SEA trucks now heading to production in the Latrobe Valley

Nikola’s ambitious plans accelerate Nikola’s merger with VectoIQ will accelerate its plans for vehicle design, breaking ground on a manufacturing plant and kick-starting hydrogen station rollout.

Nikola Corp.’s recent merger with VectoIQ is expected to help accelerate the company’s technology and business plans. “Nikola has ambitious plans,” Elizabeth Fretheim, head of business development said. “We’re focused not only on the vehicles – the Badger, of course we have the semi-trucks, we also have a power sports division but then we’re also trying to resolve that ‘chicken-andegg’ question about putting up infrastructure

Daimler and Volvo to establish joint venture for fuel cell development Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group have signed a preliminary non-binding agreement to establish a new joint venture. The intention is to develop, produce and commercialize fuel cell systems for heavy-duty vehicle applications and other use cases.

Daimler will consolidate all its current fuel cell activities in the joint venture. The Volvo Group will acquire 50% in the joint venture for the sum of approximately EUR 0.6 billion on a cash and debt free basis. Volvo Group and Daimler Truck AG will be 50/50 partners in the joint venture, which will operate as an independent and autonomous entity, with Daimler Truck AG and the Volvo Group continuing to be competitors in all other areas of business. Joining forces will decrease development costs for both companies and accelerate the market introduction of fuel cell systems in products used for heavyduty transport and demanding long-haul applications. The common goal is for both companies to offer heavy-duty vehicles with fuel cells for demanding long-haul applications in series production in the second half of the decade. In addition, other automotive and nonautomotive use cases are also part of the new joint venture’s scope. A final agreement is expected by Q3 and closing before year end 2020. All potential transactions are subject to examination and approval by the responsible competition authorities. before vehicles are ready, or vehicles before infrastructure. So, we’re working on that parallel path.” The new manufacturing plant is slated to break ground in Coolidge, Arizona on 23 July 2020 according to a June 19 tweet from Nikola founder and executive chairman Trevor Milton. ‘The ceremony will be held there to kick off construction of the plant that will build up to 35,000 zero-emission semi-trucks and create thousands of jobs,” he wrote. Based on the Iveco S-Way heavy-duty truck, the battery-electric Nikola Tre for European markets was slated to debut in September at the IAA 2020 commercial vehicle exhibition in The company said that it will be concentrating on streamlining the production process so that its trucks can be built in a three-week timeframe. The company converts diesel trucks to electric power. With around 272 units using the SEA-Drive electric power system built or committed to since the company’s commercial inception in 2017, the company foresees another threefigure year this year and will be looking for four figures by 2022. SEA-Drives can now be found in a growing list of trucks such as Isuzu, Hino, Iveco, Ford van, Mercedes-Benz and Dennis Eagle vehicles, the latter two for waste-trucks. The company has a presence in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Thailand, South Africa and Israel, and it is also setting up an assembly plant in the Latrobe Valley. SEA Electric president Tony Fairweather

Germany, which has since been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first units are expected to reach customers in 2021. The Tre is the first step toward Nikola’s fuel-cell-electric model, which

SEA trucks now heading to production in the Latrobe Valley SEA electric trucks are now in a consolidation phase according to Joe Di Santo, SEA Electric Sales Director for Australia and New Zealand having moved out of R&D and into production at its Dandenong, Victoria plant.

will be available to customers by 2023.

notes some minor drift, a matter of couple of months, in the timing as the company continues to work on sourcing and purchasing suitable land and tweaking the agreement. Mr Fairweather points out that SEA is “very committed to regional areas” and that the company will run out of space in Dandenong South in early 2021 and the company very much needs to free up assembly space. Latrobe Valley Authority (LVA) reports the company has a large back order for vehicles and has employed five staff from Latrobe Valley who are working in their Dandenong facility while the Latrobe Valley operations get up and running. The priority for the company is first to identify and secure a suitable site, and it will be working closely with local council to have this secured by the end of 2019.

Actros breaking new ground with advanced features Mercedes Benz Actros is breaking new ground with a number of features that are taking it past the realm of motor cars.

For a start it is the first truck in Australia to use cameras instead of mirrors – called MirrorCam, which is a new technology that captures vision from cameras mounted on aerodynamic wings and apart from a huge improvement in visibility the cameras also improve fuel efficiency. There are no exterior mirrors on this truck. The camera displays on a 15-inch screen mounted in the cabin on the A-pillars close to where a traditional mirror would be located. Two customisable tablet screens are also located in the cockpit that incorporate soft switches – touch screen switchgear rather than the conventional flick switch. There are 230 different switches available for configuration, all you do is program in the ones you want; you build in what you want to see displayed on the dashboard.

Zealand markets.

It plans to assemble fuel cell trucks in Australia with partner as early as 2022. “We are also considering the options for locating our first fuel cell commercial vehicle integration facility in Australia,” the company said in an online statement. Hyzon Motors will be one of the first Hydrogen Fuel Cell heavy vehicle companies in series production, with integration work to start in the USA facility from mid-2020. It will offer trucks from 15 to 40 tonnes in gross vehicle weight, powered by Horizon’s high-performance PEM Fuel Cells. Hyzon will also offer city and coach buses. During 2021, the company plans to bring to market a van platform and light trucks. Zero

The truck also has Predictive Powertrain Control that uses topographic map data to help anticipate the terrain and select the best shift pattern and engine response. It means the cruise control cuts off just before the top of a hill and allows the truck to coast over the top and then select the right shift to maintain momentum. Another feature is the fifth generation of the Mercedes-Benz Active Brake Assist system which is a radar/camera that can

Hyzon Motors in Australia Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies’ Hyzon Motors is to establish a division in Australia and will set up technical support and management project capabilities for the local and New

automatically perform emergency braking. Emission road-trains with gross weight up to 140 tonnes will be commercialized during 2021 in Australia, surely the ultimate test for fuel cell technology in vehicles.

Nikola and Tesla vying for cybertruck sales Nikola Motors announced that they have started to take orders for their Nikola Badger electric cybertruck.

In February, they announced plans for the Nikola Badger with a battery/fuel-cell hybrid powertrain enabling 600 miles of range, 0-60 mph acceleration in 2.9 seconds. Nikola is now taking US$5,000 deposits to reserve the pickup truck, which won’t be unveiled until December. According to Cybertruck Talk, data crowdsourced by more than 18,000 members of the Tesla enthusiast community these are the top 10 countries for Cybertruck orders: 1. United States (76.25%) 2. Canada (10.43%) 3. Australia (3.16%) 4. United Kingdom (1.39%) 5. Norway (1.11%) 6. Germany (1.05%) 7. Sweden (0.83%) 8. Netherlands (0.67%) 9. France (0.44%) 10. Iceland (0.44%) Tesla hasn’t released pricing for Australia, but expectations are that the entry price may be around A$63,200. The Cybertruck electric ute was revealed in November with variants due to enter production from late 2021. It’s expected to have more than an 800km range, tow about 6300kgs, carry a 1600kg payload and accelerate from 0 to 96km/h in under 2.9 seconds.

Briefs

The Royal Australian Navy has commissioned the final Hobart Class guided missile destroyer, HMAS Sydney. The milestone marks the culmination of the Air Warfare Destroyer program, which sees the complete fleet of Hobart Class Destroyers joining the global Aegis fleet. As the developer of the Aegis system, Lockheed Martin is has continued its legacy as the Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA) for the US Navy to design, develop, integrate, test and sustain Aegis-equipped ships globally.

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype device that uses microwave air plasmas for jet propulsion instead of fossil fuel. The plasma jet was created by compressing air into high pressures and using a microwave to ionize the pressurized air stream. The prototype plasma jet device can lift a 1-kilogram steel ball over a 24-millimeter diameter quartz tube, where the high-pressure air is converted into a plasma jet by passing through a microwave ionization chamber. To scale, the corresponding thrusting pressure is comparable to a commercial airplane jet engine.

Lockheed Martin has announced two new key appointments in Australia. Rod Drury is vice president international of Lockheed Martin Space. He will be focusing on delivering growth through the execution of Lockheed Martin Space’s integrated international strategy. Also joining the Space team in Canberra is David Ball, the newly appointed Regional Director Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) for Lockheed Martin Space who will be reporting directly to Mr Drury.

The Australian International Airshow and Aerospace & Defence Exposition (AVALON

2021), originally scheduled for 23-28 February at Avalon, Victoria will be deferred to later in 2021, with timings in November being considered. Dates will be announced at a later time.

NASA engineers are developing innovative new materials that can be used to manufacture better parts for aircraft engines and related systems. One of these materials is Silicon Carbide (SiC) FibreReinforced SiC Ceramic Matrix Composites (SiC/ SiC CMCs). This lightweight and reusable fibre material is ideal for high performance machinery, like aircraft engines, operating for extended periods of time in punishing conditions. SiC fibres can withstand up to 2700 degrees Fahrenheit and are strong enough to last months, or even years, between maintenance cycles.

Loyal Wingman presented to RAF A Boeing led Australian industry team has presented the first unmanned Loyal Wingman aircraft to the Royal Australian Air Force, a historic milestone for the company and the Commonwealth.

The aircraft uses artificial intelligence to extend the capabilities of manned and unmanned platforms, and is the first to be designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years. It is Boeing’s largest investment in an unmanned aircraft outside of the United States. As the first of three prototypes for Australia’s Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program, the aircraft also serves as the foundation for the Boeing Airpower Teaming

The Morrison Government will invest $270 capability and potency of the Australian Defence Force.

In its 2020 Defence Strategic Update, the Morrison Government signalled a key change in Australia’s defence posture, as it prioritises the Indo-Pacific region. The update provides a new plan to tackle Australia’s defence challenges while increasing investment and personnel across the entire ADF. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Strategic Update would also mean more job opportunities as Australia’s increasingly capable and sovereign defence industry grows. “More broadly, we are ensuring Defence has more durable supply chains, while further strengthening Australia’s sovereign defence industry to create more high-tech Australian jobs and enhance the ADF’s self-reliance,” Prime Minister Morrison said. Australia’s defence industry is growing with

System (ATS) being developed for the global defense market. More than 35 members of Australian industry are supporting prototype work across four Australian states. The aircraft was engineered using a digital twin to model its structures, systems, capabilities and full life-cycle requirements; manufactured with Boeing’s largestever resin-infused single composite piece; and assembled using proven

$270b to go to upgrade Australian defence billion over the next 10 years to upgrade the

advanced manufacturing processes.

more than 4000 businesses employing approximately 30,000 staff. An additional 11,000 Australian companies directly benefit from Defence investment and, when further downstream suppliers are included, the benefits flow to approximately 70,000 workers. The long-term implications for Defence capability and force structure are outlined in the 2020 Force Structure Plan, which has also been released.

The 2020 Defence Strategic Update and 2020 Force Structure Plan are available at https://www.Defence.gov.au/StrategicUpdate-2020/

International Women in Engineering Day In June we celebrated International Women in Engineering Day, unfortunately overshadowed by Coronavirus.

This global event aims to highlight the amazing work done by women in the profession, and although it was marked for the first time just six years ago, engineering has benefited from the contributions of women for millennia. Even so, the engineering profession continues to be a male-dominated one. In 2018, women made up only 14.6 percent of engineers, and 18 percent of the students commencing engineering courses. These numbers are growing, albeit slowly, but history shows that women have always contributed to STEM fields, even when the forces of discrimination and institutional sexism have sought to keep them out. To celebrate this year’s International Women in Engineering Day, Ford highlighted some of the inspirational stories behind its exceptional female engineers from around the world. So it conducted interviews with a few, providing these women with an outlet to tell their stories. The theme for this year’s International Women in Engineering Day was “Shape the World,”

facility

On completion, this will see the end of a fiveyear project to consolidate all of Bosch’s Victorian businesses to its 12-hectare Clayton site. Bosch’s history of manufacturing at this site dates back to the 1950s, when it established a plant to support a growing local automotive manufacturing industry – VW was manufacturing cars across the road, later that plant become the Nissan plant. The new building will comprise 4156 sqm of

which is something these women share with one of Ford’s early female engineers, Damyanti Gupta. In 1967, Ms Gupta was a trailblazer after she graduated with a master’s degree in engineering and was hired at Ford Motor Company headquarters in Dearborn. On International Women In Engineering Day McLaren celebrated a selection of women at McLaren Racing who also worked on the VentilatorChallenge UK (VCUK) consortium project – a collective of UK-based Formula 1 teams, engine manufacturers and their respective technology arms – who worked to answer the UK Government’s calls for additional ventilators in response to the

Bosch invests $17m in new Clayton Construction of a new facility for Bosch’s Manufacturing Solutions and Rexroth businesses is underway, the company will invest $17 million on the new facility.

COVID-19 crisis.

industrial space and workshops, 896 sqm of offices, amenities and laboratories, and a further 833 sqm for truck and service areas, as well as 74 additional car parking spaces. With the support of the Victorian Government, the new building brings with it a commitment to create at least 35 new jobs over the next four years. Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by October 2020.

Finalists for manufacturing Endeavour Awards The finalists for Australia’s prestigious manufacturing awards have been announced.

The Endeavour Awards 2020, now in its 17th year, sees a high calibre of entrants representing Australia in an international capacity with innovative ideas, new technologies and the best in supply chain strategies. Despite the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s finalists showcase what Australia has to offer the world in manufacturing. All nominations for the 2020 Endeavour Awards are automatically entered into the Manufacturer of the Year Award. No awards presentation night will held in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Here are all the finalists for the 2020 Endeavour Awards:

• Mexx Engineering Pty Ltd • Titomic • Orica Mining Services • OLEOLOGY • Special Patterns • Centre for Infrastructure Engineering –

Western Sydney University • Mexx Engineering Pty Ltd • Tyre Stewardship Australia & Flexiroc

Australia • CSIRO • Successful Endeavours • Lithium Australia NL • Black Sky Aerospace • NISKA Retail Robotics • Helitak Fire Fighting Equipment • REDARC • Saferoads • Pilz Australia & New Zealand • PRM Engineering Services • Liquip • APR.Intern – Australian Postgraduate

Research Intern • Asaleo Care • Supashock • APS Industrial • ANCA • DECO Australia • Jehbco Silicones • Noja Power • Flexicon • Accumulatos

What’s the Motive? It’s a gullwing AV prototype from Gordon Murray Design, Delta Motorsport and itMoves that claims to “break the mould for future mobility development”.

Mobility “pods” regularly pop up and the latest is a quadricycle prototype called MOTIV, claimed by its creators to “break the mould for future mobility development.” The pod is a small-footprint vehicle platform designed to operate under SAE Level 5 autonomy “when paired with driverless technologies from an autonomous partner.” Mike Brown, GMD’s advanced products director, said that the MOTIV development

Briefs

CEO Markus Duesmann after becoming Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi, will realign brand’s development division with a special focus on process quality. He will be supported by a Chief Operating Officer, who will coordinate the day-today business of the development engineers, and a Chief Transition Architect, who will organize the realignment of the Technical development at Audi. The next steps that are to modernize the structure of the Technical Development division. team had successfully addressed several key factors. It had to be electric, clean from both urban and city perspectives, exceptionally compact and light, able to carry multiple occupants or up to 1,100 litres of goods and help traffic flow. Fulfilling European M1 crash regulations was also very high on the list. The pod, which has a single gullwing door, uses GMD’s flexible architecture (iStream Superlight) technology. The prototype had a Delta Motorsport battery and drive-by-wire dedicated vehicle control architecture that operates the steering, propulsion and braking systems. It has a

production is set to literally heat up.

Called RACEform, the project will validate Impression Technologies’ Hot Form Quench (HFQ) process for the mass production of complex aluminium components and structures. HFQ’s promise to enable more-extensive use of aluminium promises to save both weight and cost while potentially signalling new design and manufacturing opportunities. The process is all about the use of deepdrawn, complex aluminium components and structures manufactured from highstrength, ultra-high strength and recycled aluminium, delivering up to 20% weight reduction compared with some conventionally pressed aluminium grades. The RACEform (Rapid Aluminium CostEffective Forming), project with financial support from the UK government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), involves a joint industry and academia group working together to validate the HFQ components and parts design and manufacturing 100-km maximum range from its 13.8-kWh usable (17.3- kWh total) battery and 20-kW motor driving a single-speed transmission. Performance figures supplied by GMD include a top speed of 65 km/h. Front suspension includes MacPherson struts, with an “i-link”

RACEform aluminium The longstanding competition between steel and aluminium for high-volume vehicle

Bombardier Transportation is to build and deliver regional commuter and intracity transit trains with comprehensive maintenance services for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut semi-highspeed rail corridor under Phase 1 of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS). The project scope involves supplying 30 regional commuter trainsets of six cars each and 10 intracity mass transit trainsets of three cars each, together with 15 years of rolling stock maintenance.

Honda’s next-gen EVs will be based on a GM architecture and powered by its new Ultium battery design and jointly developed by the two companies but will be “based on GM’s highly flexible global EV platform”. Honda will execute exterior design and interiors of two Honda badged EVs. Sales of the Honda EVs are to begin in 2024. The two companies have an extensive history of technology-sharing agreements and currently are jointly involved in research and development of hydrogen fuel-cell systems. The two companies confirmed that it “will be manufactured at GM plants in North America,” but did not specifically name the Detroit-Hamtramck plant as the likely site.

setup at the rear. process for high-volume structural applications. HFQ applications would include massproduction body-in-white (BIW) and chassis assemblies – particularly for EVs and SUVs. The technology is already embraced by OEMs including Aston Martin (for the DB 11) and Lotus, with others working on projects globally The HFQ process also is claimed to help aluminium compete with steel on affordability. In addition to vehicle A and B-pillars, potential examples of parts integration include front headers, dashboard panels, sills, battery enclosures, door inners, door intrusion and bumper beams, chassis components and seat structures. HFQ Technology enables investment reduction thanks to deletion of multiple forming tools and reduced parts count, which also drives assembly savings. The process is sufficiently rapid to meet the cycle times required for lowcost, high-volume manufacturing.