General News

Turning alloy waste into valuable product

CSIRO has developed a novel process for turning inexpensive alloy waste into a high value wire product suitable for the additive manufacturing market.

The team is the first in Australia to produce titanium wire this way. They used lowcost titanium alloy particulates, like machining swarf, to produce a wire that can be used to make 3D printed parts such as aerospace components. The wire is being fine-tuned for use in large format additive manufacturing such as Sciaky electron beam manufacturing and Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). These are processes that melt the wire to form beads, which stick together to create a layer of metal material that is then built up to form the 3D printed part. The global market for titanium wire is worth more than $200 million. There is a lucrative market for 2.5mm to 3mm titanium wire as feed for this type of wire-additive manufacturing, and the cheaper wire generated from recycled sources can also be used to produce metal powders for 3D printing. The patented wire extrusion process, which is optimised using computational modelling, is being demonstrated to produce 50kg of titanium wire at pilot scale. The team is working to scale this up to 100-300kgs precommercial volumes over coming months. Australia is well represented in various types of wire manufacturing, but until now has lacked sovereign capability in wire production for additive manufacturing. The wire can be used to make large complex parts for markets including aerospace, biomedical, defence, marine, automotive, construction and consumer goods.

Brisbane robots represent Australia at Robotic Olympics

A Brisbane-based team of robotics experts will represent Australia and the Southern Hemisphere in the world’s leading robotics competition held in the United States.

CSIRO group leader Dr Navinda Kodege said they were thrilled to be one of the final eight teams to compete. The six autonomous robots from CSIRO’s Data61 will need to locate and report back on items and environmental conditions throughout three underground courses. The winner will receive US$2 million ($2.76m) to conduct further research and development, with second place awarded US$1 million ($1.38m) and third US$500,000 ($690,565).

Briefs

AMGC NT director

The Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) has expanded its team, with the appointment of respected industry advocate Charmaine Barrett to the position of director, Northern Territory (NT) for AMGC. With 15-years’ industry experience, Ms Barrett joins AMGC from Industry Capability Network (ICN) where she held positions as operations manager and business development manager for the NT. In her new role, she will lead the joint, five-year, $8.75 million NT/AMGC program to fast-track investment and commercialisation of advanced manufacturing opportunities across the Territory.

Indigenous engineering students

Thirty engineering-curious Indigenous students attended the annual Indigenous Australian Engineering School Camp. For the 12th year running Curtin hosted this camp on behalf of Engineering Aid Australia. Twenty students from around WA joined for the first time, while 10 other previous participants returned for an extension program mentored by engineering professionals. This year marks a special milestone of having First Nations engineers, both students and graduates, involved with every step of the program. Key activities included a site visit to the BOC Gas facility, visiting the Robotics lab at Woodside, networking and careers functions with other key partner organisations and participants.