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. As amortised metal powders are quite different from powders used for other applications, the list of available powders at the appropriate micron size for SLM is currently still limited.

Laser system suppliers will generally provide suitable powders along with their machine and can include stainless steel, aluminium, titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys and cobalt-based alloys, providing adequate opportunities for implementation.

Research has indicated the need for optimising geometry to satisfy the structural constraints of the piece. It requires a comprehensive understanding of the associated mechanical properties as well as any post-production requirements. In other words, all designers need to have a good understanding of the SLM building process.

These are not limitations, but requirements.

Limitations are somewhat removed as SLM manufacturing enables the designer to focus on maximising product performance, testing various wall thicknesses or deep channels, trying twisted and contorted shapes – in fact any level of complexity that allows a single functional physical product. Additionally, following part testing, the only changes required are of the CAD model making iterations easy and experimentation kept in house.

A proven business The fundamental benefits, which outweigh business risks, are being demonstrated in GE Aviation’s production of fuel nozzles for the CMF LEAP engine (LEAP is an acronym for Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion).

Already one of the world’s leading aircraft engine manufacturers, GE’s CFM56 aircraft engines are currently used in the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 jets.

Each CFM engine comprises 19 fuel nozzles that have to withstand temperatures at 3,000 degrees Fahreheit. To make each nozzle, 20 separate machined parts were joined using traditional processes to construct the nozzle’s interior passageway. Now, using the laser-based technology of SLM driven by 3D CAD data, the fuel nozzle is made in one piece. Additionally, it is five times stronger than its predecessor!

GE projects sees this as just the beginning.

The company that by 2020 100,000 parts for the LEAP engines alone will be made using SLM processes. With fuel nozzles now in production, GE’s Aviation Development Centre in Cincinnati is prototyping and testing more aircraft parts.

To ask the question why selective laser melting or laser melting deposition might be incorporated into manufacturing depends on external forces. One is regulation, the other is consumer demand. Safran Snecma sees research and technology as a fundamental part of its future, driving continuous improvement in new-generation aircraft engines. Its primary aim is to create quieter, cleaner, more fuel-efficient and economical engines, addressing the objectives set by the Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe to achieve by 2050 a 75% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a 90% reduction in oxides of nitrogen, and a 65% reduction in perceived noise.

While there are no defined targets for consumers, manufacturers of household goods are constantly looking to improve both ease of usage and comfort, coupled with energy-efficiency. Rowenta, which produces household goods such as vacuum cleaners and steam irons, employs SLM for its mould tool manufacturing. This process uses metal powder melted by an intense infra-red laser to create mould inserts with highly effective cooling ducts that follow the contour of the tool insert. The ability to produce highresolution features such as conformal cooling channels and thin wall sections improves the mould tool performance as well as reducing the mould cycle time, providing significant productivity improvements and energy use reduction.

The general convenience of additive manufacturing of metals is already evident. In some fields fabrication is already a commercial reality. Additive manufacturing reduces time and costs from design to manufacture, and once the product is complete, manufacturing can begin immediately; there are no costly tooling delays or new production issues. The financial gains, efficiency growth and process improvements often outweigh traditional manufacturing processes. As the Additive Manufacturing CRC said in a February 2013 report, the additive manufacturing industry is “relatively young and healthy, so new markets and applications are constantly emerging”.

Isn’t it time?

www.ramyax.com.au

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Forming & Fabrication

Prima Power introduces Laserdyne 430 Versa Prima Power has introduced its new Laserdyne 430 Versa, a 3D fibre laser system designed for the typical laser processing needs of tool rooms, model shops and manufacturers’ R&D centres.

The Laserdyne 430 Versa system has been developed to provide the optimum balance of cost, flexibility, and precision for laser cutting, welding, drilling, texturing, and marking of a wide range of materials. The 430 Versa also provides a cost effective path into volume production by making possible the full benefits of fibre laser processing with an effectively priced workstation. Equipped with an air-cooled 3,000W peak power fibre laser, the 430 Versa features the proprietary, third-generation Laserdyne BeamDirector.

The BeamDirector provides two axes of laser beam motion without part movement.

The 430 Versa provides precision through the use of the same design and technology as Laserdyne systems that are currently being widely used in aerospace and medical device production around the world. Precision comes not only from the performance and accuracy of the 430 Versa motion system but also from exclusive advanced features that allow the fibre laser to effectively perform a full range of tasks.

This is the result of integrated control of the laser, motion and processors. Precision is not only measured by the accuracy and repeatability of the machine tool, but more importantly by the parts that are produced on the system.

Another integral aspect of the 430 Versa are Laserdyne’s advancements in processing using the fibre laser. These include recently announced innovations in processing such as SmartPierce, SmartRamp, SmartStop, and ShapeSoft – innovations that have all emerged as a result of Laserdyne’s commitment to research & development.

Adding to the 430 Versa’s flexibility are the proven attributes of the Laserdyne S94P control, with a full complement of standard hardware and software features. These include Automatic Focus Control (AFC) for capacitive part sensing, and as an option, the patented Optical Focus Control (OFC) for sensing of non-conductive surfaces.

The 430 Versa includes a wide range of standard focusing lens assemblies, including right-angle assemblies for processing inside cylinders with diameters as small as 60mm, and welding assemblies that shield the weld metal to prevent contamination and protect the focusing lens from spatter.

Both the capacitive and optical methods of focus control precisely guide the motion system, maintaining critical focus position and following the contour of the part regardless of surface irregularities. The linear axes of the system react to sensing of the part surface, creating unlimited correction along the axis of the beam. The combination

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of crash protection and part sensing gives the system operator confidence to use the maximum processing speed possible without fear of damaging the system or scrapping the part.

A further factor that will be of particular importance to developers of new part designs and manufacturing processes using laser systems is the fact that the 430 Versa features industry-leading collision protection, backed by a five-year, unlimited-hours warranty covering crash related damage to the head.

From prototype to volume production The 430 Versa provides an ideal path to progressively higher production quantities as a new product design is tested, modified where necessary, re-tested and produced in increasing quantities. This is accomplished using the same basic laser system platform of the original Laserdyne 430 Versa system, the same control and machine structure. These are easily adaptable to the specific requirements of the developed manufacturing process. This is done through the selection of the motion axes, beam delivery optics and tooling. Using this method, the optimum balance of cost,

performance, system simplicity and ease of operation is accomplished.

“The affordability of the 430 Versa and the many advantages that fibre laser processing provides will create the possibility for new part designs within companies that are working to reduce the time from concept to manufacturing of new products,” stated VanderWert. “Our goal at Prima Power Laserdyne is to continue to produce advancements that expand the use of laser processing and ultimately make our customers more successful.” www.imts.com.au

Forming & Fabrication

Bending extra-small parts safely and efficiently You have a batch of small parts to bend. But bending small parts can be hazardous to the operator. In order to hold on to the part, the operator’s hands are dangerously close to the machine. What’s more, small parts can also be hard to keep square, and they can shift and twist while being bent, causing parts to be wasted. By Glen Shuldes.

An easy, typical solution is to hold the individual parts with a side gauge or some other tool that will keep the operator’s hands at a safe distance from the machine. This improves safety and somewhat reduces the likelihood of wasted parts, but is a very inefficient method for productivity. A better solution is chain cutting and group bending.

With chain cutting, fabricators can cut out the periphery of a group of the smaller parts, but keep them tabbed together in a chain, or to a carrier strip (see Image 1). The phrase “group bending” means that operators bend the full chain of parts as one piece, rather than as individual parts. There are numerous tabbing methods to achieve group bending. For example, Image 2 shows parts held together with a half-shear tab, while Image 3 uses a corner tab.

Image 1

Chain cutting and group bending are safer and more efficient processes. The larger part is easier for the operator to handle, which ensures safety and decreases wasted parts. Operators can also bend a great deal more parts with fewer overall bends. For example, fabricators can bend a chain of 12 parts in one stroke, versus bending each part individually with 12 separate bends.

CAPABILITIES

Image 2

Image 3

There is a downside. Fabricators will need to snap the parts apart at the end of the bending process (see Image 4). What’s more, if the tab isn’t terribly clean, the part may end up with a burr, which would require a finishing process. However, if operators use a tab that breaks cleanly, a finishing process is not necessary.

So next time you have a small-part bending challenge, rather than risk the safety of operators or reduce efficiencies by using a side gauge, chain cutting and group bending can offer a safer, more efficient option.

Image 4

Glen Shuldes is an applications engineer with Wilson Tool International. Sheetmetal Tooling Tech is the Australia distributor for Wilson Tool. www.tooltech.com.au

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AMT AUGUST 2015

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Forming & Fabrication

Bending costs downward Large stretches of pipeline are a common characteristic of many different types of industrial facility. Bert Zorn, Managing Director of Schwarze-Robitec, discusses the possibilities of pipe bending in plant and pipeline construction.

There are many kilometres of pipe on oil platforms, complex chemical plants, refineries and large power stations. In view of these quantities, pipe fitting plays a special role in plant and pipeline construction; the conduit system must be installed quickly and efficiently. Moreover, these constructions are essential for the function and efficiency of the plants.

A cursory glance at an oil pumping facility shows the central challenge clearly: the pipes form a highly complex network and the conduit system inevitably includes many bends. As such, a large number of different formed pipe bends in a variety of dimensions, forms and angles are used in the piping installation. These components need to be welded to the straight, long pipes on the construction site to form the desired pipeline. As a result, these processes represent considerable costs in the construction of these plants.

First, the curved elements must be produced in advance, is some cases at an off-site facility. Second, these components must be transported to the work area and welded to the corresponding pipes, including the associated cost of logistics that can generate additional costs. Additionally, it is often vital to check every finished weld joint for compliance to industry standards or special customer requirements.

The processes of using ultrasound or x-ray technology to inspect the welds can also cost a great deal of time and money.

It therefore becomes clear that the many pipe bends and the processes involved to produce a complete assembly can offer tremendous potential for savings in plant construction – if ultimately, many of the in-situ welded bends could be replaced by pre-bent pipelines that are able to be fabricated to the exact specifications of the construction site.

In order to meet these production requirements, there are essentially two options: Cold and warm bending.

With warm bending, the pipe is initially partially heated at the desired bend location. Through the factors of temperature and pressure, the material begins to flow. The disadvantages of the warm bending process are that it takes a long time to form the material and the energy consumption used in the production process is very high.

The advantages of cold bending In comparison to the option of warm bending, cold bending offers several advantages, because this procedure eliminates the energy-

A Schwarze-Robitec CNC 220 MW HD pipe cold bending machine.

intensive and protracted heating process. Only the properties of the material are what set certain limits to the plasticity. Otherwise, the pipe can be shaped into almost any form. For example, with the CNC 320 HD bending machine from Schwarze-Robitec, the cold bending of a pipe with a nominal diameter of 30cm takes only around one minute – in contrast to the 30 minutes at least that would be needed for the warm bending process.

In addition, there are other advantages. For example, with cold bending, materials can be processed that cannot be bent warm, or for which heating is simply not permitted because it changes the microstructure of the material. As a result, cold bending has therefore only two real constraints: the space available in the workshop; and the length of the machine. If during the bending process the long pipes do not axially collide, they can be processed into complex shapes directly in one pass.

Another additional positive point of the cold bending process is the fact that the pipe is clamped in an index head and held in place by means of a collet in the transport unit and index head. After the first bend, it is directly transported forward and rotated as required. As a result, three-dimensional pipe systems can be created very quickly without a single weld joint.

What is particularly important in plant construction is the achievable bending radius of the pipe. SchwarzeRobitec’s machines allow bending of pipe with very small radii, even when the pipes are very large and thick-walled. What does this mean in regard to plant construction and why is this characteristic so important?

The critical advantage of the ability to produce a small radius becomes apparent when installing the pipe: the tighter the bend of the pipe, the less installation space is required. Ultimately, the entire pipe system or platform requires less floor area. Moreover, a great deal of pipe can be saved with a small bending radius. The saving with a 180-degree bend and a bending radius of 1.5x D is around 3.5m compared with a conventional 5x D bend – on larger production facilities, this small value naturally offers a huge effect on cost reduction.

For an oil platform or refinery, hundreds of kilometres of pipes are installed – including countless pipe bends.

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Forming & Fabrication

The CNC-HD range is designed for constant use under great load.

Only recently, Schwarze-Robitec’s mechanical engineers constructed and delivered a machine for a customer in the refinery and offshore oil industry. The machine is able to process pipes with a Nominal Pipe Size of up to 40.6cm with a radius of 1.5x D. As a result, a 16” Schedule 40 (323.5 by 10mm) pipe, for example, can be bent with a radius diameter of only 485mm – all in observance of the required standards (for example in respect to reduction of the wall thickness and ovality).

Quality is crucial The technology developed by Schwarze-Robitec is always based on a very rugged machine frame that reliably resists the huge forces that arise during bending and has abundant power reserves for the clamping functions. In addition, the issue of quality control is particularly important. For example, the SpringMatic system can measure the pipe bend while still in the bending machine and correct its curvature as necessary. The measuring and correction process takes only a few seconds. As a result, even pipes with unknown properties or widely fluctuating quality can be processed directly with a high level of accuracy.

The machines allow bending radii that are only slightly larger than the pipe diameter.

In recent decades, Schwarze-Robitec has delivered over 2,500 cold bending machines to customers on all continents. Many machines supplied 30 or more years ago are still in use today. Schwarze-Robitec guarantees spare parts availability for the entire operating life of the machines. In addition, international customer service is available – for maintenance on-site or for the optimisation of production processes.

Bending complex pipelines quickly and accurately results in saving considerable time and expense with installation. Amid increasing international energy demand and the associated investments in an efficient, state-of-the-art infrastructure, Schwarze-Robitec is expecting great market opportunities for its bending solutions. www.schwarze-robitec.com

The machines in the CNC-MW series from Schwarze-Robitec ensure additional productivity in the bending process. The reason for this is that setup times are minimal. To achieve this, the production facilities use stacked tooling with various nominal diameters constructed one above the other. If a new batch of pipes with a different nominal diameters are used in the production sequence then only the bending mandrel and collet insert need to be changed. This process takes only a few minutes. Consequently, the current bending process is able to continue with unchanged speed and accuracy.

Likewise, the processing of flanged pipes is unproblematic. Even before bending, the flanges or sleeves can be welded on. The sophisticated control of the machine and its stable structure ensure accuracy. The stable structure of the machine prevents twisting and the pipe therefore going out of specification, or the flanges ending up at the wrong angle.

Naturally, the structure of these specialised machines is heavily dependent on the specific requirements of the customer, and Schwarze-Robitec supplies customised solutions. An important criterion in the construction of the machine is also the energy efficiency of the production facility. At the same time, Schwarze-Robitec’s experts have a wealth of practical experience with the different pipe materials and as a result, with the corresponding tool and machine requirements. With this complete know-how, Schwarze-Robitec develops answers for the most difficult production jobs, having previously constructed production facilities with a pipe length of over 40m and integrated high-rack pipe storage into the automatic pipe feed to the bending machine. The machines and their control have the latest EDP networking, quality control functions and simulation technology.

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DELAHENTY MACHINERY PTY LTD 14 Parkhurst Drive Knoxfield 3180 Victoria, Australia TEL: 1300 787 312 FAX: 03 98001344 EMAIL: sales@delahenty.com.au

www.delahenty.com.au

AMT AUGUST 2015

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Materials Handling

Creating the warehouses of the future Organisation is key when it comes to warehouse management. For some businesses keeping track of inventory can be difficult in a busy warehouse.

The key to maintaining an organised facility is to invest in the right storage and software that can handle all your inventory needs.

Whether you require just one storage facility or multiple facilities in multiple locations that have the ability to be monitored and controlled through the internet, all this is possible with the Hanel Storage Lift and mpx for NetSuite.

It is essential to incorporate machinery and software that work hand in hand with each other. This is why the Hanel Vertical Storage Lift and mpx for NetSuite will ensure effective parts management for any business. Hanel Vertical Storage Lifts help to alleviate congestion and create much needed space in your warehouse. The storage carousels increase space by up to 80% and are exceptionally costefficient. They also offer significant time savings, as every product is automatically retrieved and presented to the picker when required, meaning there is no need to walk around looking for inventory items.

The Hanel Vertical Storage Lifts work seamlessly with mpx for NetSuite, an inventory management software solution that effectively assists with parts management. Alan Barratt, General Manager for Vertical Storage at Headland Machinery, says the combination of mpx for NetSuite and the Hanel lifts results in 100% accuracy as transferring the data from order-taking to warehouse-picking requires no rekeying of data or any need for printed or written forms.

“Mpx for NetSuite is a more powerful and a more comprehensive management system,” says Barratt. “The software will drive the lifts no matter where they are. They are extremely efficient and can cut down costs as it increases productivity.”

As a manager of a busy warehouse, it can often be time-consuming and frustrating when trying to locate parts for distribution. The Hanel, in tandem with mpx for NetSuite, makes this process easier. With mpx for NetSuite you can improve inventory management via: • Batch order picking with significant productivity improvements.

• Optimisation of inventory location placement.

• Electronic picking technology.

• Pictorial presentation to assist picking productivity.

Mpx for NetSuite not only improves productivity but it can be used for businesses of various sizes. The versatile software enables a company

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to track the location of every product. If you look at it in this respect, incorporating a Hanel lift and an effective inventory management system like mpx for NetSuite, unproductive time will be eliminated, human error will be minimised, and return costs will be reduced.

Picture a busy warehouse that receives hundreds of orders on a daily basis. The most efficient way to tackle these orders is by finding a commonality with the products. The Hanel lifts have a single database solution tied to Netsuite that mirrors information back and forth. This information runs through mpx for NetSuite and appears on the control pad attached to each lift.

What makes the Hanel popular among warehouses is its efficiency to locate the necessary parts needed. When it is time to locate and pick the items for an order, the inventory software will generate the appropriate lists with the corresponding product numbers and retrieve the required shelf where the item is stored. There could be one or several people concurrently picking from multiple Hanel lifts and as the software tells the lifts to locate the specific products, the shelves will appear and light up the appropriate items that need to be picked. The pickers are then guided to place the picked items into their respective orders.

Inventory software can inform you of how many of the same items are needed for the orders. For example, a warehouse has 200 orders to get through in one day. The software will be able to determine whether there are common products in each order. It will automatically display at each lift, picking instructions with the number of each item needed.

This eliminates time, as you will be able to pull out the exact amount of every product at the one time instead of going back and forth. This is how the system reduces unproductive time.

As businesses are constantly growing and the need for effective parts management increases, it is often wise to look at a business in its entirety. Can you see a flaw in your business? Are you losing money due to the timely methods of locating each and every product in a warehouse, filled with rows upon rows of racking? Do you find that there are constant mistakes with incorrect products being sent out to customers? If you have answered yes to these questions, then it’s time to start planning for the future and invest in technology that is guaranteed to turn your business around. www.headland.com.au

Materials Handling

Konecranes cuts Adsteel’s costs while improving efficiency and safety Diversified steel trading and distribution company Adsteel has improved cycle times, increased efficiency and reduced overall costs at its Adelaide plant in South Australia with a new Konecranes CXT crane incorporating advanced lighting and safety features.

The new Konecranes unit complements three other existing CXT cranes used in lifting and moving steel for Adsteel, which has an excellent network of suppliers and steel mills both in Australia and overseas.

Adsteel supplies plate, sheet, tubular, structural and merchant bar among its broad range. High-quality customer service has been a key focus of its success for over 20 years and dealing with companies that share its vision of greater efficiency and safety has helped it achieve this.

“In the steel industry, service is everything,” says Steve Trowbridge, Operations Manager at Adsteel. “I was looking to upgrade an old workshop crane, but after thorough research, a cost-benefit analysis and a business impact evaluation, we concluded that it would be more cost-efficient to install a new crane. Konecranes were really thorough and clearly had a lot of expertise in the steel industry.”

Konecranes’ Branch Manager for Northern Territory and South Australia, John Jackman, explained that, to get optimum cost-efficiency for Adsteel, he offered them a rigid girder structure. This option provided cost savings via the use of inverter hoisting to reduce shock loading often seen on steel warehouse cranes.

“A guaranteed reduction in ongoing maintenance costs – such as couplings and brakes – made the additional purchase price of inverter hoisting justifiable, given that the variable speed control would stop excessive inching from the operators,” said Jackman. “Additionally, extended speed range (ESR) would increase the empty cycle or light lifting cycle speeds, helping the customer move more steel safely.”

Trowbridge has been impressed by the operational efficiency all four of his Konecranes units, saying: “They’re efficient, safe and operate at good speeds for our business. My cycle times have improved with the new CXT crane and my operators love it. Importantly for us, they’re also backed up by efficient service from Konecranes.”

Konecranes also included its latest LED lighting system, which is designed to decrease power consumption and improve lighting around the critical lifting operations. Adsteel was so impressed with the quality of this lighting and the reduction in power usage from overhead lights that the company has asked for it to be retro-fitted to its other CXT cranes.

CXT wire rope hoists such as those employed on the Adsteel cranes utilise the latest advanced technology from the Konecranes group to extend hoist operation cycles, safety and durability. The versatile hoist can be adapted to a huge variety of applications and ensures reliable operation, regardless of the conditions.

The compact dimensions allow the CXT to utilise smaller spaces more efficiently, and different trolley configurations maximise the lifting height potential. To further optimise the efficiency of the crane, the

empty hook can be driven at speeds up to 50% higher compared with the loaded hook, allowing the operator to choose the most efficient way to operate the hoist. CXT hoists also come with a range of optional features for customers who are looking to further increase their efficiency and performance. The latest CXT wire rope hoists are available with smart features including: • Adaptive Speed Range (ASR) – this allows very slow speeds, which are important in moment of load lift-off and lowering. It also has the ability to lift up to 50% faster when lifting 25% of the maximum load or less.

• Extended Speed Range (ESR) – this is an extension of the ASR that allows even faster speeds and a wider range of control. ESR is typically used in heavy use industries with high volume cycles and with a higher percentage of medium to heavy load • Load control – designed to make the operator’s work safer and more productive.

• Positioning and area control – designed to assist the operator in positioning the load more efficiently and accurately. It also allows the crane’s working area to be adapted to the varying physical layout of individual facilities and production lines.

For Adsteel, Konecranes included a sliding remote control belt with the new CXT crane. This allows the joystick remote to be slid out of the way of the stomach of the operator when not in use and moved to the more convenient side position, allowing easy bending over.

“These additional features really help the operators,” said Trowbridge.

“For me it’s all about safety and efficiency, but comfort and easeof-use are important to the crane operators, and I’m pleased that Konecranes could tick all the boxes.” www.adsteel.com.au www.konecranes.com.au

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forum – law

Individuals beware: WHS obligations apply to you!

Recent cases recognise that individuals have a role to play in making and keeping workplaces safe, and demonstrate that regulators are actively testing the actions of individuals in senior management roles, as explained by Joanne Flitcroft and Laura Dexter.

The first prosecution of an individual under the national harmonised Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) (WHS Act) serves as an important reminder that compliance with safety obligations isn’t just the responsibility of the faceless corporation. Although it has always been open to the regulator to pursue individuals for breaches of work health and safety (WHS) law, what individuals are doing (or not doing) to create a safe workplace has recently come into focus. The message sent by this recent trend is loud and clear—ensuring the health and safety of workers is everyone’s responsibility.

The first prosecution – R v Kenoss Contractors Pty Ltd [2014] In the first prosecution of its kind under the WHS Act, charges have been brought against an individual of a defendant company for a workplace incident that occurred in 2012. Mr Al-Hasani has been charged as an “officer” of the defendant company Kenoss Contractors Pty Ltd. The incident giving rise to these charges was the fatal electrocution of a worker when the elevated trailer on the tip truck he was driving touched a live power line above. It is alleged that a series of basic safety breaches contributed to his death, including that: • there were no warning signs or flags to alert workers to the presence of live power lines • there was no spotter to help the worker dump and load, and • the power line was still live and had not been turned off.

Mr Al-Hasani was subsequently charged as “an officer” of the company that the deceased was working for at the time. The company was also charged.

What is required of an “officer”?

Under WHS laws, the term “officer” can include directors, company secretaries, and others who affect the company in certain ways.

For example, a person who has the capacity to significantly affect a company’s financial standing is an officer. In short, the law requires an “officer” of the company, in this matter Mr Al-Hasani, to take action to ensure the company understands and has the resources to meet its obligations to worker safety. Mr Al-Hasani is currently defending the allegations that he failed to do this. Significantly, Mr Al-Hasani has been charged as an “officer” despite being a director of a related company, rather than of the defendant company Kenoss Contractors Pty Ltd. If found guilty, Mr Al-Hasani could face a maximum fine of $300,000 and be slapped with a criminal record.

“Other persons at the workplace” are also held accountable Officers are not the only persons being held accountable for breaches of WHS laws. In R v Samer Fatoula [2014], the NSW District Court charged an individual as an “other person at the workplace”.

In this case, Mr Fatoula was contracted to carry out excavation duties collecting rubbish around a site using a bucket-like device.

He was to empty the bucket of rubbish into trucks at the site

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entrance. The relevant incident occurred when the raised bucket of the excavator fell and bounced, fatally striking another worker. Mr Fatoula was charged as both an “officer” and as an “other person at the workplace”. Specifically, it was alleged that he failed to take reasonable care that his acts or omissions did not adversely affect the health and safety of other persons. Although Mr Fatoula was subsequently found not to be guilty (as an individual) in his role in both capacities, this case is interesting in that the prosecutor pursued an individual under two provisions of the WHS Act that establish offences against individuals personally. Notably, the company of which Mr Fatoula was a director was not charged.

When will a regulator prosecute?

A regulator’s decision to prosecute is a discretionary action and is used as a last resort. A number of issues are considered when determining whether to start a prosecution. The general public interest is the primary concern, but other factors considered include: • the admissible evidence capable of establishing the offence • the need for specific and/or general deterrence, and • the seriousness or the triviality of the offence.

A number of people can commit an offence out of the same incident and a regulator may select multiple defendants in this regard. This comes as a reminder to all that the regulator considers all persons, including individuals, when choosing an appropriate defendant for a particular case.

Lessons learned Many of the WHS Act provisions establishing offences against individuals have, until recently, been largely untested. The recent cases charging natural persons in their capacity as individuals recognise that individuals have a role to play in making and keeping workplaces safe, and demonstrate that regulators are actively testing the actions of individuals in senior management roles. This is a stark reminder that liability for safety matters does not simply rest on a corporate entity and that in a number of states and territories, WHS regulators are shifting their interest to pursue individuals. So, what lessons can you take home from this trend?

1. Safety is everyone’s responsibility.

2. Individuals, not only officers, can and are being prosecuted.

3. Individuals should be aware that WHS duties apply to them, in their capacities as “officers”, “workers” and “other persons at the workplace”.

4. Individuals need to understand what their obligations require.

Sparke Helmore Lawyers is a firm of 600 people working from nine offices across Australia. Our expertise spans corporate and commercial to construction, workplace to insurance, IP to IPOs, mining to manufacturing, and property to procurement. www.sparke.com.au Ph: 03 9291 2333

forum – Training

Adult training: Winning hearts before minds How did a Chartered Accountant end up in the challenging sphere of people-training? Ron Pollak shares his experiences and insights.

For the first ten years of my work life, I worked at various roles within Deloitte. I only got there because I did Accounting followed by a Master of Commerce in Information Systems. And that was only because I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. So, the question arises, “How did a Chartered Accountant give up numbers, systems and processes and learn to love people?”

Just as I hadn’t planned to work in accounting, I didn’t plan to get into training. What took me there in 1982 was an interest in spreadsheets.

Spreadsheets took me into training others in their use. What drove me in 2000 to management and sales training was a desire to extend what I’d learnt in the computer training arena into this more challenging arena. What I learnt was that I had a lot of learning to do.

Learning about how to use computer software was very different from learning management and selling skills. Early on I learnt that there is a whole field of research into adult learning; called ‘androgogy’.

Androgogy as a field of research hasn’t proved sufficient for me.

So, I undertook training in the USA through a group called ISPI, the International Society for Performance Improvement. Let me take you through what I learnt from these two fields of study. But first let me assure you that ISPI has nothing to do with men’s health!

The principles of adult learning say that: • Adults are internally motivated and self-directed.

• Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences.

• Adults are goal-oriented.

• Adults are relevancy-oriented.

• Adults are practical.

• Adult learners like to be respected.

I have problems applying each and every one of these philosophies to sales and management training. I don’t disagree with them. I find issue with each. Let’s look at the first three points.

Adults are internally motivated and self-directed. So, how do you get them to learn what you want them to learn. I mean really learn it. Learn it sufficiently well to change the way they work, not just memorise the terminology and models.

The company, in placing its employees on training, has goals of more sales, greater efficiencies etc. Individual goals for individual employees are often lost when a group of employees are sent to training.

The ISPI course gave me a BHAL - BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS LEARNING. (A BHAL – is the outcome of a BHAG – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal*. I think you get the picture!) I learnt that training people without considering other aspects of the business system, was unlikely to do more than achieve a short-term warm experience. How often have you heard someone say, “If I pick-up 10% of the learning then I’m happy!” The ISPI systems thinking approach showed that the people component comprised less than 25% of the problem and of the solution. So, the impact arising from the acquisition of new skills and knowledge was relatively small.

The BHAL taught me that: • People need to be clear on what they are required to do and why.

• It was definitely true, that you can only manage what you measure.

• The only way to change the way that people work is to change the way that people work. Through this I learnt that the infrastructure supporting the way people work was critical.

Research shows that changes to systems of operations, structures, tools, forms and management processes are required to achieve improved performance. There are very few ahamoments that produce significant change in behavior.

• If you have a good culture, people perform in spite of a lack of learning, difficult systems, soft measures of performance and changing directions.

Now, both models: adult learning and systems thinking, provide a framework for working with people to achieve business goals. Today, I believe strongly that you need to win people’s hearts before you win their minds. So, you have to give them skills and knowledge that makes them a better person generally, and so armed they can perform better at work.

You can’t be a better communicator at work and not at home. You can’t be a more considerate team player. You can’t handle stress, manage your time and priorities, build relationships that are based on trust and show these attributes only at work.

Another BHAL reinforced for me that there is a critical factor to the learning process. Management support and coaching, before and after the training. Recently reported research by behavioural economist, Daniel Ariely shows how dramatically a manager’s support for his/ her employees impacts performance. Ariely describes how without acknowledging the work of someone to whom you have delegated work, even with a begrudging ‘humph’, is akin to tearing up their work in front of their eyes. (There’s a great TED-Talk on this.)

So ultimately, this old Chartered Accountant didn’t give up the numbers, but did find ways to love people.

Pollak Consulting &Training, with experience in sales, management/leadership, personal development and customer service, provides over 80 courses which can be delivered as open publicly-scheduled courses, or as customised in-company training, conference training and consulting services.

Ron Pollak is Managing Director, Pollak Consulting & Training Pty Ltd. Phone: 02 90 990 543 or 0407 200 617 www.ronpollak.com.au *Vision statement which focuses an organisation on a single medium-long term goal which is audacious, may be questionable externally, but regarded as not impossible internally.

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forum – FINAnce

Selling your manufacturing business With millions of baby boomers nearing retirement, Australia is facing a generational change with thousands of businesses about to be put up for sale in the next few years. This flood of businesses could result in an oversupply, forcing the price of businesses down and resulting in some operators closing up shop because they are unable to get a good price for their life’s work. Damian Sutherland explains how considering some of the fundamental issues will assist in planning your business exit strategy.

Typically, a profitable manufacturing business is valued by applying a multiple to the earnings achieved by that business where past results are a guide to future earnings with the multiple representing the perceived risk in the business. Low profitability and significant risk is not a good combination in terms of achieving a good sale price. But consistent past profits, where every attempt has been made to reduce risk, will combine to produce a good sale price.

The currency of your plant & equipment is also very relevant. Older equipment requiring constant repair will provide greater risk to an incoming owner and this can reduce value.

Alternatively a buyer will not want to pay full price for new equipment.

Look at it from the buyer’s point of view Prudent buyers are cautious and seek to assess the likely future levels of profitability and how much risk will be taken on to achieve that profitability. It can often be beneficial to engage a third party such as an accounting firm to undertake such an assessment on your business, as if they are acting for a potential buyer. Known as ‘vendor due diligence,’ this process can help determine readiness for sale by identifying issues which, if rectified, can help increase the value of the business for sale.

to communicate any plans with those key staff early to gain their support and avoid any unexpected surprises. In assessing your business, any prudent buyer will spend the majority of their time with the people issues, so make sure you have given this proper consideration.

Understand when the sale planning process should begin The longer the better, but typically it takes at least three years to properly plan for sale. This is to ensure that profitability is satisfactory, that the risks that can be mitigated are, and that the tax implications of the sale are properly considered and planned for. A trusted advisor is key to achieving the right outcome for the owner.

Don’t let tax and accounting be an after-thought

Know what factors will influence the multiple applied to the earnings of the business

Selling a business is a capital gains event and therefore you may find you are eligible to access the small business CGT concessions.

If certain criteria are met, there are a number of very favorable concessions available. In some cases the entire gain may be tax-free.

The concessions tie closely to superannuation and may also provide significant benefits in the super space. It is imperative to analyse your structure well before a potential sale and assess what options you have. Accessing the concessions will also impact the structure of any sale transaction. i.e. how and when payments are made and what happens with the funds after payment.

Assessment of the risk to achieving likely future profits determines the multiple. Typical risks to future profitability include dependence on a few key customers and suppliers, revenue streams not protected by contracts, intellectual property which has not been protected, insufficient diversification of products and services and dependence on key employees who are not locked in. If these factors are realistically assessed and time is taken to rectify those issues, it will have a significant impact on the value of the business.

People buying a business are looking for traps or hidden risks. The quality of the information you provide to a purchaser about your business must be truthful, supportable and transparent. You have to be able to provide a credible answer as to why you are selling and be prepared to be restrained from acting in competition to the purchaser.

Ultimately, a track record of good, solid financial performance is the main factor that will increase the value and attractiveness of your business.

Consider how the business will operate after your departure

Consider engaging the services of a broker or other professional advisor

Many baby boomer owner or operators are very hands-on in their businesses, and they often hold all the key relationships with customers and suppliers, as well as hiring and firing all the staff, controlling the finances and setting the strategy. Such an owner-centric business will not be attractive to a buyer because the risk to future profitability caused by the owner’s departure is too great. It is important to keep in mind that a business will be more attractive to a buyer if it can operate independently of the owner and there are people, systems and procedures in place for continued profitable operation.

For smaller and somewhat more generic business sales, engaging the services of a broker may be appropriate. For larger and more complex business sales, a more specialised professional advisor can be the right option. They can work through all of the issues discussed above with you, market your business, find potential buyers for your business and ultimately handle the negotiations on your behalf. Selling a manufacturing business can be a very emotional process for long-term owners, which can often be detrimental to the whole process. Having a professional involved can help maintain objectivity and ultimately achieve the outcome you desire.

Retention of key staff is very important for a new owner and it reduces risks and increases the value of the business. Key staff will often contemplate their future in the business when they hear it is being sold. Their options will usually include remaining with the new owner, leaving and going to another industry or a competitor, or starting up in opposition to their former employer. Whilst the legal system provides some protection for the last option, it is not without risk. It is important

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Damian Sutherland is a director of William Buck (Vic) Pty Ltd Chartered Accountants. He has over 20 years of experience assisting businesses with accounting, financial and taxation advice. Damian is on several company boards and works closely with clients to provide business solutions. He can be contacted on 03 9824 8555. www.williambuck.com

forum – OHS

Is your business GHS Ready?

GHS stands for the “Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals”. The goal of GHS is that the same set of rules for classifying hazards, and the same format and content for labels and safety data sheets will be adopted and used consistently around the world. Additionally, chemicals which were considered non-hazardous may now become hazardous under GHS, as explained by Chemical Safety International.

In many states of Australia, the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is mandatory after 1 January 2017, however, many countries around the world have already begun implementing the GHS in different ways.

The goal of GHS is that the same set of rules for classifying hazards, and the same format and content for labels and safety data sheets (SDS) will be adopted and used consistently around the world.

GHS establishes a number of standardised classifications of hazard classes and categories that are referred to as ‘building blocks’. Each jurisdiction is free to decide which building blocks they wish to adopt in their classification system. This means that although GHS is a globally harmonised system, the final chemical classification system of a particular country would be dependent on the building blocks adopted and the chemical databases used for that particular country.

Manufacturers, importers and suppliers need to ensure that the correct GHS classification criteria and building block requirements are used to determine the final classification of a product for a particular jurisdiction. Furthermore, they will need to ensure that labels and SDS comply with GHS requirements in accordance with the country-specific regulations of the jurisdiction in which they intend to sell their products.

This is not a straightforward conversion for the manufacturers, importers, distributors and suppliers of chemicals as there are significant changes in the new GHS system compared to the existing “Approved Criteria” (NOHSC).

Non-hazardous may now be hazardous A major change in the GHS is that due to lower threshold limits and changes to classifications, some products and chemicals which were considered non-hazardous under the “Approved Criteria” (NOHSC) may now become hazardous under GHS. Additionally, if no product test data is supplied – SDS, labels, and possibly Dangerous Goods classifications may all need to be amended if classifications change, which will create significant problems for businesses.

Chemical users will need to understand the changes which are occurring to ensure that new supply of chemicals to their sites are complaint with the GHS. After GHS implementation, SDS and labels will share common elements. While this standardisation should simplify education and training after the transition period is over, employees will need training on both systems until the transition is complete.

Communication of hazards The GHS communicates hazards in a different way to existing systems. The introduction of new pictograms and signal words means staff and suppliers will need to be able to identify when they have the potential to be exposed to a hazardous chemical under the

new hazard communication system. Your business will already be seeing this new form of hazard communication on product labels, and therefore, it is vital that your business effectively communicates what these new hazards mean to all staff.

“For a smooth transition to the GHS system, it is imperative that you conduct a GHS ready audit, so you know what needs to be done and by when. This will reduce the stress later on and will set up your business as GHS leaders”, said Shawn Samuel, CEO of Chemical Safety International.

“It is crucial that businesses do not wait for their competitors to implement the changes. Implementation plans need to be created and workplace training sessions should start early, in order to educate staff on the GHS system and their role in the transition.”

To ensure the safety of the workforce, risk assessments will need to be reviewed in light of the GHS system. Staff training, induction processes and documentation must be updated, and emergency plans will need to be revised and prepared, taking into consideration the new requirements.

Whilst there are many changes that your business will have to go through in order to be compliant with the latest GHS requirements, there is help available. There is still some time before the 1 January 2017 to allow you to have a fully compliant business - if you start now.

Chemical Safety International is based around compliance with the GHS requirements and other domestic and international legislation.

In addition to working with manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and users of hazardous chemicals, Chemical Safety International continues to participate in industry forums and to lobby for improved legislation that ensures the protection of people and the environment.

If you are a manufacturer, importer, supplier, or chemical user – are you ready?

• Have you conducted GHS awareness training for your staff?

• Do you know how to classify under GHS? • Do you know if your marketing strategies will change due to possible classification changes?

• Are your labels configured to new GHS requirements?

• Are your IT systems ready for GHS changes?

• Have you updated your risk assessments?

• Have you contacted your suppliers of chemicals about GHS and are they ready for the change?

Please contact Chemical Safety International today to discuss any issues you may have regarding the impact that GHS may have on your business. Our Mission at CSI is to “Create a safer world through responsible chemical management in the workplace and the environment” support@chemicalsafety.com.au Ph: 03 9875 6900 www.chemicalsafety.com.au AMT AUGUST 2015

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manufacturing history

Big wheels & little wheels – the story of Sir Laurence John Hartnett (1898 – 1986)

Part 7

AIRCRAFT: £5 EACH. PROPELLERS: 5 SHILLINGS

UK-born Sir Laurence Hartnett arrived in Australia in 1934. He was known as Australia’s ‘Father of the Holden’, but he was much more than that as he tirelessly devoted himself to the country he loved via his visionary “Made in Australia” campaign. Apart from commencing the remarkable revitalisation of GM-Holden in 1934, his other contributions to Australia included being appointed Director of Ordnance Production in World War II, setting up the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation and numerous other ventures. In this instalment, Laurence, aged 21, embarks on his first business enterprise by buying an established motor business in Surrey, England. It is 1919.

W

W1 was over, I was demobilised and on my first Sunday at home, my girlfriend Gladys and I walked beside the sea in the sunshine. A few minutes later I found an advertisement in a discarded newspaper. From that moment, the course of my life was turned towards the motor industry. I sought out the agent and got from him the details of the motor and engineering business that was for sale. It was a firm called Probert and Harris, in Wallington, Surrey (England).

For about £500, it looked to me like a wonderful buy: an old-established business, selling motorcycles, a few cars, doing some repair work at the back. So I headed off to Barclay’s Bank. I told the manager my mother had banked with them all her life, mentioned various well-connected family friends as references, and invited the manager to come and see the business for himself. Barclay’s decided to put up part of the balance, my mother helped me with some more, and I found myself with the business.

My start in the motor industry. Just demobilised from the RAF, at 21 I am the managing director of my own business.

Cars were booming then. I employed some Air Force friends to help me buy and sell army surplus lorries, cars and motor-cycles. There was more welding business than we could handle. At twenty one, I was Managing Director of a company.

for £5 each (minus engines) and thousands of propellers for five shillings each, we had to shut down. I was again looking for a job, when this ad was pointed out to me: “Engineer wanted for Far East position,” said the advertisement.

It was a historic period in car manufacture. Dozens of firms were trying to make cars. They’d put a sample in the Motor Show, and if you wanted to get a dealership for the make, you put in an order with a deposit of £30 or £40 a unit, and hoped that the maker could get enough capital to stay afloat. Unfortunately, most of them went broke. I think I put out £300 or £400 as deposits in the first Motor Show and lost most of it. There was no resentment at the loss. Most of the car-makers were young fellows like myself. I was able to share their enthusiasm and their dreams. Some of the makes that came and went were Calcott, Calthorpe, Bean, Cubitt and A. V. Monocar.

I decided to try for it. The company was Guthrie and Company, who had been in Singapore and Malaya for a hundred and fifty years. I got the job. A week later I was on the liner Malwa, Singapore-bound.

Business was wonderful-but it was too good to last. The bank manager said to me one day, “I don’t want to put you off your stride, Mr. Hartnett, but I must warn you that the country’s financial position looks pretty bad. The stock market has gone down with an awful thump.” I gave a happy, innocent grin and said, “Well, those fellows who play the Sto ck Exchange must expect to get their fingers burnt sometimes!” “You don’t understand, Mr. Hartnett,” he said, looking very serious. “This slump is really very bad. It will affect all business ours, too, I’m afraid. “How right he was! Almost overnight the bottom fell out of everything. We had a range of cars and motor-cycles in stock and on order, but suddenly nobody wanted anything: nobody had any money. After some exciting disposal deals, including aircraft

Uncle Michael gave me some very good advice when I told him I was going to Singapore. He knew the East and he respected Asians.

“You are going to a foreign country,” he said. “While you are there you should always look upon yourself as a visitor in another man’s home. Show courtesy, be tolerant, and as soon as you can, learn the language.” Uncle Michael, unlike many Britons of his time who had been to the East, harboured no feelings of racial superiority. I went out immediately and bought three little books on Oriental languages: Malay Self-Taught, Chinese Self-Taught and Tamil Self-Taught.

As soon as we docked, a man from Guthrie’s came on board looking for me. He was a tall sun-tanned Englishman in a dazzling white suit, Mr. Milligan. He took charge of me, piloted me expertly through the Customs and passport offices, had my luggage taken in hand, all with an unruffled air that came from years of meeting young Guthrie’s men from England and “setting them up” ready for a career with “the Company”. First stop was at Wing Loon, the tailor. “Make him up the usual,” said Mr. Milligan, as Wing ran his tape measure over me. “The usual” was an order for twenty white suits. I’d never owned so many clothes.

To be continued…

This is an extract from ‘Big Wheels & Little Wheels’, by Sir Laurence Hartnett as told to John Veitch, 1964. © Deirdre Barnett.

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AMT AUGUST 2015

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Shane Infanti – Chief Executive Officer AMTIL

Little efficiencies add up Like most people, I want our staff to be more effective. Also, like most people, it is hard to find efficiencies and productivity improvements in small to medium businesses when we have spent the past few years in particular trying to be as lean as possible. I doubt there are many individuals working in our sector that would claim to have any downtime or spare time on their hands.

One area, though, of efficiency often overlooked is the training and education of staff in the effective use of our common software programs we use on an everyday basis.

This has particularly been obvious to me over the past few months with the time I am spending on Outlook and Word just trying to keep both under control. Having received over 12,000 emails this year (of which 11,000 have been looked at and deleted) I’m thinking there has got to be a better way of managing Outlook. Again, like most people, our exchange server settings, spam filter and junk email settings pick up most of the complete rubbish so what is coming through to my inbox is emails that have some relevance (media releases, newsfeeds, meeting follow ups, internal emails from staff, sales & marketing efforts, etc) so it’s not a simple solution to effect the number of emails coming in, although I have been unsubscribing a lot lately. One thing I have done is set up my folder rules so that incoming emails are automatically being moved from my inbox to the destination folder that I would spend time moving them to anyway. I can then look at them at a more convenient stage. This in itself may not free up a lot of time.

For me it’s probably only ten or fifteen minutes a day but the real benefit I find is that I “feel” more productive because my inbox is not so cluttered and that puts me in a better frame of mind when sitting in front of the computer.

Another tip I learnt recently is Quick Parts. Have you ever found the need to copy and paste a key phrase that you may use over and over. For example it may be a company profile, some wording on an invoice or statement, a description of what you do or what you sell and you find yourself going back to an old document or email to copy and paste from. Again, this may only take a minute of two but if this is you – check out Quick Parts – it is in Outlook and Word and a number of other software programs. What it does is allow you to set up repetitive phrases and instead of retyping yet again the same answer, or digging through sent items or drafts, you simply click your mouse on the Quick Part to insert it. So when I have to let somebody know who AMTIL is, I click the Quick Part that says “AMTIL is a national non-profit industry body representing the interests of manufacturing technology suppliers and their customers in the precision engineering and advanced manufacturing sector”.

Or if I have to tell about our involvement with government programs I can click the Quick Part that says “AMTIL has been reappointed as a Partner Organisation for the Entrepreneurs’ Programme. We have nine high-level Business Advisors and Research Facilitators around the country whose role is to assist small to medium businesses to identify improvement programs and facilitate growth.”

How easy was that! The point is, setting up folder rules and learning about quick tips does not require a high level of computer savviness.

I doubt many of our members or readers would know Debbie Mayo-Smith. Debbie spoke at one of our AMTIL functions in the very early days, probably 15 years ago.

Debbie sends me quick tip alerts on a regular basis (like the ones above) and I find them really useful. I’m keen to get Debbie to run a workshop for our members later this year focused on areas of simple business improvement like conquering email overload, effective use of technology and social media strategies. In the meantime I promised her a free plug so feel free to visit her website www.debbiespeaks.co.nz Cheers

AMTILinside

Compass – Managing the impacts of FX Fluctuations in foreign exchange (FX) rates can have significant implications for your business. John Rudd of Compass Global Markets offers some pointers on how you can minimise your exposure.

It is a fair assumption that most companies nowadays engage in international business activities in some capacity. This may involve importing products from overseas to sell domestically, it may involve selling products and services overseas, or it may even involve paying foreign employees in their domestic currency. The volatility and movements in exchange rates can have a major impact on the bottom line of a business, and ultimately for its overall survival.

Many factors can cause the market to fluctuate, such as the RBA cutting interest rates or employment figures showing increased unemployment in a certain country. If data releases are dramatically different from economists’ forecasts the exchange rate of associated currencies can move dramatically in a matter of seconds.

Political factors are also a huge driver for currency movements, such as elections or wars breaking out in certain regions.

There are a number of ways that businesses can protect themselves from undesirable rate moves. One of these is the timing of execution, for example avoiding converting currency at volatile times such as during data releases. Risk management can also include hedging exposure using a forward exchange contract, whereby a business can lock in a rate for up to a year so they do not get any unwelcome FX surprises when the time comes to pay or receive the foreign currency.

In addition to the risks that the FX markets present, it is also important for an organisation to understand that using the correct FX provider will also make a notable

difference to rates, service and profitability.

Traditionally businesses used banks to convert currency and make international payments for their business. In recent years a number of businesses have moved away from their bank and opted for a specialist foreign exchange provider such as Compass Global Markets.

The transition has occurred for a number of reasons, including better rates, low or zero fees, and the desire for a more personalised service. However, the main reason that businesses are turning to specialist currency brokers is to gain access to better FX rates.

Specialist providers such as Compass will provide exchange rates that are typically 4% better than the banks, providing a saving of $4,000 for every $100,000 conversion.

In addition Compass does not charge the transaction fees that banks do.

As the exclusive FX provider for AMTIL and its members, Compass can offer the following to all AMTIL members and affiliates: • Preferential and highly competitive exchange rates.

• Zero fees on all payments over $10,000.

• Market leading CNY rates.

• Dedicated and accredited account managers.

• Risk Management Solutions.

• Online access 24/7.

• Access to expert market reports and insights.

If your business is engaged in international business activities and pays or receives in a foreign currency, please contact Compass to discuss how your business can protect itself from adverse currency moves.

AMTIL has entered into a service partnership with Compass Global Markets to help its members secure the best deals available on currency exchanges.

For more information about AMTIL’s service partners, please contact AMTIL’s Corporate Services Manager Greg Chalker, on 03 9800 3666, or gchalker@ amtil.com.au. To discuss what Compass can offer your business please call John Rudd on 02 8039 1400 or email john@ compassmarkets.com. www.compassmarkets.com

At your service.

AMTIL supports its members through its select range of AMTIL Service Partners.

1252AMTIL

www.amtil.com.au/Membership/Service-Partners

AMT AUGUST 2015

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AMTILinside

AMTIL Events – Coming soon AMTIL has been busy putting in place its calendar of events for the 2015-16 year, and an exciting line-up is already beginning to take shape.

With Austech 2015 over and done with, we’ve been hard at work on the program for the coming year. Along with regular features such as the Annual General Meeting (AGM), our ever-popular Golf Day, and our usual Christmas get-togethers, we are planning a rich and diverse array of additional activities. Branded under the name AMTIL Connections™, these events and activities will be aimed at helping AMTIL members to learn ways to improve their business, gain access to valuable industry information, have their say on the issues affecting them, and simply to network and socialise with their peers in the sector.

CSIRO’s Lab 22 will be the venue for one of several AMTIL Plant Tours.

Our 2015-16 Events program will include: • Plant tours – There are few better ways to improve your business than through learning first-hand from your peers. AMTIL is planning visits to the facilities of several major manufacturing companies and research organisations, where members can learn about new technologies and processes.

• Networking functions – Members will have the chance to share ideas, develop essential business relationships, and simply relax and socialise at a number of AMTIL networking sessions over the coming months.

• Focus groups – AMTIL will be organising a series of focus group sessions where members will have the opportunity to have your voice heard and provide input on a wide range of significant issues affecting our industry.

• Webinars and online learning opportunities – Funded by AMTIL, these will allow members to gain exclusive access to an invaluable resource of industry-related information and expertise, through our partnerships with organisations such as Oxford Economics.

One such event is an upcoming plant tour of CSIRO Lab 22 Plant Tour in Clayton, Victoria, on 27 August. Announced in May, Lab 22 is a $6m facility established to provide Australian companies with affordable access to specialist additive manufacturing equipment and expertise in the field of 3D printing with metal. The plant tour will give AMTIL members a chance to see firsthand the impressive array of state-of-theart additive manufacturing equipment Lab

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Dates for your diary EMO

22 has to offer, and find out how the facility might be of benefit to their business.

A number of dates have already been confirmed between now and the end of the year. Book early to ensure your place.

Moving further afield, AMTIL will once again have a stand at the major manufacturing technology show EMO, to be held in Milan, Italy, from 5-10 October. The AMTIL stand will be part of the International Association Pavilion and provides an opportunity for us to promote our members’ capabilities to an expected audience of over 100,000 visitors.

Australian visitors can also have access to our meeting room, bag storage and, of course, a cold refreshment. We are planning a site visit or two depending on interest, so please let us know if you are attending and would like further information.

Thursday 27 August

“AMTIL plays a central role in educating and supporting the advanced manufacturing industry,” says AMTIL Events Manager Kim Warren. “With Austech 2015 recently rounding out a two-year cycle of AMTIL events, our focus now switches to a series of niche activities to suit a targeted range of our members’ needs.”

AMTIL Corporate Golf Day & Christmas Lunch Riversdale Golf Club, Mount Waverley, Victoria

Keep an eye out for new activities coming up in your state or city by visiting the Events section on the AMTIL website.

For further information, contact AMTIL by telephoning 03 9800 3666, or emailing info@amtil.com.au. www.amtil.com.au/events

CSIRO Lab22 Tour Clayton, Victoria

Thursday 22 October AMTIL AGM & Networking Function Riversdale Golf Club, Mount Waverley, Victoria 5.00pm – 7.30pm

Tuesday 1 December: AMTIL Sydney Christmas Dinner Ribs & Rumps, Paramatta, New South Wales

Friday 4 December:

Friday 11 December: AMTIL Brisbane Christmas Lunch Ribs & Rumps, Fortitude Valley, Queensland More and more details are emerging all the time, so keep an eye on the AMTIL website for more information. www.amtil.com.au/Events/LocalEvents

ManufactureLink proudly owned and operated

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Manufacturelink is your directory for all things Manufacturing. processes. services. technology.

1186AMT

We’ve got the link to make it happen.

Visit www.manufacturelink.com.au to learn more.

AMTILinside New AMTIL Members

Actinal Pty Ltd 1284 Lytton Road Hemmant, QLD 4161 T: 07 3390 4022 admin@rogersindustries.com.au www.rogersindustries.com.au

Arrow Print 5 Robertson Place Jamisontown NSW 2750 T: 02 4731 5242 sales@arrowprint.com.au www.arrowprint.com.au

When you need something done, HotSpots can help Have you ever had a piece of work that needed doing, and you just didn’t have the time or resources to get it done yourself. That’s where AMTIL HotSpots comes in.

Perhaps you need a specific component made, but you just don’t have the capabilities in-house. Maybe your company is involved in a big project, but your workshop or your workforce just isn’t big enough to handle the volume required on its own. Or maybe your business is diversifying into an area where the expertise you have available within the company is not sufficient. Sometimes finding an organisation that can help is the hardest part of the problem, and that’s precisely where HotSpots can simplify the process.

HotSpots is a service specifically for AMTIL members, providing information and resources concerning our industry and the workplace, as well as various useful services for your business. Many of the items featured are available exclusively to our members only. HotSpots is designed to connect AMTIL members, informing them of the sorts of opportunities that could help their businesses to grow.

In July alone, AMTIL Hotspots provided details of a design company which was looking for a fabricator that could collaborate with it in the delivery of a lighting project.

It also highlighted an opportunity from a company that was seeking expressions of interest for the continual supply of sheet metal products.

Details of current opportunities are publicised in a regular AMTIL HotSpots email, which also includes information about significant

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issues affecting our industry, details of AMTIL services, upcoming networking and social events and advice on ways to help you improve your business. Submitted to over 1,000 people every month, the HotSpots is an incredibly powerful way to reach large numbers of key decision-makers from across the manufacturing sector.

Since its launch last year, HotSpots has proved hugely popular, and AMTIL is keen to make it even more effective. So next time you have a piece of work that needs doing, don’t waste time – get in touch and get HotSpots working for you.

And don’t forget, the connections that HotSpots makes work both ways. If you’re looking for opportunities for work, HotSpots is designed to help you find them. So keep an eye on Hotspots by visiting the AMTIL website. You’ll need your AMTIL membership to log in to find out more details about each individual listing.

If you are interested in gaining access to HotSpots or you have something you feel will meet our criteria for listing, please forward them on to AMTIL for assessment by emailing info@amtil.com. au with the subject line HOTSPOT. For more information, please contact AMTIL’s Corporate Services Manager Greg Chalker on 03 9800 3666, or gchalker@amtil.com.au. www.amtil.com.au/Membership/Hotspots

AMTIL FOOTY TIPPIng 2015 hawk attack!

Are we witnessing the first ‘Three-peat’ in over a decade? The Hawks are flying higher than ever!

This past month of Aussie Rules football has delivered some incredible insights of what the game means to the man on the street. Off the field, the AFL tragically lost one of its sons after falling victim to a family’s private desparation.

Arm-in-arm, side by side linked opposition coaches, players and fans such was the respect for Phil Walsh.

On the field we saw once again the real (and possibly only) contender for the 2015 crown starting to flex serious muscle by sweeping aside the other top sides, more recent beating the Swans by nearly 90 points. The WA sides make up the top four and are competitive, but will they really challenge? There’s a massive battle in the middle of the ladder where a number of teams can drop in and out of the top eight over coming weeks depending on form and their run home for the remainder of the season. Til next time, Sanchez.

Round 16 1 Conrad Willis B’shaw 2 Brendan Smith 3 Seco 4 Damian 5 John Macdonald 6 Jeff Hedger 7 Josh Pearce 8 Raff - (Parish Eng) 9 Lou 10 Garry-Mackay

99 (514) 98 (486) 98 (515) 96 (494) 96 (625) 95 (530) 94 (499) 94 (565) 94 (599) 93 (526)

Australian Manufacturing Technology Institute Limited

Keeping it Simple.

One Membership, Many Benefits.

connect.inform.grow.

MeMbershIp pAckAges AvAILAbLe AMTIL membership for companies, individuals and supporters within the precision engineering and advanced manufacturing sector.

For more information visit www.amtil.com.au or contact corporate services Manager greg chalker on 03 9800 3666 or gchalker@amtil.com.au

1220AMTIL

www.amtil.com.au

industry calendar

Please Note: It is recommended to contact the exhibition organiser to confirm before attending event

INTERNATIONAL Delhi Machine Tool Expo India, New Delhi 20-23 August 2015 Metal cutting/metal forming machine tools, welding, automation, software, assembling, metrology, accessories. . www.mtx.co.in Cambodia International Machinery Industrial Fair Cambodia, Diamond Island Convention Centre 21-24 August 2015 Metalworking & automation, plastics, auto parts & accessories, food processing. www.camboexpo.com/CIMIF PDMAEC Philippines 26-29 August 2015 Die & mould machinery & equipment exhibition http://pdmaec.brinkster.net/index2.html Taipei International Mould & Die Industry Fair Taiwan, Taipei 26-29 August 2015 Includes: Machining centers, EDM, milling, grinding, engraving machines, lathes, presses, CAD/CAM/CAE, Testing Equipment, auxiliary equipment etc. www.odm-dmi.com/en/ T-Plas Thailand, Bangkok 26-29 August 2015 Plastics and rubber industries. Concurrent event: Plastics in Automotive www.tplas.com/index.php/en Intermach 2015 Brazil, Joinville 1-4 September 2015 Includes automation; metrology; cutting/ machine/metal forming tools; software; welding equipment; specific services for the metalmechanical industry. Concurrent event: CINTEC Mechanical and Automation. www.intermach.com.br/en Aluminium India India, Bombay 7-9 September 2015 Caters to the entire aluminium industry. Includes raw materials, processing machinery, surface/ heat treatment, extrusion. www.aluminium-india.com CIMIE China, Beijing 8-10 September 2015 International Metallurgy Industry Expo is one of the world’s four largest metallurgy events.

Concurrent events: China International Heat Treatment Exhibition; International Forging Industry Exhibition. www.bcime.com/en Vietnam Manufacturing Expo Vietnam, Hanoi 10-12 September 2015 Manufacturing machinery and technologies for supporting industries (machine tools for mould and die making and injection technologies for plastics manufacturing).. www.vietnammanufacturingexpo.com

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IMEX India, Bombay 13-15 September 2015 International machine tools and allied products expo, Co-located with: World of Metal; CWE (International Exhibition on Cutting and Welding Equipment); TechIndia (engineering and manufacturing industry exhibition).

UMEX (intl. exhibition of used machines); Hand Tools & Fasteners Expo. www.imexonline.com International Engineering Fair Czech Republic. Brno Exhibition Centre 14-18 September 2015 Claimed to be the leading industrial trade fair in Central Europe. Includes metalworking and forming machines, tools, welding, surface technology, plastics, automation, metrology. www.bvv.cz/en/msv WESTEC USA, Los Angeles 15-17 September 2015 Expo for the advanced manufacturing industry. Includes cutting-edge manufacturing equipment, advanced technologies, new products and applications. www.westeconline.com Tube Southeast Asia Thailand, Bangkok 16-18 September 2015 Event for the tube and pipe industries in the SE Asia region. www.tube-southeastasia.com/index.php/en/ Metalform China, Shanghai 16- 19 September 2015 Focusing on the metal forming industry.

Co-located with four shows: ChinaForge;, SheetMetal China; MetalFab China and MetalComp China. www.chinaforge.com.cn/en Jordan International Industries & Machinery Exhibition Jordan, Amman 19-22 September 2015 Only intl. machinery show in the Levant region. Includes metal working and plasticsprocessing machinery. www.jordanmachineryshow.com Euromold Germany, Dusseldorf 22-25 September 2015 Includes new trends in design, engineering, moulding and toolmaking, production and additive manufacturing /3D printing. From design to prototyping to series production process chain. http://euromold2015.com AmCon USA New York 23-24 September 2015 Texas 6-7 October 2015 Utah 27-28 October Michigan 10-11 November 2015 Design & contract manufacture expo. from prototypes to production parts. Includes printing; forming/fab; machining; engineering; prototyping; assembly. www.amconshows.com

Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show Canada, Mississauga 28 September – 1 October 2015 Advances in machine tool, tooling, metal forming and fabricating, advanced manufacturing including 3D printing additive manufacturing, automation. Technology Zones. http://cmts.ca Sweissen Austria, Linz 29 September – 1 October 2015 Developments in joining, cutting and surface treatment. Solutions for business success, build prototypes, limited series, serial mass production items, or industrial plants. www.schweissen.at/en Toolex Poland 29 September – 1 October 2015 Trade fair for machine tools, tools and processing technology. www.exposilesia.pl/toolex/uk Manufacturing Solutions Expo Singapore 30 September - 2 October 2015 Showcasing industry’s best ideas, innovative technologies and cost effective manufacturing solutions. Includes Singapore Pavilion. www.smfederation.org.sg/index.php/ calendar (click on September 30) Motek Germany, Stuttgart 5-8 October 2015 Automation in production and assembly.

Mechanical engineering, assembly automation, feed technology and industrial handling for entire process chain. www.motek-messe.de/en/motek EMO Italy, Milan 5-10 October 2015 Includes Metal forming/cutting machine tools, welding, automation,software, accessories, metrology, quality control, OHS. www.emo-milano.com Weldex Russia, Moscow 6-9 October 2015 Welding materials, equipment and technologies www.weldex.ru/en-GB Industrial & Tool show USA Texas: 7-8 October 2015 Springfield: 28-29 October 2015 Oklahoma: 4-5 May 2016 West Texas: 8-9 June 2016 Showcase of industrial products and services www.expoindustrialshows.com M-Tech Japan 7-9 October 2015 Mechanical components and material technology. Mechanical parts such as bearings, fasteners, mechanical springs and metal and plastic processing technology. www.mtech-kansai.jp/en

industry calendar local ACI Connect 2015 Sydney Olympic Park 12-13 August 2015 Australia’s only conference and exhibition dedicated to automation, control and instrumentation technology. Industry expert keynotes on Connected Manufacturing, the all new Future Networks Forum, leadership panels, and two dedicated MiniLab workshop channels. www.aciconnect.com.au NT Resources Week Conference & Exhibition 2015 Darwin 25-27 August 2015 Leading personnel in mining, exploration, engineering, construction, oil and gas to discuss developments Northern Australia and South East Asia. Concurrent with Mining the Territory and Building the Territory Conference www.ntresourcesweek.com.au AIMEX Sydney Showground 1-4 September 2015 Asia-Pacific’s international mining exhibition.

Featuring the latest in mining innovation www.aimex.com.au Australia-Germany Business Conference Melbourne 10 September 2015 Hosted by the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Theme is: “Innovation & Collaboration – Drivers for Future Growth in a challenging Australian business environment. Includes top-level speakers discussing opportunities within the Industry 4.0 framework and the advanced manufacturing sector. Another highlight will be the German perspective on Australia’s submarine project www.australia-germany.com

Safety in Action Melbourne Exhibition Centre 15-17 September 2015 www.safetyinaction.net.au/melbourne Australian Sustainability in Business Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre 7-8 October 2015 Will look at the core fundamentals for a company’s sustainable future and how sustainable innovation improve their profitability and social responsibility while reducing their impact on the environment. www.australiansustainability.com.au Australian Construction Equipment Expo Melbourne Showgrounds 12-14 November 2015 Includes the latest equipment, products and innovations in the construction industry.

Includes exhibitors from civil engineering and construction, public works, Government, earthmoving and demolition. http://aceexpo.com.au Motorclassica 2015 Melbourne 23-25 October 2015 Australia’s premier event for rare and exotic, historic, vintage veteran classic and collectible cars & motorcycles. Celebration marques include 50 years for the Supercar, Dino, Shelby and Mustang; 70 years of MV Agusta and 50 years of the Bugatti Club Australia. www.motorclassica.com.au Queensland Gas Conference & Exhibition Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 24-25 November 2015 Dedicated to the latest developments and issues surrounding Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Queensland.

Industrial Laser 66-67 Advertiser Index ISCAR 2-3 ADFOAM 29 Livetools 49 Alfex CNC 15 LS Starrett 80 Amada Oceana 78-79 Machinery Forum 69 AMTIL AMT 10, 41 MAPAL 37 AMTIL Membership 75 MTI Qualos 31, 39 AMTIL ManufactureLink 73 OSG Asia Pty Ltd 4-5 AMTIL Hotspots 23 Scan Xpress 55 Applied Machinery 17 SECO Tools 13 Barden Fabrication 59 Sheetmetal Machinery Australia 9 Compressed Air Australia 19 Surdex Steel 7 Delahenty Machinery 61 Tasman 3D Printers 53 Flecknoe Pty Ltd 59 Techni Waterjet 21 Hardman Brothers 8 Walter AG Singapore 11 Hare & Forbes Front Cover

AIMEX

Rises in LNG exports of 8% pa for the last five years, predicted revenue for the CSG industry to grow 148% in 2015 and Qld holding over 92% of Australia’s CSG reserves, provide a perfect basis for personnel from the gas sector learn and share better production strategies. www.queenslandgasconference.com.au Materials Innovations in Surface Engineering Brisbane, Queensland University of Technology 24 - 26 November 2015 Surface engineering includes the application of organic and inorganic coatings, surface modification by heat/chemical treatment or alloying, plating, weld overlays, thermal or cold spraying. The conference goal is to achieve high quality academic and industrial papers, providing delegates an insight into the innovative developments in the industry. www.mise2015.com.au Motorworld Melbourne Melbourne 25-29 November 2015 Comprehensive automotive festival presenting the Australian automotive industry to buyers throughout Australia and Asia. Includes the latest release motor vehicles and motor bikes in motion. Features 23 dedicated feature zones. www.motorworldmelbourne.com/

sep15 Australian Manufacturing Technology

Your Industry. Your Magazine.

NEXT ISSUE…

DEFENCE

Would you like to advertise in Australia’s No. 1 precision and manufacturing magazine?

Call Anne Samuelsson of AMTIL on 03 9800 3666 or email asameulsson@amtil.com.au

Next month AMT looks into the ways in which Australian manufacturers are driving ground-breaking innovations in the defence sector.

COMPOSITES MATERIAL REMOVAL QUALITY & INSPECTION SAFETY

AMT AUGUST 2015

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THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION for tube and sheet metal processing.

60 second change time between cutting flat sheet and pipe or tube.

MULTIPLE USE LASER CUTTING MACHINE

The Amada FOM2RI3015NT multiple use laser cutting machine is the ultimate quick switch solution. Effortlessly change from sheet to tube processing in just 60 seconds.

• Quick switch from sheet to tube processing • High productivity • High quality cutting • Continual production • Stable cutting • Drastic reduction of setup time

Amada Oceania Pty Ltd www.amada.com.au

REAPING REWARDS WITH PRECISION LASER CUTTING “Local backup and support were the main reasons to go with Amada.”

“The machine is extremely reliable. But if we have any issues, someone from Amada will always come to help us out.”

Chris Marshall, General Manager, DJM Fabrications, Warragul, Australia Most people wouldn’t buy a laser cutter without understanding the first thing about setting it up or operating it; however, Chris Marshall and his 32-men strong team aren’t like most people. They purchased an Amada FOM2 CO2 laser cutting machine without prior experience or trained operators which turned out to be a good decision.

“The machine is very easy to operate and the support and backup from Amada was excellent,” Chris says.

Warragul-based DJM Fabrications is a nationally renowned and highly successful engineering and metal fabrication company servicing heavy industries such as mining, forestry or civil engineering. When the company decided to tap into new markets such as the rail industry, they needed

additional cutting capacity to cut mild and stainless steels or aluminium. Precise work.

They chose to outsource all of the work their plasma cutters couldn’t handle, but soon realised that it would pay off in the long run to bring all cutting in-house.

Amada’s FOM2 laser cutter proved to be the right fit. Equipped with a solid-cast frame, water assisted cutting, and a highprecision motion system, the FOM2 boasts new features such as an automatic nozzle changer, cut process monitoring, and autopierce detection. For Chris, one of the most important features is Amada’s water assisted cutting system. During the cutting process, parts of the thick sheet get hot, which can cause the cut sections and the remnants of the sheets to distort. To prevent this, the

system sprays water onto the surface of the material, cooling it during the cutting process.

“The quality of the cut is very good and the machine is extremely reliable,” Chris comments. “The laser is good value for money and the support and backup provided

by Amada Oceania and by their parent company in Japan is superb. That’s the main reason for us to invest in an Amada machine.”

And Chris probably won’t stop here; when it is time to replace some of the older press brakes, he explains, he would certainly turn to Amada again, knowing he would get a reliable machine providing his business with productivity gains and a competitive edge.

Cutting-edge technology State-of-the-art laser beam: The oscillator AF4000iC can generate a stable laser beam without fluctuations. It achieves high quality, stability and cutting speed.

Quality: The FOM2 laser’s cut process monitoring system adjusts cutting conditions by monitoring gouging and plasma to give repeatable edge quality and continuous stable production. Moreover, the Amada patented Water Assisted Cutting System sprays water onto the surface of the material during laser cutting to prevent the cut sections and the remnants of the sheets to distort.

Ease of operation: DJM Fabrications had their new FOM2 CO2 laser cutting machine up and running straight away without prior experience or trained operators - due to Amada’s excellent backup & training.

Sydney 02 8887 1100 Unit 7, 16 Lexington Dr., Bella Vista NSW 2153 Melbourne 03 9020 1400 Unit 1, 3-4 Anzed Court Mulgrave VIC 3170 | Perth | Brisbane