Manufacturers' Monthly April 2016

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10 IT@MM 14 Hire & Rental 16 Synchrotron Technology 18 Automation & Robotics 19 Endeavour Awards 34 Plant Upgrade 36 Energy & Power Management

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40 Women in Industry 42 Materials Handling

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44 NMW Preview 48 Internet of Things 50 What’s New

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APRIL 2016

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manufacturers are concerned about how much energy they’re consuming and at what cost.

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Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 5

Comment

BRANKO MILETIC – Managing Editor

Innovation funding not worth a handful of tacos

O

N a recent appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program, the Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy used the analogy of an Old El Paso TV taco commercial to illustrate how the Turnbull’s government’s approach to innovation funding would differ from what is going on in the rest of the world.

“Why can’t we have both?” mused the young Queensland-based Assistant Minister when referring to the $1 billion pledged by his government to its somewhat nebulous ‘innovation nation’ strategy.

Why indeed! One look at what other countries and even regional corporate entities spend on R&D and innovation and I would think that most Australian politicians should hang their heads in shame.

For example, according to the 2015 Global Innovation 1000 study, Strategy&, PwC’s consulting business,

Asia is now the number one region for corporate R&D spending.

For example, earlier this year Singapore unveiled a $AUD18.4 billion plan to support it’s R&D efforts over the next five years.

Known as the Research Innovation Enterprise 2020 Plan, the money will support research into solutions that build up innovation and technology adoption in companies, and drive economic growth through value creation.

On an overall basis, more corporate in-region R&D is now conducted in Asia (35 per cent) than in North America (33 per cent) and Europe (28 per cent). This is a change from 2007, when Europe was the top region for R&D spending and Asia was third.

In terms of private corporations, Samsung last year spent almost $USD19 billion on innovation and R&D projects.

So how much is the Turnbull government willing to splurge on innovation? – a measly $AUD1 billion or one-nineteenth of what consumer electronics company Samsung spends.

What about Europe? R&D spending for German carmaker Volkswagen in 2015 (as an example) totalled about $USD14 billion or about 5.2 per cent of its total revenue.

So excuse my cynicism, but here we are in 2016 and our self-confessed technophile PM can only find onefourteenth of that amount for the whole country.

Making matters even worse, in September 2015, the NSW government pledged $1.5 billion on building and/or refurbishing sports stadiums across Sydney, or one and half times what their federal counterparts want to spend just 12 months later for funding new ideas designed to create jobs and export

dollars for the whole country.

Its all very nice for our politicians to mindlessly throw around sound bites like ‘innovation’ and ‘smart nation’ and the like, but without the funding, you may as well be selling tacos - which is what perhaps Wyatt Roy really meant.

Maybe the taco (read: Latin American) reference was close to the mark in more ways than one - wasn’t it ex-PM Paul Keating who warned of Australia’s potential descent into banana republic status?

Could it be that Keating actually meant Australia will eventually become a nation of taco producers?

Then again, if our current lot of self-styled ‘innovation ministers’ don’t start putting their money where their tacos go, we may get there a lot sooner than we think. branko.miletic@primecreative.com.au

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Comment

CHRISTOPHER PYNE – Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science

Commitment to defence industry is there to see

W

HEN it comes to producing world-class defence capability, Australia already has the runs on the board.

From the sophisticated technology in the Joint Strike Fighter to the ballistic protection hardware in the locally produced Bushmaster, Australian defence innovation is globally recognised.

A high-performing defence industry is essential to our nation’s security – and the Australian Government recognises this.

And any investment in our defence industry, of course, represents a significant boost to our advanced manufacturing sector.

The Government wants to spend its industry procurement dollar wisely to drive high-tech and advanced manufacturing in this country – because that is the future of the manufacturing industry in Australia.

The Defence Industry Policy Statement, released in conjunction with the Defence White Paper in February 2016, will transform the defence industry.

The initiatives in the Policy State-

ment are designed to encourage industry to invest in the skills, infrastructure and technologies required to support the Australian Defence Force (ADF) into the future.

The measures will also ensure a positive future for advanced manufacturing in Australia, delivering jobs and growth to the nation’s economy.

It’s all about capitalising on our reputation as a nation with great ideas to ensure our cutting-edge defence industry remains a world leader.

We will invest $1.6 billion over 10 years in programmes to build industry skills, drive competitiveness and export potential while harnessing Australian innovation and expertise.

The cornerstone of the policy statement is the $230 million for the Centre for Defence Industry Capability.

The centre will provide strategic leadership for the defence industry sector, helping build the capability and capacity of Australian’s small-tomedium enterprises to support the nation’s defence forces.

Headquartered in Adelaide and with a network of advisors in

key locations across Australia, the centre will promote defence industry competitiveness and guide priorities across the defence industry.

The centre will ensure Australian defence industry is sustainable, internationally competitive, and aligned with our defence capability requirements.

It will work with Australian businesses to build capability in complex technologies and supply chains.

The centre will focus on delivering initiatives and services under three themes: industry development; innovation and business competitiveness; and exports.

The Policy Statement also includes $730 million for a Next Generation Technologies Fund and $640 million for a virtual Defence Innovation Hub. Both will be managed by the Department of Defence.

The Next Generation Technologies Fund will invest in strategic technologies that have the potential to deliver game-changing capabilities.

Some of the areas the fund will focus on include integrated intelligence,

surveillance and reconnaissance, space capabilities, cyber-technology, advanced sensors and hypersonics.

The Defence Innovation Hub is designed to turn research into capability. It will undertake collaborative innovation activities from initial concept, through prototyping and testing to introduction into service.

The virtual hub will assist Australian companies, and academic and research organisations, assess whether innovations have a defence application and will provide access to funding to collaboratively mature those ideas.

The world is changing faster than ever before. The increasing pace of global political, economic and technological change means it is critical that the ADF has continued access to the best innovation Australia has to offer.

The Government’s investments in Australian industry and technologies, mentioned above, will generate benefits beyond the defence industry, delivering jobs and encouraging innovation for regional businesses and communities across Australia.

Where is our industry policy headed?

By Angus M Robinson

T

HE recent decision to establish a Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) headquartered in Adelaide adds a new dimension to Australian Government industry policy, which is being crafted in the lead-up to a Federal Election.

This new ‘industry growth centre’ by another name “aims to foster and drive innovation in the defence industry in Australia and open up export opportunities.”

According to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, “a key initiative of the 2016 Defence White Paper, the CDIC is being structured to bring together the private sector, Defence and AusIndustry to transform the relationship between Defence and industry to help deliver cutting-edge capability for Australia’s armed forces.”

The Government is committed to investing $230 million over 10 years into CDIC. This is expected to create jobs and drive growth.

The CDIC will be tasked to work with “smallto-medium enterprises across Australia to promote defence industry competitiveness and guide 8 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

the priorities across defence industry. The centre will also offer a range of advisory services including mentoring, defence market access, export facilitation and global supply chain development.”

Compared to other industry growth centres (six so far have been announced), annual funding averaging some $23 million per year is well in excess of the $3.5 million per annum committed to other centres such as ‘advanced manufacturing’, and the other key difference is that there is no announced commitment that the CDIC (unlike other growth centres) has to be self-funding within four years.

Reflecting on ‘advanced manufacturing’, the latest information from Canberra suggests that the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre is looking at establishing further hubs in major clusters of industry and research innovation. This could include digital manufacturing in Brisbane.

All good, but overall progress is slow and government needs to be able to measure growth more effectively than at present. Currently, the only measure available is the broadscale Purchasing Managers’ index (PMI) which is published by the

Ai Group. An indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector, the PMI is based on five indicators: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and the employment environment.

Manufacturing on the Move suggests a set of KPIs to better measure performance. These include: Employment in knowledge-intensive activities (manufacturing & services) as a percentage of total employment; Medium/ high-tech product exports as a percentage of total product exports; Knowledge-intensive services exports as a percentage of total service exports; Sales of new to market / new to firm innovations as a percentage of turnover; License/patent revenues from abroad as a percentage of GDP. [Angus M Robinson is co-moderator of the LinkedIn ‘Manufacturing on the Move’ network] manmonthly.com.au

Comment Workplace relations is the big election issue

By Innes Willox

T

HE starting gun has fired and workplace relations reform is front and centre in the imminent election campaign – as it should be.

This is a welcome change after nine years of post-WorkChoices caution from the Coalition. The public has moved on, and squawking “WorkChoices” like a tired parrot in a pet shop just won’t cut it anymore – this is the industrial relations debate that Australia has to have.

The public knows that when the mining boom is over we cannot sit back and expect living standards to magically continue to improve. Growth is slowing. Investment is sluggish. Unemployment is stubbornly high.

Our political leaders do not need to look far when developing fit-forM A workplace 1 1 1 5 _ relations 0 0 0 _ WI I purpose policies.

Much of the hard work has already

workplace relations policy fit for the been done. Both sides of politics 21st Century. should embrace the many worthwhile The construction industry is a key recommendations of the Productivity focus of the debate today and it will be Commission Inquiry into the Worka key issue in the election campaign. place Relations Framework and the The Government has rightly said that recommendations of the Royal Comthe ABCC Bill remains a major priority. mission into Trade Union Governance Its powerful protections against curand Corruption. rently occurring unlawful behaviour These inquiries have conducted include: exhaustive analyses of changes needed The re-establishment of the ABCC to address current problems and to with its former powers, including deliver more productive and agile the right to compel evidence to be workplace relations laws, instruments provided; and institutions. To let these reports Higher penalties to deter unlawful gather dust would be a travesty. conduct; and Carefully targeted workplace relaA strong federal building code. tions reform would drive increased proA strong code is needed to stop emductivity, competitiveness, investment ployers capitulating when faced with and economic growth while protecting union coercion. No sensible employer living standards. The whole community will capitulate when billions of dollars would benefit, including workers. We of government project work is at stake. should see a return of more employThis is the power of the Code. ment opportunities, better job security 1and2the 0 opportunity 1 5 - 1 1 - for 0 6higher T 1 2wages : 0 3 : 1 9 + 1 1 :a strong 0 0 code is in place, When even the unions understand the – if we had an appropriately balanced

2016

need to comply with it because many thousands of their members work on Federal Government funded projects.

State and Territory Governments should follow suit.

We all pay for the threat and reality of repeated, unnecessary and often unlawful industrial action.

We don’t need more restrictions on independent contractors (already over one million of them) and casual employment, like the unions are always calling for. The right workplace relations settings will give a huge boost to productivity, competitiveness and employment growth.

A continuation of the current wrong settings will hold Australia back and stop us achieving our potential.

[Innes Willox is CEO of the Australian Industry Group]

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Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 9

TechnologyIT@MM The importance of cyber hygiene Manufacturers are being urged to regularly asses their network infrastructure, and to close all possible opportunities for hackers. Alan Johnson reports.

I

N a room full of manufacturers, it would be hard to find anyone who would admit their companies’ computers are not adequately protected from computer hackers.

However, Dick Bussiere, Principal Architect with Tenable Network Security, believes they would all be disappointed to know the truth.

He admits most manufacturers’ networks are fairly well defended on the perimeter. “But like an Oreo cookie, they are hard on the outside but soft and mushy on the inside,” Bussiere told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

According to Bussiere, most organisations are not doing a good job “when it gets down to cyber hygiene”. Cyber hygiene itself refers to the steps that computer users take to improve their cybersecurity and better protect themselves online.

Manufacturers and companies in general don’t proactively perform vulnerability assessments on their network infrastructure.

“The second issue is that network infrastructures are not being monitored to be able to detect whether or not those infrastructures have been compromised. If they were, they would significantly reduce threats and obviously reduce risks to their organisation,” he said.

Bussiere said performing vulnerability assessments on a frequent basis should be standard across the manufacturing industry.

“Yet with the possible exception of companies who are forced to do it, such as large financial organisations, most companies only do it on annual basis, when in fact vulnerabilities are presently disclosed at around 130 every week of the year,” he said.

“So if manufacturers are only doing an assessment once a year, they are open to thousands of vulnerabilities, with each one of them having the potential to be a breach waiting to happen.”

Bussiere recommended companies 10 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Most manufacturers’ networks are said to be like an Oreo cookie, soft on the inside. run their vulnerability assessments on a monthly basis. In order to be secure as possible, companies need to use the best cyber security practices.

“The other dimension to it is performing some kind of monitoring function to determine if a breach has been made, by observing unusual communication patterns for example.”

Common breaches Bussiere said the most common attempt to breach networks at the moment is via phishing attacks, where someone clicks on an email that contains an infected Word or PDF document.

He said the problem arises when someone falls for this phishing attack and is working on a system that has not been adequately patched.

“This is a very common way companies are hacked,” he said.

Bussiere said manufacturers should also pay attention to their industrial control network, such as SCADA and ICS. “They need to focus on the segregation between that critical operational real time network infrastructure and the company’s common office network infrastructure,” he said.

“All too frequently on my travels, I see little attention focused on ensuring that the control system is well

segregated. If not, it has the potential for major problems if the control network became breached somehow.”

He said these phishing attacks can often be very targeted, often trying to find out all a company’s financial information.

“Hence the importance of good cyber hygiene as these phishing attacks generally rely on some kind of vulnerability being on the victim’s system and an exploitation of that vulnerability,” he said.

Need for visibility Bussiere said having good visibility of a company’s network from a vulnerability perspective is critical.

“This allows companies to identify the vulnerabilities that an attacker can take advantage of, and get those areas patched,” he said.

Bussiere said there can be any number of items that exist on a network that companies don’t know about.

“It could be a legacy system or maybe a virtual machine someone fired up years ago,” he said.

He said it is also important for manufacturers to identify all the assets that are on their networks.

“Networks have been around for over 25 years now, and over that time most have been built out where

things get inserted that no one knows about, and/or things get forgotten about,” he said.

“Any operator of a large industrial control system will tell you ‘we don’t know everything that is on this network’.”

He said having visibility, by being able to audit everything that is on the network and identify its purpose, is a very important part of good cyber hygiene.

“Companies should bring everything under management, under patch control, and ruthlessly rip things out that shouldn’t be there.”

Bussiere said it’s very important manufacturers design their network on the assumption that it is going to be compromised.

“If they do that they will start to practice good cyber hygiene.

And having that attitude will force them to instrument their network so that they have the ability to detect compromises relatively early in their life cycle so they can mitigate or eliminate the compromise well before serious damage can occur,” he said.

Passwords Somewhat controversially, Bussiere believes computer passwords are obsolete today.

“In most cases they are a very soft spot, and can be easily compromised through a phishing attack through social engineering,” he said.

For sensitive operations, he advises manufacturers to use two-factor authentication, which adds a second level of authentication to an account log-in.

“Because even if an adversary manages to get a person’s password, with two-factor authentication it’s normally not enough for that outsider to get in,” he said.

In conclusion, Bussiere advised manufacturers not to just look at IT security as a necessary evil. “It is essential,” he said. manmonthly.com.au

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TechnologyIT@MM Combating the rising tide of malware Sandboxing solutions can help businesses maintain an effective barrier against cybercriminals and minimize the chances of an attack.

David De Laine writes.

T

HE term ‘malware’ has become so widely used in recent years that it’s easy to forget how many forms it can take — adware, spyware, viruses, worms, Trojans and many more.

While each affects computer systems differently, they all share a common set of objectives: to steal data, perform unsolicited business transactions and disrupt the flow of business.

Meanwhile there is also an increasing level of threat from so-called zero-day malware. This malware exploits previously undetected vulnerabilities before software vendors have had a chance to develop an update or patch.

Battling such threats has traditionally been handled by the implementation of antivirus software and intrusion prevention systems.

Designed to inspect files before they enter a corporate IT infrastructure, they act as gatekeepers that stop malware at the perimeter.

They achieve this by checking for signatures of known malware and preventing anything identified as a threat.

But with cybercrime techniques continuing to evolve, this approach to security is no longer sufficient. Many threats can avoid signature detection by hiding within executable files or in regular documents and web pages. These types of attacks are typically harder to spot and, once the end-user runs a malicious executable, the attacker has full access to the target system.

The non-executable challenge While many companies prevent the download of executable files or their inclusion in email attachments, non-executables on the other hand - such as documents and slide presentations - are usually allowed through. Tricking a user into opening an infected non-executable file can ultimately allow a cybercriminal to bypass security roadblocks.

For this reason documents pose one of the greatest risks to organisations today. In the daily functioning of business, employees must routinely open documents from job applicants, customers, and vendors. While researching markets, competitors, and new technologies, employees regularly download files from the web.

Most employees open these documents without considering the implications, and risk exposing their companies to malware embedded inside 12 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

them. Organisations need to be aware of these threats and take the steps necessary to mitigate the risk.

An OS-level sandbox approach to security Sandboxing is a very effective method of prescreening files before they enter an organisation’s network. A sandbox emulates a standard operating system (OS) within a restricted environment, allowing suspicious files to be opened and checked before they are allowed into the corporate network.

Each file is tested in various ways as if it were opened by an actual user, then observed to see if it activates anything beyond what is normally expected. A good sandbox should be able to avoid evasions, provide fast and accurate detection, block attacks, decrypt SSL and scan a wide array of file types including .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf, .exe, and .zip.

However, cybercriminals are aware of the increasing use of sandboxes and are creating ways to avoid detection. For example, some add a timer to their payload to delay its launch until minutes (or even days) after the file has been opened. Others identify a sandbox by looking for virtual machine indicators such as scanning registry keys, disk size or remote communications and not deploying if these conditions are met. Some are even able to check for activities such as page scrolling and mouse clicks that are difficult to replicate in a virtual environment.

It’s possible to combat many of these advanced malware techniques by using dynamic operating system-level sandboxing with anti-evasion techniques. These include stimulating the file in different ways, accelerating the system clock and even emulating the CPU in software.

CPU-level sandboxing Sandboxing is the preferred solution to protect against unknown malware because it is easy to deploy and simple to use. But no matter how good OS-level sandboxing technology might be, a smart cybercriminal will find some innovative way to evade detection. This is where CPU-level sandboxing comes in, to detect malware at the exploit level.

There are countless different vulnerabilities and millions of pieces of malware in circulation, but there is only a very short list of exploit methods.

CPU-level sandboxing allows an organisation to detect the use of these methods by carefully examining CPU activity and the execution flow at the assembly code level while the exploit occurs.

With a CPU-level inspection capability, it becomes virtually impossible for hackers to evade detection as the malware is detected before it has a chance to employ any evasion tactic. The detection speed and accuracy of CPU-level sandboxing makes it the best technology for blocking both known and unknown attacks from infiltrating networks.

Security is going to continue to be a cat-andmouse game between business and cybercriminals, however organisations can stay steps ahead by using advanced sandboxing technology that includes both OS-level and CPU-level approaches to address the security challenge.

[David De Laine is the ANZ Regional Managing Director for Check Point Software] Check Point Software 02 9493 6000 www.checkpoint.com manmonthly.com.au

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which will be of interest to the manufacturing industry. The widely anticipated seminar program will see

However

even

more

significant

HVAC

system prefab benefits are limited because

a range of high profile and respected individuals discuss topics of importance to the industry. Seminar registration is now open at www.arbs.com.au, spaces are limited so get in quick to reserve your place.

we do not design buildings and building services systems with offsite manufacturing of systems in mind. This presentation will present the opportunities and methodologies for designing for offsite manufacturing of HVAC and other building services systems.

Presented by Warrick Stannus, Group Engineering Manager, A.G. Coombs

Exciting Products to Showcase ARBS 2016 brings you all the latest products and manufacturing industry professionals won’t want to miss the Power Machinery stand with their new Vicon range including the Pittsburgh Seam Closer and Dual Head Corner Insertion Machine (also available in new single head).

See Power Machinery at stand 546/628-631

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National Refrigeration Competition Be sure to check out the 2016 WorldSkills Australia National Refrigeration Competition hosted at ARBS 2016. The competition sees Australia’s top ten refrigeration industry apprentices, trainees and students competing against their peers to showcase their trade and skill in a range of challenging projects and speed tests.

3/29/16 5:57 PM

Hire&RENTAL Hiring equipment saves dollars and sense An increasing number of manufacturers are now using hire companies to meet their equipment demands, as Alan Johnson reports.

W

E have no problems renting DVDs on the weekend, or hiring a car when interstate, but when it comes to industrial equipment, manufacturers have been a little sluggish to recognise the many benefits of hiring equipment instead of buying it outright.

However as James Oxenham, CEO of the HRIA (Hire and Rental Industry Association) points out, that trend is slowly changing. Manufacturers looking to maximise the value of every dollar spent are starting to appreciate that hiring equipment is fully tax deductible.

“By hiring, all businesses can offset any outlays, recoup some of their operational costs, and limit their overall capital equipment purchases, while enabling a wider range of jobs to be undertaken outside what they might normally do,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“In these tough economic times, hiring becomes a smarter alternative to buying outright, with companies increasingly seeing the advantages of becoming more hire-conscious.”

He pointed out that when hiring, businesses can have immediate access to a huge range of modern equipment.

“New equipment can be trialled, via hiring, on the job for the days required without any capital outlay or the need to take on new debt,” he said.

“Hiring’s desirably cost-effective and beneficial business edge can help all industries utilise its equipment and services to provide an increased range of services and capabilities by extending their options.

“And once the job is finished, the equipment can be returned, without the worry of depreciation, repairs, maintenance and storage costs, or whether that piece of equipment will ever be needed again.”

He also pointed out that hiring equipment can also help businesses meet peak demands by renting more equipment when the business is at its busiest.

“Essentially, hiring returns control to the end user by offering options, freeing up capital and 14 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

allowing end users to plan when equipment is required and when it’s not,” he said.

According to Oxenham there are also compelling environmental reasons for choosing to hire.

“Purchased equipment often languishes unused for long periods of time and is essentially wasteful in an era when resources are scarce and people are increasingly conscious of their carbon footprint,” he said.

“How many times does business buy equipment and use it once or twice on specialist jobs?

“Hiring is often a better use of money and better for the environment, because hire equipment is always well maintained and will be used many times over during the course of its hire lifespan offering a ‘greener’ alternative.”

Industrial equipment While there are many high-profile hire companies that focus on the building and construction industries, many readers might not realise there are also numerous specialist companies that work directly with manufacturers on supplying industrial equipment.

Nathan Wardell MD of Packserv, Australia’s largest packaging equipment hire and services company, said there are many benefits for users, and not just for short term hires.

“With all the costs of hiring our equipment tax deductable, it makes a lot of sense to hire equipment medium to long term as well, especially when users factor in the purchase cost of the machine and the maintenance,” Wardell told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

More manufacturers are appreciating the benefits of hiring equipment, which includes fully tax deductible hire costs.

Packserv specialises in providing on-demand packaging equipment for filling, capping, labelling, printing, coding and marking, induction and tube sealing Australia wide.

According to Wardell, manufacturers whose requirements are not going to change within a three to four year period are far better off hiring his company’s machines.

“At some point in that period they might want to change machines. Then if they do, and it’s a rental, they can simply swap machines around.”

Wardell said he has many clients that have a flexible delivery agreement so that the machines they have on site at any given day can vary depending on what work they are doing.

“Our customers are doing this all the time,” he said.

He highlighted inkjet printers used to print expiry and best before dates as a good example of a flexible delivery agreement.

“Most printers are used to print the dates in black, but if a user needs to print on a dark surface, obviously they can’t print in black so will need a lighter colour,” he said.

“Users might have a product that only runs a couple of times a year where they require a lighter colour, but that can take a couple of hours to do that colour change and cost a thousand dollars or so.

“Instead we have a range of printers set up in different colours. The users simply swap one printer manmonthly.com.au

MA 0 9 1 5 _ 0 0 0 _ B E A

for another, print their yellow expiry and best before dates, for example, then swap back to a black printer.

“Or they might have one of our one litre filling machines, but suddenly have a short run of five litre containers. We can take out the small filler and put in a five litre filler for as long as is needed.

“Another example might be at the lead up to Christmas when a user might add an additional five to ten machines, just for that period.”

Wardell said another advantage of hiring is that breakdown and maintenance is all included in the rental agreement.

“So if anything goes wrong with the machine, we come out and fix it free of charge.

“Users can change the machines, and don’t have to worry about maintenance, don’t have to carry parts, don’t have to employ and maintain technical staff.”

Wardell said some of the hire equipment is imported, but mostly it’s Australian made.

“It makes it easier regarding parts, accessories and support,” he said.

And to ensure the hired equipment is working at optimum efficiency, every month Packserv carries out a ‘walk through’ of all its long-term and permanent hires and carries out all necessary maintenance of the equipment.

“And while our qualified technicians are on site, we can also offer training, safety test and tag of equipment, other maintenance, resetting of the production lines, show staff how to fine tune equipment and help with any operational issues,” Wardell said.

He said the company supplies equipment to a wide range of industries and size of companies.

“From mum and dad operations making a product at home, right through to big multi-national corporations with hundreds of machines.”

However, Wardell is surprised to see so many in the manufacturing and packaging industries still governed by old-fashioned ideas that packaging machinery must be tailor-made and purchased.

“Many still take the specs of a packaging job, say containers, labels and products, give them to a manufacturer, who for $100,000, will build a machine to work that product, which could take three months or so,” he said.

“When it does arrive, they have to pay for it up front, which is not tax deductable, so they have to depreciate it.”

It’s a similar story when hiring forklifts and other materials handling equipment. There are no large upfront purchase costs and the forklifts can be hired on either a short term or long term basis with payments arranged on a weekly or monthly basis.

Short term hire prices can vary, however most forklift companies do have regular pricing campaigns to take advantage of and readers should always ask what deals are available.

Similar to other hired equipment there are no maintenance costs and improved safety. manmonthly.com.au

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BUSINESS fo r Forklift hire is increasingly popular, because like other equipment, there are no large upfront purchase costs and can be hired on either a short term or long term basis.

Many accidents involving forklifts are due to neglected maintenance schedules and poor working conditions. However, companies which hire out the forklifts are responsible for the training and working conditions of forklift legislation and can offer expert advice together with full risk assessments, lifting plans and method statements which cover aspects such as personal protective equipment, checklists and operating instructions.

As well, hiring a forklift enables an element of flexibility for a workplace.

The customer can select the appropriate model to rent for a specific job which may be different to a model that is required for another task. The same level of flexibility cannot be obtained when purchasing a forklift which can lead to higher costs for an organisation and/or inefficient working practices.

According to leading forklift provider, Adaptalift Hyster, forklift rental is often the most practical and economical solution.

The company points out that with no capital outlay, and no expensive upfront or loan costs, users are able to budget for the future with fixed costs every month, without any unexpected maintenance costs.

And with Fleet Management Rental Programmes users have the right tools to maximise forklift efficiency through establishing KPIs and fleet utilisation reports designed to reduce administration costs.

As well as using hired forklifts for unpredictable peak periods or for immediate relief when essential equipment breaks down, by hiring forklifts users always have the most up-to-date equipment and technology, as once the equipment ages or the renting terms end the old equipment is replaced with new.

HRIA 02 9998 2255 www.hireandrental.com.au Packserv 1300 377 512 www.packserv.com.au Adaptalift 132 254 www.aalhysterforklifts.com.au

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ManufacturingINNOVATION Synchrotron technology can help manufacturers

Located in Melbourne, the Australian Synchrotron is already playing a significant part in manufacturing innovation. As Hartley Henderson writes, there are substantial opportunities for further uptake and utilisation of this highly advanced technology.

T

HE synchrotron is a very large, circular, megavoltage machine about the size of an (Australian Rules) football field. This world-class facility uses accelerator technology to produce a powerful source of light (X-rays and infrared radiation) a million times brighter than the sun.

High-energy electrons are forced to travel in a circular orbit inside the synchrotron tunnels by ‘synchronised’ application of strong magnetic fields.

These electron beams travel at just under the speed of light – about 299,792 kilometres per second.

The Australian Synchrotron’s Industry Support Scientist, Dr Robert Acres, explains that the intense light produced is filtered and adjusted to travel into experimental work stations where the light reveals the innermost sub-microscopic secrets of materials under investigation, including human tissue, plants and metals.

“Academic researchers and industry from across Australia and New Zealand can use the synchrotron to understand the fundamental structure, composition and behaviour of materials, on scales ranging from

16 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

the atomic to the macroscopic – with a level of detail and accuracy not possible using conventional laboratory-based equipment,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“Applications relating to the manufacturing industry include investigation of the structure and characterisation of alloys, catalysts, fibres, textiles, adhesives, polymers, plastics, surfaces, interfaces and coatings, as well as analysing stresses in engineered components.

“For example, mass production processes such as polymer moulding, spinning and extrusion can be improved through better understanding of the nanostructure of the formed products. The synchrotron can also assist in the development of high-tech products including implantable medical devices that rely on a deep understanding of their constituent components.

“In addition, the development of advanced materials, including superior alloys that are more resistant to corrosion or structural failure, can be accelerated by mapping chemical speciation or elemental composition.”

Surface engineering Operating from sites in Sydney and Adelaide, LaserBond specialises in the research and development of surface engineering techniques to dramatically reduce the wear rates, maintenance, and operating costs of production-vital components for industrial customers.

The company’s founder and Executive Director R&D, Greg Hooper, says that although LaserBond is one of the very few companies to have an in-house scanning electron microscope (SEM), it was believed that the advanced imagery available from the Australian Synchrotron would provide high image resolution across a larger sample than the company could process internally on the SEM. “Our material scientist prepared a number of samples of different metallurgy using the normal laser application method and our new Laser Deposition method that utilises an advanced additive manufacturing process. She then worked at the Australian Synchrotron with its staff to analyse the samples using the Xray Fluorescence Beamline,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“We were able to analyse a wider sample and therefore clearly identify the dilution bands that occurs with the old method, and contrast it with the new method, which offers a stunning improvement in performance and efficiency.

“The synchrotron image solution enabled our team to determine the efficiency of the matrix bonding over a range of metallurgical formulations.

This enables LaserBond to deliver a higher wearing surface than previously available to industry, at a lower cost.

“Importantly, the synchrotron image also enabled our scientists to explain the difference to lay-person customers.”

Hooper added that from LaserBond’s perspective, the confirmation of the metallurgical performance of the company’s new method enables it to consider a number of new applications that now become possible and/ or economic.

“These include hard chrome replacement in hydraulics, thin surface applications to ground engagement tools, and many others across the industries we serve. We are looking at manmonthly.com.au

embedding our application method and new metallurgy into more high wearing products, and developing a global market,” he said.

“We believe there is potential for the synchrotron to further expand its operations and benefit a broad range of manufacturing industry. The synchrotron proved to us that our internal R&D efforts had delivered a substantial development in surface engineered wear resistant surfaces, and in a way that can be confidently communicated to customers.”

Coatings innovation The Australian Synchrotron was utilised in a recent ARC Research Hub for an Australian Steel Manufacturing project investigating surface engineering of coatings.

Work on the project at the Synchrotron which related to BlueScope’s Colorbond steel, was undertaken by Professor Elena Ivanova’s group from the Swinburne University of Technology.

BlueScope’s Dr Shane MacLaugh-

lin said the objective was to harness academic resources to introduce product modifications that will provide an enhanced level of performance for customers, and hence a competitive advantage for Colorbond steel.

“As part of this work it was necessary to provide an analysis of the Colorbond steel surface at a more detailed level than what had been achieved in the past. The reason for this was to understand how the proposed surface modifications would perform over the long term in the harsh Australian environment,” he said.

“Spectroscopy, in this case infrared, is a valuable source of information about the chemical changes that materials undergo in the environment. Infrared spectroscopic techniques typically provide bulk surface information.

“In this case it was necessary to obtain high lateral spacial resolution to provide an accurate map of the changes on the surface, and the synchrotron provides this facility. The

spectroscopic analysis achieved with the synchrotron delivered important new information on the evolution of the product surface during long term weathering.”

MacLaughlin said the commercial benefit of the work is to provide greater confidence that the innovation will meet Colorbond steel standards for long term performance.

Designer coke Because coke is an essential input for iron production, scientists are investigating how the blast furnace environment affects coke structure and microporosity. (Their aim is to design stronger coke and improve blast furnace efficiency).

BlueScope Steel, in partnership with the University of Newcastle, is using the Imaging and Medical Beamline at the Australian Synchrotron to examine detailed pore structure and the behaviour of mineral inclusions in coke samples from a blast furnace and laboratory experiments simulating the blast furnace.

Acres says a better understanding of coke’s structural characteristics will benefit the design of coking coal blends for improved furnace efficiency and reduced costs.

[Hartley Henderson is a regular contributing writer to Food & Beverage Industry News, covering industry developments in Victoria and South Australia. Prior to that, he held senior positions in government, semi-government and business enterprises and was National Program Director with the Productivity Promotion Council of Australia] Australian Synchrotron 03 8540 4100 www.synchrotron.org.au BlueScope Steel 02 4275 7522 www.bluescope.com LaserBond 1300 527 372 www.laserbond.com.au

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Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 17

Automation& ROBOTICS The vision thing: why should robots see?

Linking computer vision with robotics is a tricky problem, but the benefits in places like factories, fields and the ocean floor are worth the trouble. Brent Balinski spoke to Professor Peter Corke of Queensland University of Technology about giving robots the power of sight.

A richer view of the world

Current projects

Lidar is the sensing modality of choice for many examples of sophisticated, well-known robots, such as the Atlas and the Google self-driving car.

Laser rangefinders have dominated the world of robotics since the 1990s, when they became cheap enough to be considered. Though computer vision had grown up with robotics, the computing muscle required and frustration sometimes involved in making things work have seen vision, well, overlooked.

The Queensland University of Technology-led Australian Centre for Robotic Vision wants to remedy this.

Though lidar is useful in outputting metric detail about an environment, it presents nothing in the way of the colour, texture or semantic information contained in a scene.

Professor Peter Corke heads the ACRV. His professional motivation is to create robots that can see, and calls a point cloud an “impoverished view” of the world. “[Vision’s] really a cutting-edge problem today and has been, I guess, for decades,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“We are now making real progress now.

“The question is ‘why is this useful for robots?’ It’s useful for robots because we get, in a single snapshot, information about what’s in a whole, big area of the world that our picture encompasses.”

Professor Corke, an IEEE Fellow, has been at QUT since 2010. His career includes starting the CSIRO’s Autonomous Systems Laboratory. He began in the field of manufacturing robotics, working with high-speed computer vision techniques.

At the time (the mid-1980s) there were plenty of Australian robotics and machine tool companies, building equipment to service auto manufacturers and other heavy industry.

According to the ACRV, robotic sight will lead to outcomes including safer, better industrial robots, able to anticipate what nearby humans will do next.

Current projects illustrating the value of vision include agricultural applications and one dealing with a problem threatening the future of the Great Barrier Reef.

The AgBot II is able to see and extirpate weeds, either spraying them with chemicals or digging them out of the ground if this is possible.

According to the ACRV, it can save 60 per cent of the amount of pesticide usually used.

The other agricultural application is one that can properly identify and collect capsicums. It uses a more geometric approach, looking at range images with colour images, considering shape, colour and texture and discerning ripe and capsicums from unripe capsicums from leaves on the plant.

The COTSBot, currently in sea trials, has been shown “tens of thousands” of examples of “starfish” and “not starfish”. It has a deep inference system to make judgments. A lidar would not work underwater, with vision and ultrasonics the only two sensing modalities up to the job.

It is able to detect the crown of thorns starfish - a pest that has destroyed vast tracts of the Great Barrier Reef - and autonomously inject it with bile salts developed by the Australian Institute for Marine Science.

18 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Looking to the future The ACRV was officially launched last year, and officially began work in 2014 with a seven-year Centre of Excellence term.

The centre believes it’s time to have another look at a tough problem for a few reasons.

Moore’s Law continues to allow

Professor Corke with an assortment of Aldebaran’s Nao robots. images from cameras to be processed at a more efficient rate. As a result, image processing algorithms are improving. Also, cameras are lightweight as well as cheap, both in price and in energy consumption.

As the quest for computer vision continues, where can Australia make a difference?

Professor Corke suggests that the country’s efforts are best spent in field robotics, where our major strengths lie.

“It plays to significant economic strengths in Australia, which are around primary industries, mineral extraction, agriculture,” he explained.

“And that’s where I think there’s a lot of need for robots.”

As populations shift away from rural areas, there are workforce vacuums to be filled. The difficulty in attracting labour to jobs such as fruit picking is well known.

“So in some ways labour is being removed from remote areas and

being concentrated in the cities, and someone’s going to have to do that labour, if we want to have those industries,” he added.

Australia possesses some skilled system integrator companies, largely thanks to its (now disappearing) automotive sector. However, in terms of manufacturing robots, there isn’t much sense in taking on well-established giants like Kuka, Fanuc and ABB, believes Professor Corke.

The lack of critical mass is a big disincentive.

“I think we’re going to struggle to be able to make factory robots as cheaply and effectively as a number of big overseas corporations do,” he said.

“I think it would be kind of fruitless for an Australian company to try and compete with those guys head-on.”

Australian Centre for Robotic Vision 07 3138 7549 roboticvision.org manmonthly.com.au

EndeavourAWARDS 2016 Manufacturing’s night of nights The Endeavour Awards recognise the achievements of Australian manufacturers and provide tomorrow’s industry success stories with valuable role models.

N

OW in its 13th year, the Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards has become a key event on the Australian industrial calendar.

Our manufacturing industry is highly dynamic. There are many companies making valuable contributions to the country’s economic output through product innovation, employment and exports.

This event is a welcome opportunity for such hard-working companies to receive the recognition they deserve.

A reflection of the diversity within the industry, the awards have again attracted a colourful and broad ranging list of nominations. Large and small, the nominations include engineering companies, food processors, chemical companies and more.

This year, in an effort to direct attention to areas which have previously missed out on the spotlight, we have introduced two new categories to the Endeavour Awards program – Outstanding Start-Up and Outstanding Small Business.

They join the established list of categories being judged this year – Best Technology Application, Exporter of the Year, Environmental Solution, Safety Solution of the Year, Global Supply Chain Integration, Australian Industrial Product, Lifetime Achievement, Most Innovative Manufacturing Company, Best IT Application and Manufacturer of the Year.

Manufacturers’ Monthly would like to thank this year’s sponsors for their support. Without their efforts the event would simply not be possible.

In the following pages we profile the sponsors of the 2016 Endeavour Awards.

manmonthly.com.au

TICKETS CONTACT: Remya Gopalakrishnan 02 8484 0996 remya.gopalakrishnan@ primecreative.com.au WHEN: Thursday May 12, 2016 WHERE: Novotel, Sydney Olympic Park TIME: 6.30pm (for a 7pm start) DRESS CODE: Cocktail/lounge suit

(Top to bottom) The Endeavours are a great chance to join with colleagues to celebrate our industry; B.-d. Farm Paris Creek’s Ulli Spranz receiving the ‘Environmental Solution of the Year’ award in 2015; Last year’s MC, Vince Sorrenti.

Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 19

EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

MOST INNOVATIVE MANUFACTURER Sponsored by SEW-EURODRIVE One of SEW-EURODRIVE’s core values is service. It’s this proud tradition of providing unparalleled service that forms the cornerstone of the company globally, and why we have a network of state-of-the-art facilities spanning across Australia.

It is also the reason why SEW is usually the first point of contact when searching for drive technology to drive this great nation. Many household brands are secure in the fact that SEW is working quietly and effectively in the background ensuring a seamless path into the market place.

SEW is a 4th generation family business, which employs over 16,000 people worldwide, including 550

engineers in research and development and is a company that extends far beyond hardware. Our unique portfolio of drive systems apply to a wide and varied list of applications spanning across global industries.

According to Managing Director Robert Merola, SEW-EURODRIVE is delighted and proud to be sponsoring the Most Innovative Manufacturing Company award at this year’s Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards. The company wishes all of the nominees the best of luck.

SEW-EURODRIVE 1300 739 287 www.sew-eurodrive.com.au

Local industrial gear unit service and support

M

INING production is rumoured to grow by 33 per cent to $219 billion by 2018-19, but breakdowns in a mining or industrial setting can cause companies to suffer debilitating production losses. With increasing pressures to keep costs down while at the same time improving operational efficiencies, no business can afford to be unproductive for a long period of time.

Although these losses, often a direct result of equipment breakdowns and unplanned downtime, has been a widely accepted part of the industry, today’s ultra-competitive mining landscape has meant that companies are being hard pressed to remove even the smallest risk that may cause lead to this outcome.

Long lead-times for new parts or replacements of critical equipment such as industrial gear units, also wreaks havoc on production and operational efficiencies. Sourcing equipment and services from suppliers that are both local and knowledgeable about specific mining environments is key to achieving the trifecta of short lead-times on assembly, delivery and maintenance.

With mission-critical equipment like industrial gear units being a necessity for the continued and efficient operation of a mine, maintenance managers want a unit that offers high performance, safety features, meets demanding production expectations in harsh environments, reliability and support

20 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

from comprehensive maintenance and technical service.

Whether due to breakdowns from unreliable equipment, or delays associated with maintenance, unplanned downtime can – and should – be avoided. For operational and process reliability, SEW-EURODRIVE offers mining companies comprehensive Industrial Gear Unit Service from a single source, inclusive of start-up support, installation and maintenance, repair, retrofit services and drop-in re-

placement solutions for ageing drives Opting to partner with a local technology supplier that offers bestin-class solutions engineered specifically for Australian environments stocking a large amount of drive components locally, can offer mining businesses the peace-of-mind that in the unfortunate event of a breakdown, technical assistance is close at hand. According to Lech Bansik, Business Development Manager for SEW-EURODRIVE, the company

is dedicated to assisting its mining customers. “We can provide tailored, locally-based support, as well as engineering expertise, assembly and service, with over $24 million of spare parts inventory held specifically for the needs of our Australian mining customers,” he said.

There are many so called ‘service’ companies who can patch up ageing gear units multiple times. However, it can be far less expensive and quicker to convert these old gear units to modern SEW gear units, which often match important key dimensions with the addition of an adapter base. These new drives not only offer potential operating savings due to higher efficiency, but, are backed by extensive spare parts held at SEW’s Heavy Industrial Solutions facility in Melbourne.

“SEW-EURODRIVE is in a unique position to offer tailored engineered solutions to replace ageing machine drive assemblies using a vast assortment of modern proprietary gearing and motor technologies from our Melbourne facility,” said Banasik. “This increases reliability, efficiency and serviceability of the drive and ultimately contributes to a significant reduction in the Total Cost of Ownership for the customer.”

Offering an industry-leading stock of best-in-class components locally, SEW-EURODRIVE is equipped to meet even the most challenging requirements from companies operating in Australia’s growing mining industry. manmonthly.com.au

Gearmotors \ Heavy Industrial Solutions \ Electronics \ Decentralised Systems \ Services

Proud sponsor of the Most Innovative Manufacturing Company

Our drive is our success One of our core values is service. It’s this proud tradition of providing unparalleled service that forms the cornerstone of the company globally, and why we have a network of state-of-the-art facilities spanning across Australia. It’s also the reason why SEW-EURODRIVE is usually the first point of contact when searching for drive technology to drive this great nation. Many household brands are secure in the fact that SEW is working quietly and efficiently in the background ensuring a seamless path into the market place.

Want to know more? Contact us today: www.sew-eurodrive.com.au 1300 SEW AUS (1300 739 287) to be directed to your nearest office Melbourne (Head Office) I Sydney I Brisbane I Townsville I Perth I Adelaide

EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

GLOBAL INTEGRATION

Sponsored by Industry Capability Network Industry Capability Network (ICN) is a business network that introduces Australian and New Zealand companies to projects large and small.

We offer a new business source for suppliers and a sophisticated search service for project managers.

ICN is an independent organisation financially supported by Australian, state and territory governments. Since it started more than 30 years ago, ICN has helped local suppliers find $30 billion worth of contracts.

Industry Capability Network 03 9864 6700 www.icn.org.au

Capability and viability – the foundation for SME success

I

NDUSTRY Capability Network (ICN) has launched a new tool aimed at helping small and medium companies understand their own financial viability, using VedaScore, provided by data analytics company Veda.

According to data from MarketInvoice, Australian small businesses are the world’s slowest at paying outstanding invoices, which in turn is compromising their competitiveness and survival. This is why ICN is giving companies opportunity to access data they may be completely unaware is in the public domain.

‘We know the Federal Government is concerned about businesses’ cash flow, which was outlined in the Federal Government’s Department of Innovation discussion paper released in 2013, showing that late payments added financial and administrative costs, reduced the potential for investment opportunities, damaged business relationships and fuelled business uncertainty’, ICN Limited Executive Director Derek Lark said.

‘Unfortunately, as the MarketInvoice 2016 data shows, Australian businesses are still lagging. So as the 22 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

leader in finding businesses with the right capability to win major projects here and overseas, ICN is well-placed to also help Australian small and medium enterprises understand their credit position. This new avenue means that we able to offer independent validation of technical expertise, while also moving into viability.

From 23 March 2016 new subscribers to ICN Gateway (that hold a current ACN and Veda has sufficient data on) will be able to download their VedaScore to give them a better understanding of their credit rating.

VedaScore sums up a company’s credit file in a number between 0 and 1200, calculated against the average for all companies in the country.

This score is collected from such things as payment information, public filings (for example ASIC), court judgments, payment defaults, collections, and other information.

Veda offers real-time data, which means it is a snapshot in time for the company to see where they are at, and importantly, what company’s potential partners, suppliers and lenders are seeing.

‘Most small or medium businesses don’t even know they have a credit rating, but a good credit rating gives them confidence when tendering for major projects, because you can be certain the large project owners will be undertaking due diligence on all potential subcontractors,’ Derek said.

‘Not only that, a good rating can help get business finance at a low interest rate, plus favourable payment terms from suppliers.’

All new paid ICN Gateway subscribers will be able to access the VedaScore at no extra cost

which is worth an extra $64.

‘Future financial viability features include companies being able to purchase an updated credit score whenever they ask for it, and all continuing subscribers receiving an updated credit score automatically 12 months after the initial report is generated.’

‘With paid ICN subscriptions starting at $156 a year for our ‘Be Seen’ package, this represents great added value for small and medium business looking to win tenders for big and small projects.’ manmonthly.com.au

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EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION

Sponsored by Atlas Copco Compressors Atlas Copco Compressors is a world leader in the development, manufacturing and sales of advanced air compressors, blowers, industrial gas generators and vacuum pumps.

The company is always advancing the development of new technologies in the fields where it operates and its aim

is to develop technologies which benefit customers and bring value over time in ways that others cannot.

Atlas Copco Compressors’ focus is to deliver air compressors, blowers, vacuum pumps and other solutions that offer the best energy efficiency, increased productivity for the end-user and the best possible

total ownership costs.

With more than 60 years’ experience in the Australian market, Atlas Copco Compressors can offer customers hard to rival experience in air compressor sales and support tailored to the unique Australian conditions.

The company has established an Australian wide

network of service and technical support and its focus is and always will be, on innovation and providing the best ownership value to the user of our air compressors, blowers, vacuum pumps, service and other products. This is what they call – Sustainable Productivity.

Atlas Copco Compressors

is proud to sponsor the Environmental Product category at this year’s Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards and applauds the efforts of all nominees in this important category.

Atlas Copco Compressors 1800 023 469 www.atlascopco.com.au

Taking the lead in food safety

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ITH food safety and the presence of food-borne hazards such an important issue in today’s food and beverage industry, manufacturers around the world are taking note of Atlas Copco’s recent accreditation to ISO 22000, the first air compressor company to do so.

While not defining air quality as such, ISO 22000 is an important food safety management system that has been developed to ensure food safety throughout the supply chain.

Peter Furolo, Atlas Copco’s Product Manager – Oil-Free and Medical Focus, said Atlas Copco is the first compressor manufacturer to receive ISO 22000 certification for its production facility in Antwerp, Belgium, which manufactures energy-efficient oil-free air compressors, blowers, gas generators, dryers, filters and vacuum plants.

“This accreditation gives customers the peace of mind that they are working with an organisation that completely understands the importance of food safety. Atlas Copco has invested its considerable resources to ensure it is a reliable and trustworthy supplier to the food and beverage industry.”

He revealed that Atlas Copco pioneered the development of oil-free air technology nearly fifty years ago. “And remain a company of innovators and leaders in the air compressor industry.”

Furolo pointed out that Atlas Copco was also the first air compressor company to meet ISO 8573 Class 0 certification for all its oil-free compressors (screw, centrifugal, piston, scroll, combined screwpiston, water injected screw and tooth).

“Of course many of our competitors have followed us with Class 0,” he said.

“Now we are the first air compressor company with ISO 22000 accreditation. It is something that is needed in the industry, and no doubt our competitors will eventually follow us again.”

He said Atlas Copco sets the benchmark for good practice in the compressed air industry, providing its food and beverage customers with assurances regarding quality, safety and reliability of its products.

24 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

“This certification provides the food and beverage industry with confidence that they are working with a supplier that conforms to the latest international standards regarding food safety.”

Furolo said ISO 2200 has become more widely known in Australia over the past few years and he expects that it will become common place across the food and beverage industries very soon.

“The big multi-national food companies that operate in Australia are the drivers for ISO 22000 awareness. They lead the local industry by example and I believe that the rest of food and beverage companies will quickly follow suit.

“In today’s modern world where the need for high quality food is increasingly important, regulations on food standards are essential.”

He explained that ISO 22000 specifies the requirements for a food safety management system where an organisation in the food chain needs to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards in order to ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption.

“After intensive workshops and thoroughly executed audits by Lloyd’s Register, we were able to demonstrate that Atlas Copco complies with the highest standards in the food industry with its oilfree compressors and blowers.”

He went on to explain that ISO 2200 is based on the ISO 9000 system, but is very specific regarding food safety hazards.

“While not about the quality of the compressed air in particular, the standard includes an understanding of the whole business operation from an operational and a service point of view, including the implications of using spare parts and other critical components in a compressor that could cause hazards.”

Furolo said the same HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and procedures, as used in the top quality food and beverage companies, have been implemented in the design and production of the company’s oil-free compressors, blowers and dryers.

With compressed air coming into contact with the end-product in many applications, or even forming an active part of the food, he said it is vital this air should not generate any risk of contamination.

“It is for this reason Atlas Copco decided to invest in this vital food safety certification. As innovators, we are always searching for better ways to serve our customers,” Furolo said.

He explained that Atlas Copco manufacturers a wide range of oil-free compressors that all comply with the Class Zero standard and are all designed for critical applications that require 100% oil-free, clean air.

“Our range includes the well-known Z range, plus the SF range of rotary scroll compressors and the innovative AQ water injected screw compressors. Plus we also manufacture the powerful ZD PET blowing compressors.

“At Atlas Copco, we are committed to sustainable productivity for all our customers,” Furolo concluded. manmonthly.com.au

Atlas Copco is known for innovative and sustainable solutions for mining, tunneling and quarrying. Many of our ideas for developing products and solutions are in collaboration with customers, suppliers and the industry. We move mountains with ideas from all parts of our business - design, sales, finance, training, service and more.

Learn more at ideasmovemountains.com

EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

BEST IT APPLICATION Sponsored by Sage Sage is the market leader for integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems, supporting the ambition of the world’s entrepreneurs.

Sage began as a small business in the UK 30 years ago and over 13000 colleagues now support millions of

entrepreneurs across 23 countries as they power the global economy.

The company endeavours to reinvent and simplify business accounting through brilliant technology, working with a thriving community of entrepreneurs, business owners,

tradespeople, accountants, partners and developers.

And as a FTSE 100 business, it is active in supporting local communities and invests in making a real difference through the philanthropy of the Sage Foundation.

Sage is the sponsor of the competitive Best IT Application category at the 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards.

Sage 13 7243 www.sage.com/au

Business management solutions

F

OR Australian manufacturers, while the current underlying global economic narrative is largely one of recovery and growth, the term ‘recovery’ can often mask an array of challenges faced by organisations as they try to expand their business.

Ageing infrastructure, high costs, reduced lead times and a need for improved visibility are continuing to make the environment a tricky one for manufacturers as the global economy tries to transition back into one of steady growth.

Add to the mix the introduction of new environmental and safety standards that require additional management and controls, not to mention pressure to improve customer satisfaction, and suddenly, the manufacturing story looks entirely different.

However, finding the right solution to manage all this change is just part of the challenge. Experience suggests that success comes down to selecting the right solution from the right provider who understands the requirements of the business in order to implement the right solution.

According to Cateno Barberi, Product Management and Process Manufacturing expert at Sage, manufacturers need to use all their energy just to stay competitive in the mid-market space, as legacy systems, ageing infrastructure, customer demands and increasing production costs continue to create challenges.

“Customers quickly recognise that business management solutions can help them overcome the barriers they are likely to face in the future, but the key is finding the right one,” said Barberi.

“Be sure to look for a business management solution with a strong process manufacturing foundation that supports many of the best practices required to align business processes.”

However, implementing any business management solution involves not only changes in the technology a business uses, but also changes for the people that will ultimately implement and use it.

“This needs a shift in the attitude and behaviour of employees, moving from a task-oriented to a process-oriented approach,” said Barberi.

This human element adds a level of unpredict-

26 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

ability and knowing how staff will accept changes can be challenging. Research from multinational human resource consulting Randstad showed that while 92 per cent of all employees say they will do anything to meet their job requirements, a third fear that as expectations change, they won’t be able to meet the requirements of their employer in the future.

It’s not surprising then that manufacturers could have a challenge on their hands when it comes to rolling out a new business management solution.

This is why it’s crucial to make the changeover benefits clear to workers and support them in the transition.

“The environment won’t get less challenging for process manufacturers any time soon, with ageing infrastructure, customer demands, rising costs, regulation and profit margins continuing to put pressure on firms - especially mid-market companies,” said Barberi.

“However, a business management solution can help and support growth, as long as the right one is implemented.”

Over the coming years, the story for many companies will be one of survival against the odds, and the manufacturers that thrive will be those that hone their internal processes - including their use of business management solutions - to drive growth. manmonthly.com.au

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EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

OUTSTANDING STARTUP

Sponsored by Paradigm Managed Service Paradigm is an Australian based Managed Services Provider focusing on delivering cost savings to your organisation through management of non-core business functions.

What does this mean in real-world terms?

• A fully managed returnable packaging supply chain

• A suite of health managed services, from preemployment medicals through to ongoing health monitoring.

• Fully managed maintenance services from engineers through to maintenance trades.

How can you benefit from using Paradigm?

We don’t just advise, we partner with our clients to implement and take ownership of the outcome.

Paradigm Managed Service 1800 754 884 www.paradigm-ms.com.au

Meet an Endeavour Awards nominee: Gizmo 3D

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IZMO 3D is proof that anything can be made posssible through innovations in printing.

Started by long-time software programmer and (more recently) inventor and maker Kobus du Toit, the Brisbanebased company has received attention from all over the world. It is also edging towards its goal: delivering “continuous 3D printing” machines with superior speed, reliability and accuracy.

After the company made its ambitious plans public only a year ago, it has successfully completed a small production run of four beta machines, pre-production run of 15 printers, and wowed many, including attendees at CES 2016 in Las Vegas in January.

Achievements thus far include, “Inventing the world’s first super speed top down DLP SLA 3D printer, creating software features that no other printer in the world has, printing 3D prints that truly wow people in terms of quality and precision, and a pre-production run of 15 printers, so we know that we won’t let our Indiegogo backers down,” Michelle du Toit, Gizmo’s co-owner, told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

The “Terminator”-style top-down printing method impressed reporters at the leading tech show, including those from MTS and 28 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Mashable, which noted the machines’ speed.

“At the highest speed, 3 mm per minute, the resolution is about 17 microns,” it reported. This is for the z-axis resolution. X and y axes are 52 microns resolution.

At the time of writing, the company is in the middle of its Indiegogo campaign, and has already raised over $US 63,000 of its $US 95,000 target (with 19 days left.)

It’s possible that Gizmo is on the cusp of big things - not bad for a start-up with only “2.5 employees”.

Du Toit puts the company’s early-stage success down to an enthusiasm for doing things better and easier, and finding solutions to problems that many people have.

“This way, your work becomes your passion and

you inspire people around you, employees and businesses (wherever you go) to help your vision succeed,” she added.

“Being transparent and delivering on your promises is also important.”

Their story only properly began in March last year, the week after the founder of much-hyped Carbon 3D gave a popular Ted Talk on the company’s “CLIP” (continuous light interface production) method.

“Kobus thought ‘Wait a minute! My printer can do this too…’” recalled du Toit.

“So he commented on the article saying: ‘Here is a speed test from Gizmo 3D printers creating objects in a bigger projection area’”.

Kobus’s video gained over 70,000 views and the atten-

tion of 3Dprint.com and others, who eagerly picked up on Gizmo’s speedy new top-down DLP method.

So impressed was Autodesk’s Ember team, for example, they attempted (without success) to reproduce du Toit’s methods last year.

What also gained attention was the fact that Kobus had only recently started making his own 3D printers after being frustrated with a hobbyist-level machine he bought. The desktop printer was used to print plastic covers for guns at the du Toits’ laser skirmish business.

“When I met him he was building a hovercraft and we now have a half built small aircraft in the garage. He’s been criticised about his lack of engineering qualifications

quite a bit since building his own 3D printer but recently his invention got an A rating from the team of engineers at iMakr,” said du Toit of her husband.

“Just goes to show - despite what some naysayers might tell you, you don’t have to be an engineer to create a world-leading innovation!”

Since the burst of attention, the du Toits have been obsessively trying to get Gizmo into gear. This year has proceeded at a breakneck pace as their business readies itself to ship. “[The many articles written] and exhibiting at CES 2016 and the exposure that came with it lead to where we are today - the whole lower level of our home is a mini factory where quite a few of these world recognised 3D printers have been manufactured,” said du Toit.

For the time being, their suppliers are in place, their TNT and DHL accounts ready to go, and the Brisbane husband-and-wife team are hoping their product catches the attention of makers and industrial clients.

Part of the effort includes attendance at events and expos (Kobus has just been confirmed as a speaker at the Sydney Inside 3D Printing event in May). They are also hoping for success at this magazine’s upcoming Endeavour Awards. manmonthly.com.au

Managed Services with a Difference Paradigm is an Australian-based Managed Services Provider focusing on delivering cost savings to your organisation through management of non-core business functions.

What does this mean in real-world terms?

• A fully managed returnable packaging supply chain • A suite of health managed services, from pre-employment medicals through to ongoing health monitoring

How can you benefit from using Paradigm?

We don’t just advise, we partner with our clients to implement and take ownership of the outcome through a profit sharing model.

To find out more information, contact the Paradigm Managed Services team today on telephone number: 1800 754 884

• Fully managed engineering solution, from Engineers through to Trades personnel

1800 754 884

www.paradigm-ms.com.au

EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

SAFETY SOLUTION OF THE YEAR Sponsored by Sick SICK is proud to once again be part of the 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards sponsoring the Safety Scheme Award.

Modern safety solutions offer the optimum combination of safety and efficiency: intelligently co-ordinated emergency stop strategies, zone concepts or muting

functionalities that optimise production work flow.

Together with SICK’s partners, the investment in the next safety solution is paramount to offering the competitive advantage customers demand.

The secret to success is to ensure all sensors work in any automation scenario providing our customers with the

freedom to design and create the best possible safety solution, says Jason Mair, Product & Marketing Manager, SICK. That success is what drives the company’s core values as it focuses on the future through the education of Industry Safety Specialists who understand the industry language, the processes involved and the

challenges faced.

The result is innovative, powerful products and systems that provide customers the highest level of safety while increasing machine productivity and reducing downtime.

SICK 1800 334 802 www.sick.com.au

SICK LifeTime Services

S

AFETY is a priority in all industrial environments with company managements investing in the latest technologies to keep their workers, machines and processes safe while maximising production availability.

One company has been continuously supporting industries worldwide for decades by providing a comprehensive range of sensor and automation solutions designed to cost-effectively and reliably maintain a safe environment at various workplaces from factory floors to logistics and distribution centres.

World-leading sensor technology specialist SICK has consistently introduced a series of innovations including sensors, safety systems, analysers and identification solutions for factory automation, process automation and logistics automation applications. These innovations have contributed to preventing injury to workers from accidents, safely controlling processes, eliminating risk of damage to equipment, maintaining compliance with applicable regulations and standards, and ensuring continued business success for their clients.

Having pioneered a long line of industry firsts in sensor technologies, SICK continues to innovate with the latest service-based solution designed to provide timely and professional support to clients throughout the lifecycle of SICK products installed in their facilities anywhere in the world.

SICK LifeTime Services Designed to extend comprehensive expertise to their clients from a single source, SICK LifeTime Services provide high quality intelligent services to complement and enhance their sensor products and solutions in an application environment.

SICK’s latest service innovation encompasses a broad-ranging scope from application consultation, product selection, round-the-clock troubleshooting and downtime minimisation to technology upgrades, operator training and professional development.

30 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

SICK LifeTime Services will support the entire lifecycle of SICK products, ensuring clients benefit from the company’s technical competence and knowledge built on decades of experience. Ranging from simple product support to integrated system solutions, and from productindependent consulting to traditional product services, SICK LifeTime Services will deliver the assurance of a sustainable safety environment along with improved process efficiencies, optimised production flow, enhanced machine availability and reduced downtime.

Scope of SICK LifeTime Services Consulting and Design Clients can benefit from SICK’s expertise right from the concept phase so that product selection is based on due risk assessment of the process environment and aligned with current compliance requirements. The scope of service will cover selection, design and commissioning of appropriate products, to providing machinespecific analyses and design concepts.

Product and System Support SICK LifeTime Services will support the client through product selection and commissioning to post-installation troubleshooting, ensuring both equipment and SICK solutions are always ready for operation. SICK’s technical experts are available round-the-clock with support delivered via phone, remote assistance or on-site, assisting with quick fault rectification and maximising machine availability.

Verification and Optimisation Regular inspections carried out by SICK experts will ensure systems are operated safely, responsibly and productively while adhering to regulatory requirements. Verification and optimisation services will help guarantee

the safety, reliability and performance of the equipment, minimising operator errors and machine downtime.

Upgrade and Retrofits SICK LifeTime Services will extend the benefits of the latest advances in sensing, monitoring and identification technologies to clients, facilitating quick and easy integration into existing applications and ensuring long service life for the equipment with increased system efficiency.

Through timely upgrades and retrofits, clients get the advantage of state-of-the-art technologies that are not only compliant but also cost-effective.

Training and Education Seminars and training courses organised regularly

by SICK will ensure continuous professional development of operators through targeted and relevant information about products and solutions. Alongside practical tips for optimising applications, SICK’s skilled trainers will also educate course participants about requirements and standards beyond the products.

Learn more about SICK LifeTime Services on this short video, or download this useful guide for a more detailed perspective. manmonthly.com.au

COMPLETE SOLUTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE HEALTH & SAFETY.

SICK has an enviable record of working with partners to develop well proven innovative safe solutions that continue to push that competitive advantage. This is why we are proud to once again sponsor this years “Safety Scheme of the Year� Endeavour Awards program, which recognizes companies and individuals for their contributions to the Australian manufacturing industry.

For more information please visit www.sick.com.au or call 1800 334 802.

SICK Manufacturers Monthly Endeavour Awards Advertisement Update.indd 1

24-Mar-16 9:42:21 AM

EndeavourAWARDS 2016

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR Sponsored by Vertical Talent Vertical Talent is re-designing the recruitment experience and is paving the way as Australia’s premier value chain specialist.

Their experienced consultants recruit across the end to end value chain, including: • New Product Development

• Procurement • Supply Chain Planning • Technical Operations • Quality, Engineering & Maintenance • Logistics & Warehousing; and • Sales & Marketing Coming off a strong end to 2015, 2016 is shaping up to be another consistent

year for the industry. Vertical Talent has been engaged by a broad range manufacturing organisations from small start-ups, through to SMEs and large global organisations, which is a great sign that the sector is still thriving. This year’s nominees, trailblazers within the industry are testament to the industry

being alive and well.

Vertical Talent is proud to be sponsoring the 2016 Manufacturer of the Year Award and wishes all nominees the best of luck.

Vertical Talent 1300 057 464 www.verticaltalent.com

The best of the best

F

ROM the numerous entries received, one trailblazer stands out for outstanding innovation in the areas of technology, management, product development. This award aims at recognising that outstanding manufacturer.

A group of independent judges chooses the Manufacturer of the Year. This year’s judges are • Derek Lark, Executive Director Industry Capability Network Limited • Mark Goodsell, NSW Director and National Director – Manufacturing, Australian Industry Group • Dr Ivan Cole, Program Director, CSIRO • Stephen Johnson, NSW Department of Education and Communities (retired) • Scott Blakemore, Principal, Blakemoresource

32 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Testament to the esteem with which the Endeavour Awards have come to be held, the list of past winners of Manufacturer of the Year reads like a who’s who of the Australian manufacturing industry.

Recent winners include: 2015 - ANCA 2014 - Marand Precision Engineering 2013 - ANCA 2012 - Homart Pharmaceuticals 2011 - Quickstep Holdings 2010 - HI Fraser 2009 - Toyota Motor Corporation Australia No doubt, whoever’s name appears on the 2016 trophy will meet the same high standards of these successful Australian manufacturers.

Flashback to 2015 – Grant Anderson , CEO ANCA (left) accepts the Manufacturer of the Year Award from Tony Gent, State Manager VIC/Tas, Bluescope Steel.

All will be revealed on May 12.

See you in Sydney! manmonthly.com.au

New Product Development

Procurement

Recruitment with a difference Vertical Talent is re-designing the recruitment experience and is paving the way as Australia’s premier value chain specialist.

Our approach is simple – we leverage our decade of industry expertise in partnering with some of the world’s premier organisations, with a strong commitment to world class service to achieve unmatched results and provide true value for both our candidates and clients.

Possessing an in depth understanding of the Australian manufacturing industry, we recognise that talent markets are becoming more specialised - and that these markets should be supported with a specialist recruitment service and career management platform.

Reflecting this, we employ specialist consultants across the following industry specialisations;

Planning

Manufacturing & Operations

• New Product Development • Procurement • Supply Chain Planning

Engineering & Maintenance

• Technical Operations • Quality, Engineering & Maintenance • Logistics & Warehousing; and • Sales & Marketing.

To speak to one of our specialist consultants about how Vertical Talent can assist your organisation, contact us today on 1300 057 464 or email recruit@verticaltalent.com

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Logistics & Warehouse

Sales & Marketing

PlantUPGRADE Encore Tissue’s profitable plant upgrade The Global Solutions team from Rockwell Automation has customised a partial line upgrade that integrates with the existing system to improve tissue production rates

S

USTAINABILITY is a key component of Australia’s pulp and paper industry. Advances in technology have provided the capability to reduce environmental impact and support the ongoing sustainability of the tissue production process.

Encore Tissue is an Australian family owned business that was established in 1998 by the Holckner family, comprising of Charlie Holckner and his two sons, David and Mark Holckner.

Today, the company is a leading manufacturer of toilet tissue and kitchen towel with a manufacturing plant in Laverton North, Victoria.

Encore’s philosophy is to manufacture quality products and endeavour to be environmentally, socially and economically responsible.

The fibres are sourced from local and International suppliers who practice sustainable management of forests in line with strict international standards. All suppliers operate under Forest Stewardship Council accredited environmental systems and practices.

Encore Tissue is committed to achieving sustainable economic growth that is beneficial to present and future generations, without threatening the resources or biological systems of the world in which we operate.

The company is committed to constant improvement in its manufacturing process as it grows into a major player within the industry. As testament to this commitment, Encore Tissue decided to undertake an upgrade to part of their tissue production line to keep in touch with the latest technology, increase production output and help their customers by providing a better quality product that exceeds their requirements.

The scope of the project was to upgrade the original tissue machine, which was commissioned back in 2003 to incorporate new technologies and improve production rates.

34 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Increasing tissue production The original tissue machine at Encore originated from Italy and had Reliance Automation components, which were supplied by Rockwell Automation. The tissue machine was relocated from Velcarta in the south of Italy and was installed in 2002/2003 at Encore Tissue’s Laverton North site, which enabled Encore to supply a full range of multi-ply virgin and recycled converted tissue products. During the relocation of the tissue machine, the original end of life Reliance DC drives were upgraded to newer FlexPak 3000

logical choice.”

The tissue making process starts with pulp that is approximately 99.8 per cent water and 0.2 per cent fibre.

This pulp is pumped by a large pump called a fan pump onto the machine, through a head box, which distributes the pulp onto a forming fabric creating the tissue sheet. The tissue sheet is then transferred onto a felt and transported through the machine.

The felt passes over a suction roll, which removes some of the water from the sheet before the tissue sheet is transferred onto a large steam heated and pressurised drum called a Yankee

New upgrade hardware integrated with the existing system.

DC drives, beginning the relationship between Encore Tissue and Rockwell Automation. However, as demand continued to grow for Encore’s products, the original tissue machine required an upgrade that would use new technology to improve quality and output.

According to Mark Camilleri, project manager at Encore Tissue, “We have enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Rockwell Automation. The company upgraded our drives back in 2003 so when we were embarking on the latest line upgrade, we invited them to tender for the project and once again, their approach, solution and capabilities made them the most

Dryer. The Yankee Dryer further dries the tissue sheet, aided by gas heated hoods until the sheet is 95 per cent fibre and only 5 per cent water before it is creped off the Yankee and wound onto paper cores by the pope reeler, creating the finished parent reel.

To gain additional kilowatts and increase production output with the new machine, the fan pump, forming roll and suction press drives were upgraded from FlexPak 3000 DC drives with four new PowerFlex 755 AC drives and the existing control system was upgraded to GuardLogix to address safety requirements.

“As part of the design process we

went to the plant to measure the room to see if the drives fit within the existing space, but because the footprint of the AC drive is much larger than the DC drives, we had to change the configuration of the drive so it would fit in the room. This involved reversing the arrangement of some of the drives and putting the circuit breaker panels on the left hand side, instead of the right side so they were aligned with the high beams in the roof,” said Peter Tomazic, senior solutions consultant at Rockwell Automation.

“The tissue machine required a high current system, the incoming feed was 4000amps so this involved finding a suitably rated busbar system. Also, because at least 50 per cent of the cabinet was retained we had to ensure that it married up with those existing cabinets and the system was integrated effectively,” he explained.

According Mark Camilleri, “To continue to grow the business we need to keep in touch with the latest technology and provide a high quality product to our customers. The team at Rockwell Automation were able to customise our panels and solution to suit our requirements and maximise our output.”

Integrated safety Encore is committed to improving its manufacturing process and also to meeting safety requirements. Back when the tissue machine was initially commissioned, ControlNet was the network used for the drive system control as Ethernet was not yet mature enough. Now, Ethernet provides the capabilities to do all the coordinated drive system control as well as safety and standard IO on the one network.

“As part of the upgrade, GuardLogix was used to combine control and safety in the one platform and helped the plant meet current and future safety regulations. Another benefit of this integrated control and safety is that installation costs and set up times were reduced. Additionally, manmonthly.com.au

we also used Allen-Bradley Guardmaster door locking devices to prevent the unauthorised access of plant personnel to the reel section of the machine when it is in state that could be dangerous,” said Matthew Barrett, senior project engineer at Rockwell Automation.

Software customisation According to Matthew Barrett, “With this sort of equipment you need to make sure the drives are running at the same speed to avoid mechanical damage or breaks so there is a fair amount of smarts in the way you engineer the drives. We have developed libraries of software for these sorts of applications as a result of years of experience that saves engineering time and improves reliability.”

The Encore site has now evolved through three generations of Rockwell Automation solutions and has gradually migrated equipment so that down the track when any remaining equipment needs to be updated, they

will be able to do so easily.

“Being able to migrate in stages is good from an economics point of view and there is a lot of flexibility in the product which makes integration of the new solution with our existing equipment seamless,” said Mark Camillieri.

As part of the system test, a full factory test was conducted to minimise downtime upon installation. This demonstrated that the whole system was working as a dry system and also validated a few functions. During the commissioning process there was a standard protocol that was followed which made installation easy and ensured that there was no downtime involved.

Sustainable lifecycle According to David Holckner, director at Encore Tissue, “Today we have three generations of Holckner family members working together supported by a dedicated management team, and we are all looking forward to the challenge of continuing to build our

Encore’s tissue machine has increased production output as a result of the upgrade business, offering our customers improved tissue quality and innovative products with our new capability.”

Water is a key resource in paper manufacturing and trying to reduce water usage has been a key project for Encore Tissue. Since commencement, the amount of water used per tonne of paper manufactured has reduced by 65 per cent. This has been largely due to reusing and recycling water within the manufacturing process.

“The solution is more energy efficient and helps us to use less water in the manufacturing process, especially as we get it up and running to full capacity. Integration and commissioning was straightforward which meant we were up and running with no

significant downtime and we are already familiar with the look and feel of the product which makes it easy to operate. As a result of the solution, the tissue machine now has increased output which was our key business driver,” said Mark Camillieri.

“We have enjoyed working with Rockwell Automation, they are a very professional company that knows their product well. They are easy to work with and provide flexibility within their product and services so we would not have any hesitation in recommending Rockwell Automation to other customers,” he said.

Rockwell Automation 03 9757 1111 www.rockwellautomation.com

NeoBolt ® Lockbolt System NeoBolt® is a novel, high-strength non-breakstem structural two-piece fastener. NeoBolt® provides a similar function to a conventional lockbolt however the pin does not break when the fastener is installed.

No pin break - no metal waste Eliminate dropped stems Collar ‘fit-up’ feature for easy preassembly Quick visual swage inspection upon placing Fine pitch pin groove design for superior vibration resistance l Shockless Installation - no noise from fastener l l l l l

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PH: 1800 062 355 Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 35

Energy& POWER MANAGEMENT Save money through smart energy management Having the right energy strategy can improve reliability and sustainability while reducing energy bills as Nicolas Larue reports.

E

NERGY is typically the fastest growing expense for manufacturers today. It can consume up to 30 per cent of an operating budget. With digitisation and the use of electronic devices on the rise, the reliance on and use of energy will only continue.

As energy prices soar and green tariffs come into force, it comes as no surprise that manufacturers are concerned about how much energy they’re consuming and at what cost.

The benefits of effective energy management are clear: protect the environment, save energy and reduce costs, and ultimately operate a cleaner network free of power quality issues. But realising the full potential of energy savings in your business can be more complex than switching equipment off when it’s not in use.

With this in mind, here are four simple steps you can take to develop an action plan for smarter energy management that could see the energy bills in your facility drop dramatically.

Get to know your energy usage Knowledge is power, so before diving in and installing technology within your facility, it’s important to get to know your energy usage.

Smart energy management provides visibility of effective and efficiency energy usage. So a good way to start is to conduct an energy and power audit. This is where you analyse energy use and power quality based on measurement and then establish a baseline – based on historical data from the last 12 – 24 months.

36 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

There are tools you can use to help measure your energy consumption, such as energy meters and power quality monitors. This review can be complemented by using a software platform that functions as a centralised portal of energy data – helping you to see all your areas of energy consumption and track in real-time.

Once you understand your usage, you can identify areas of significant energy use and those with poor power quality, and prioritise and record opportunities for improving energy performance.

Fix the basics Once you understand where your energy is being used, implementing the right kind of corrective action can create an almost immediate financial benefit – potentially 10 – 15 per cent worth of savings. Here are just some of the opportunities for smarter energy management - where you could uncover efficiency gains: Building controls: Simple control adjustments can produce rapid energy savings. Are your building controls optimised for performance?

Are lights and other systems running at the correct settings?

Mechanical: How do HVAC systems use energy throughout the facility? Can the performance of chill water, distribution, and steam systems be improved?

Do air handlers and sequencers need upgrading or adjusting? Are outdated motors wasting energy?

Replacing an old motor with a newer, high efficiency motor can improve energy efficiency by 90 per cent.

Electrical: How is electricity

Smart energy management provides visibility of effective and efficiency energy usage. used and how efficient is the total system—from lighting and controls to office equipment, refrigeration, and kitchens? Since facilities use electricity in many ways, there are usually opportunities for savings.

There could be issues with power quality to address, such as high kVA demand, poor power factor, harmonic distortions and voltage sag/swell.

Envelope: How does your building envelope perform and how does it affect other energy systems? Could simple improvements to insulation yield significant savings?

Water: Water, like energy, is a resource that can be conserved to save money. Are cooling towers losing too much water to evaporation? Are you paying for sewage charges that could be avoided with metering?

Can water heating be planned and managed to reduce costs, based on actual usage times and areas?

Automate your energy solutions Once you’ve fixed the basics, and implemented energy saving techniques, the next step is to, where possible; introduce automation across your energy efficient solutions.

Automation of your energy related

appliances and facilities – whereby energy is only ‘on’ when it’s really needed - can add another 5 per cent of efficiency savings.

For example, you could have introduced energy saving light fittings – but if you further implemented ceiling mounted occupancy sensors and power linked intelligent lighting panels, you could see additional saving.

Don’t stop there Without ongoing monitoring and maintenance you could see energy savings slip back by 2 – 8 per cent.

The final step is to keep regulating your energy usage and illustrate the positive impacts to keep energy management high on the business agenda.

This will also allow you to keep an eye out for new opportunities to make improvements as your facility changes and grows.

[Nicolas Larue is Product Manager in Power Quality at Schneider Electric] Schneider Electric 1300 369 233 www.schneider-electric.com.au manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturer blows $250,000 on wasted energy The potential returns of air audits far outweigh the expense. They can lead to greatly reduced energy costs and a much improved bottom line.

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NE of Australia’s leading food brands believed that their compressed air efficiency and leakage maintenance was well in control.

To validate their confidence, the company commissioned Southern Cross Compressors to carry out an air audit on the complete system. The results from that audit presented eyeopening surprises.

Using their UE Ultraprobe 9000 leak detector, Southern Cross were able to pinpoint in excess of 50 significant leaks with a total air volume well over 10m3/min representing an annualised wasted energy cost of approximately $55.000. Put in perspective, the case used as a model here shows that their first $250,000 worth of sales each year merely paid for

manmonthly.com.au

wasted compressed air.

The audit was conducted over two full days costing the company around $3000, including preparation of a comprehensive 50 page report representing one leak per page.

The UE Ultraprobe 9000 detects and records the decibels at the natural frequency of the air leak. It can accurately detect leaks up to 10m away from the probe allowing Southern Cross technicians to find otherwise undetectable leaks in the main reticulation system. Whilst most leaks were simple to repair, they would not have been found without this advanced detection device and method.

Using a calibrated chart, the detected sound level (dB(A)) then converted to a volume flow rate (m3/ min) which in turn is converted to

The UE Ultraprobe 9000 detects and records the decibels at the natural frequency of the air leak. power (kW) to calculate annualised costs determined on running hours and electrical supply costs. All leaks are individually tagged using colour codes based on severity and then photographed for the customer report.

The 50 page report presented

to the customer included highly critical date including individual leak volume, equivalent power, annualised cost, equivalent C02 emissions as well as a photo of the colour tagged leak.

The report also provides the customer with a comprehensive summary of the potential savings opportunity enabling them to prioritise the leak repairs based on severity, energy loss and repair costs and make a totally informed decision.

In today’s efficiency driven age where energy costs are fundamental to business sustainability, this type of audit and reports advice can lead to significant cost savings.

Southern Cross Compressed Air 1300 098 901 southerncrossaircompressors.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 37

Energy& POWER MANAGEMENT Reducing energy costs Power factor and harmonic correction can substantially reduce factory electricity bills, as Colin Kinsey writes.

I

F you are a factory owner or manager looking to reduce electricity bills, the first thing you should do is to go to your meter board and look at the electricity meters.

There shouldn’t be any spinning disks, but if so, make a note.

Next step is to get your most recent electricity bill. Look for additional charges to the kilowatthours consumed last month, in particular for demand charges.

These can be in dollars per month per kilowatt (note; no mention of ‘hours’) or more likely these days, dollars per month per kVA (kilo Volt-amp).

Following this, check if you are on a ‘not to exceed’ punitive maximum demand tariff. You will have to call your retailer in and have them explain the basis of resetting your demand meter.

Generally, once a company has exceeded the contracted maximum demand, it will be charged on that demand basis for the next twelve months, even though it might have been a one-time only event. In any event, if you are on a kVA demand charge of any description, read on!

Next step is a back-of-the-envelope factory inventory. How many motors do you have, and what is your guesstimate as to their total kilowatthours on your monthly bill, which could be a large number like 40 per cent or more.

The motors are all required, so there are no possible savings, right? Wrong!

The ‘power factor’ (i.e. the ratio of kilowatts to kVA for each motor) and the combined power factor for the whole lot must be considered. This is where an opportunity to save money can be found.

However, in real life the power factor is more likely to be around 0.75 (or 75 per cent). That means the poles and wire people have to deliver more to you than you consume in kilowatts—and they like that less and less with each passing year.

Let’s assume you have a total of a 100kW in motors, and their aggregate power factor on full load is 0.8. The poles and wire folk have to deliver 100/0.8 equal to 125kVA. But to get your 100kW, power providers have to cop the losses of the additional current in their wires – or 56 per cent additional power loss (it goes as the square of current). This is an additional loss for which power companies used to not charge.

In addition, they need to invest in additional equipment to keep voltage and other things nice and steady as a result of lower power factors.

But things are ‘a-changin’ and kVA maximum demand charges are being introduced all over Australia (they are already well established in parts of NSW and Queensland).

It depends on your tariff structure but significant savings can be made by correcting power

kW, kVA and power factor You already know that a Watt is a unit of power and a kilowatt (one-thousand of them) is almost 1.35 horse power and abbreviated to kW, and that a kVA (V stands for Volt and A for amp) is a kilo volt-amp.

The confusing thing is that one Watt equals one Volt-amp. The difference between a kVA and a kW is the power factor.

The maximum power factor your factory can have is a theoretical 1, and then kWs and kVAs are exactly the same value.

38 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

The yellowed part of this manufacturer’s electricity bill indicates the additional charges for kVA demand in two portions (TUOS—Transmission Use of System; and DUOS— Distribution Use of System. The close to $3000 charge is per month—most of it due to poor power factor.

factor from low values as per the above example toward a higher value like 0.95. Your kilowatts stay the same but your kVA (and cost) go down.

Harmonics When you looked at your meter board, we’ll assume you found no oldfashioned revolving disk electricity meters. This means your metering probably also measures an additional kVA demand arising from harmonics, which most electrical installations create.

The harmonic currents are created by high bay lighting, office LEDs, all IT, modern fluorescents, and by all those variable speed drives running your palletising equipment, compressors, pumps, CNCs, bottle and jar filling lines, etc.

Here again your kilowatts stay the same and your kVA go up some more—as well as your electricity charges.

If you do have old-fashioned revolving disk electricity meters, they are mainly blind to harmonic contributions to kVA. However, the power factor mentioned previously remains.

Whether harmonics contribute or not to the kVA metering, there is a very good economic case for correcting the power factor.

Irrespective of your metering situation, active harmonic filtering combined with power factor correction is the most likely solution to reducing electricity costs.

Once an investigation of consumption and power factor has been done, there is very often a short pay-back period, less than two years, for the capital investment based on electricity savings.

[Colin Kinsey is a power systems engineer with Power Parameters] Power Parameters 1800 623 350 www.paramaters.com.au manmonthly.com.au

IMPROVE COMFORT AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY WITH BIG ASS SOLUTIONS

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Case in Point: BlueScope Buildings BlueScope Buildings is the world’s leading supplier of pre-engineered metal buildings, with locations on four continents. In summer, workers coped with stifling conditions, and wall fans provided little relief. The oppressive atmosphere was further compounded by outdated metal halide lights in other parts of the facility that barely kept the bays lit and when they did work, generated even more heat.

Big Ass Solutions® was brought in to relieve the stagnant air and solved the lighting problem, too. Operating under a tight schedule, they installed four 5.5m Powerfoil®X2.0 fans to better circulate the air. Plant Manager David Volk also ordered Big Ass Light™ LED fixtures for three bays at the site. The lights were in place and custom programmed within weeks. Now workers are more comfortable because of the silent fans, the new LEDs are drawing rave reviews from employees and visitors, and Volk is seeing a significant decrease in his lighting bills.

1300 244 277

bigasslight.com.au/mm416

Womenin MANUFACTURING Helping women succeed in business After several years of success as a TV presenter and reporter, Indira Naidoo’s career took a turn and she published a book about growing sustainable food on balconies. Sharon Masige spoke to her about how women should approach new business ventures.

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NDIRA Naidoo’s first book The Edible Balcony became a best seller, featuring advice on creating and sustaining a balcony garden with recipes from the produce. Her follow up book The Edible City showcases a variety of innovative balcony and community gardens.

Naidoo found there is more to a book than just writing it; you have to be physically prepared to go out and promote the ideas within it, otherwise booksellers may not even put it on the shelf.

For women interested in beginning their own business venture – whatever the field – Naidoo stressed the importance of identifying your strengths and skills. Although she admitted that it is sometimes the most difficult to objectively find out, it is a crucial first step. From there you need to look at areas you need support in, and get in touch with friends and colleagues who may have ideas or advice that can take your venture into the marketplace.

“If you have a business concept, if you have something you want to share, a book is a really powerful way of getting that idea across. People take you much more seriously after you put an idea in a book,” she told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

And one of her largest achievements since publishing the books is the ability her ideas have had in influencing others, especially children.

“If you know your ideas can help and improve people’s lives I don’t think there’s any better reward,” she said.

Naidoo said that one of the biggest challenges women have when thinking of starting their own business is their task oriented nature; rather than focusing on things they find enjoyable more time is spent on tasks intended to get you through the day.

“It’s really important creating survival hours so when you set that time aside, you can then start seeing the 40 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

According to Indira Naidoo, those starting new businesses need to often focus on ‘tasks’ rather than what they find enjoyable. things that you really love about your day, and your work, and your creativity, and what your world’s opening up to you.

“A lot of people, when they start businesses and new concepts, sometimes [they think] it’s just tiny. You’ve got to realise that its still a great idea but you’ve just got to come back in a few months or a few years’ time. When I developed my first book The Edible

Balcony, a lot of my friends thought it was the nuttiest thing I had ever done.

Why would you want to grow food on a little balcony on the thirteenth floor?

It’s a crazy idea. There was just something about it that I knew I needed to do for myself and I felt the need out there generally that people wanted to reconnect with plants.

“If you’re passionate about spreading a certain idea or concept or

product, I can’t recommend the value of a book higher enough because I can now access writer’s festivals around the world, I lecture at universities, my books are in the library, I get invited to schools, corporate events affecting government policies and one of the many drivers for that has been most of the other work I do, but also that fact that I can walk into a room with some books and say here are my ideas and put them down on paper and in print and it’s very powerful.”

In terms of her new business venture, Naidoo said that the environmental, climate change and sustainability policies in Australia are approximately 10 years behind the rest of the world. As a result, she has tailored her message of sustainability to many different levels from schools to mother’s groups to corporate business.

“I’m actually with a company that’s building new residential apartments and they want to put an edible balcony into all their apartments in this new building, so for me that’s very exciting because it’s moving the concept into real development and getting developers engaged with the concepts that I’m passionate about.”

When it comes to business, Naidoo said it is important to work at different levels and at a variety of locations.

“Look at what the market is saying and try to vary your offering according to what that particular market is, look at how it can be applied at lots of different levels from a one on one engagement to much bigger global and government policy change.

“The good thing now is with travel, with skype, with all those different ways of communicating you can spread your business across lots of geographies and work at different levels.”

[Indira Naidoo will be MC at the upcoming Women in Industry Awards 2016] manmonthly.com.au

MaterialsHANDLING From iron to the dragline Ben Hagemann puts a new twist on the story of one of America’s last surviving steel wire rope manufacturers.

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HEN it comes to productivity and progress, ingenuity is the backbone of the mining industry. Many will agree that mining activities have been the precursor to almost every significant technological development in our history. The period to which we attribute the most exponential growth in technology, the Industrial Revolution, owes everything to a few key inventions. The steam engine, the Bessemer Method and dynamite are often listed as the most important inventions of the modern age, but there is one other without which these things would not have had such remarkable impact on our lives.

At least, that’s what occurred to me after I was invited to take a tour of the 120-year old Wirerope Works factory site in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. As a rigger I had always appreciated the importance of steel wire rope to mining and to civil engineering, but despite this seemingly simple invention being part of every single day of my life working in the mining industry, I knew very little about how it is made, and even less about its history. They say you should never visit the sausage factory, and that may be true, but the wilfully ignorant are not to be trusted, and steel wire rope is a very special type of sausage…

Flexible steel wire rope has been one of the mainstays of heavy industry for more than a hundred years. Whether you want to lash down scaff planks, carry out lifting and cranage, use draglines for surface mining, or even pull down a massive statue of Saddam Hussein, wire rope has thousands of applications.

Based in Lycoming County in Pennsylvania, Wirerope Works (WRW) began its life as the Morrison Patent Wire Rope Company in 1886. The original mill was built upstream on the banks of the Susquehanna River to service the softwood logging industry, however regular flooding led to the relocation and inevitable expansion of the factory in the town of Williamsport.

The design and manufacture of steel wire rope was no longer in its infancy at that stage. The first practical use of steel rope in 1834 was credited to a German mining official named Wilhelm August Julius Albert, who worked at the Clausthal silver mines in Saxony.

Up until that point, all mining haulage was done with hemp fibre rope or chains. In the humid, damp conditions of an underground mine, moisture would cause the ropes to perish from rot, the gradual deterioration reducing their load bearing capacity, so they required frequent replacement.

Chains at that time were no better in terms of

42 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Wirerope Works is not shy of showing pride, especially when relating the story of how their military spec tank retrieval product was used to tear down the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad in 2003. Images: getty safety, as the Bessemer process for making steel was not invented until 1855. Iron chains lacked elasticity, but were also metallurgically inconsistent and therefore, unreliable. A single weak link could make a chain prone to catastrophic failure without warning, and there was no way of knowing which might be the weakest.

That first incarnation of modern steel wire rope was extremely effective for heavy haulage, and much more reliable than rope or chain. Albert Rope, as it came to be known, was a simple construction of three 3.5mm gauge wrought-iron wires, hand-wound into strands, with three or four of those strands wound into a single rope. However, Albert rope lacked the flexibility of rope or chain, meaning it couldn’t be drawn through a pulley sheave, and its use stopped in the 1850s.

But the idea for wire rope had already caught on

in England, where thinner wires were woven around a fibre core, with six of those strands woven around a central fibre core, resulting in a more flexible product. This design, as well as a mechanical system for its construction (called a strander), was patented

by Robert Newall, who brought the new technology to America, and the boom-time economy of the California Gold Rush.

However, it was in Pennsylvania where a German-born engineer and surveyor named John Roebling began to develop ropes which were entirely constructed of wire. Roebling used a 6/19 construction (6 strands; 19 wires per strand). A strand built of 19 wires of the same gauge resulted in a hexagonal profile, and desiring a round shape Roebling conceived of using three different gauges of wire to achieve that result. The effect of this was to reduce the space inside the rope, tightly packmanmonthly.com.au

ing the wires together, which gave the rope greater stability under load.

With massive demand for coal haulage in Pennsylvania, as well as cable car applications for public transportation, and most importantly civil engineering projects to service, Roebling set up a wire rope factory in 1849 in Trenton, New Jersey. But he wasn’t the first to invest in a factory like that: Other people had the same idea, and wire rope mills were starting to pop up around the United States. In only 14 years wire rope had gone from a hand-made experiment in a German silver mine, to a globally recognised tool of industry with high demand for scaled-up production.

If Roebling had any hubris about cashing in on this amazing new invention, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a little dampened when his arm and shoulder were horrifically mangled in an accident with one of his stranding machines. But it would seem that Roebling’s interest in wire rope was not strictly for profit, however, as he had for some time harboured a bit of an obsession with sketching suspension bridges. He was a big fan of the expansionist philosophy of Manifest Destiny, and had been very keen on establishing a utopian settlement called Germania (now the town of Saxonburg), where people like him trying to escape the brutal oppression of post-Prussian War Europe could be free to make sauerkraut and smoked pork products, unmolested by the authorities.

As luck would have it, farming cabbages didn’t really agree with Roebling. He studied in Berlin under the best academics in engineering, architecture, bridge construction, and hydraulics that Germany had to offer. Roebling was a very gifted individual, recognised at a young age as he grew up in Mühlhausen in Saxony, only 100 kilometres from the silver mines of Clausthal.

But Roebling recovered from his injuries, his factory continued to produce wire rope, and he designed and built a number of suspension bridges using his own product right up until he began design work for the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, Roebling managed to get his foot crushed by a ferry while standing on a dock trying to work out where the bridge should go. He died of tetanus 24 days later, but his son Washington went on to complete the Brooklyn Bridge project, while his son Charles would invent an 80 tonne wire rope machine.

By 1886, the year the Brooklyn Bridge was opened, a venture like setting up a wire rope factory in Pennsylvania was not at all a bad way to invest $100,000 (probably about $US3 million today), and that is precisely what three businessmen from Williamsport did.

Morrison Patent was changed to the Williamsport Wire Rope Company in 1888, manufacturing steel and galvanised wire rope “from one-eighth of an inch to two and one-half inches in diameter, and any length up to two miles in one continuous piece”, according to an 1892 history of Lycoming County.

The move to the Williamsport site set the commanmonthly.com.au

pany up for a period of charged innovation and growth, fed by the demand for haulage in Lycoming County’s massive lumber and coal mining industries.

Williamsport was known as the “Lumber Capital of the World” and laid claim to having more millionaire residents per capita than anywhere else in the world.

The lumber boom in Lycoming peaked in 1891, and the neighbouring Indiana County saw a coalmining boom start in 1900, so the industrial economy was perfect for the growth of the Williamsport rope mill. A new wire mill was built in 1916, and the current rope mill was built in 1928, which was pretty poor timing considering the Great Depression would start the next year.

By the time the Great Depression ended in 1939, the company was ripe for purchase by Bethlehem Steel, which renamed it the Bethlehem Steel Wire Rope division.

By 2004, the Williamsport site had been bought and sold a number of times, changing company names like a serial divorcee, acquiring assets from other defunct companies such as Roebling Wire Rope (the company started by John Roebling in 1849) but always keeping the Bethlehem Wire Rope brand, which became synonymous with top quality steel cable, and is still proudly emblazoned on their rope spools to this day.

In 2002 Williamsport Wirerope Works bought out the bankrupt Paulsen Wire Rope, a rope mill located in nearby Sunbury, and continued to produce under the Paulsen name. But by 2003 the company was also in financial strife, and the management were looking for another buyer who could bail out the company and keep the 600,000 square foot Bethlehem factory running.

The US wire rope manufacturing industry had changed dramatically over the course of 100 years.

From an exciting new industry that would allow explosive growth in the productivity of coal mining through the development of dragline surface mining operations in the early 20th century, as well as enabling some of the biggest civil engineering projects ever seen since the Pyramids of Giza, the US stable of 27 wire rope companies had been consolidated down to just three names: Bridon, WireCo, and Bethlehem.

Bridon is another Pennsylvania company, based 100 kilometres away in Wilkes-Barre. Unlike Williamsport which remained a local manufacturer, Bridon expanded rapidly, acquiring other wire rope companies and branching out across the world, developing into a massive, multinational conglomerate, as did WireCo Worldgroup.

With two global entities for domestic competition, Bethlehem also faced increasing pressure from low-cost offshore wire rope producers in countries like China, Korea and India.

Present executive vice-president Lamar J Richards remembers circumstances were looking grim for the Bethlehem brand and for the local employees, with a bid for takeover by Pennsylvania, USA and

world market rival WireCo Worldgroup in late 2003.

“Instructions from the ownership at the time were, because we were about to be bought by a competitor we really weren’t going to be making wire, so we had to get rid of all the raw material, the rod, our starting point for the wire,” he said.

“Being the industrial little guys that we are, we removed several thousand tonnes of rod, so at the end of 2003 we only had one pack, two tonnes left.

We would normally have 2000 tonnes in stock.

“We were later informed by our assessor that the deal probably wasn’t going to go through, and then our sole rod supplier went out of business in November. We didn’t really have any credence with any other suppliers, and availability was extremely tight, there was a rod shortage.

“So in that environment, there was an effort by local people to see if they could put together a coalition to buy the company and keep the manufacturing here in Williamsport. The concern was that with a competitor buying we would ultimately be folded up and moved.”

And it was in this environment that local businessman Tom Saltsgiver, owner of a successful modular housing manufacturing plant, started to consider the prospect of buying an ailing historic business of significant value to the local economy, and decided to accept an invitation to take a tour of the Bethlehem plant.

I didn’t know any of those things when I found myself standing there, in the foyer of the single largest wire rope manufacturing facility in North America on a muggy Thursday morning, fighting off a particularly vicious head cold and oblivious to the fact that our tour bus had dropped us off and left, with my camera bag still on board... …TO BE CONTINUED IN THE MAY ISSUE OF MANUFACTURERS’ MONTHLY

Bethlehem Wire Rope branding concept art, circa 1950s

Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 43

NMW Preview 11-13 May 2016

NMW 2016: Paving the way to new markets

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GAINST a solid backdrop of manufacturing industry growth, this year’s National Manufacturing Week (NMW) will prove a buoyant meeting place for businesses looking for ideas, technologies and solutions that can help them get ahead.

NMW is Australia’s largest, longest-running manufacturing event, bringing the industry together to see, touch and discuss new and innovative manufacturing solutions. NMW 2016 will showcase hundreds of products and services from around the world, laid out in 12 Product Zones, ranging from Automation & Robotics to Digital Manufacturing, Intralogistics, Advanced Materials and more.

Alongside its showcase, NMW will also present a seminar program featuring industry

leaders sharing new ideas and strategies that have delivered proven success.

Among high profile speakers will be Dr Keith McLean, CSIRO’s Manufacturing Flagship Director, outlining some of the ways in which 400 Australian manufacturers have leveraged CSIRO research to help them target new, high value niche markets.

NMW 2016 will also focus on emerging opportunities through its co-location with the Safety First Conference & Expo, Australia’s one-stop workplace safety event, as well as Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo, the Sydney edition of the world’s largest 3D printing event.

WHERE: Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park WHEN: 11 – 13 May, 2016

A selection of this year’s exhibitors: Axelent Automation & Safety Axelent takes workplace safety very seriously. Products are manufactured in Sweden to the highest standard, AS4024.1 Safety compliant, and over 4kms of stock warehoused locally to ensure exceptionally efficient order turnaround. Products on show this this year include: Axelent X-Tray (Cable Management System) A simple, smart and flexible solution to organise and control cables.

The X-Tray can be used in conjunction with the X-Guard, or as a stand-alone product with the ability to be mounted from the wall, floor or ceiling. Five surface treatment coating options are available (including 316L Stainless Steel as preferred by the food industry), all tested and approved by the International Cable Management Standard, IEC 61537.

Axelent X-Guard (Machine Guarding) 13 width and five height options, five different locks plus a multitude of other parts and accessories enable you to perfectly tailor your machine safety needs. Use the special X-Key to remove a panel in just a few seconds to access the guarded area, this reduces cost of ownership by providing quick access to the guarded machinery during a break down or maintenance. The installation process is so quick and easy that you need to see it to believe it. Even their largest panel systems can be installed by one person.

44 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manmonthly.com.au

Thinky Corporation Cutler Brands The most awarded commercial screen printing company in the Southern Hemisphere, Cutler Brands, delivers printed bottles, screen & digital printing, and signage.

Cutler Brands recently supported Hoshizaki Lancer to manufacture the locally designed Cornucopia Tower drink dispenser that was exported and installed into over 100 New Zealand KFC stores over the Xmas period.

Cutler Brands assisted with the manufactured of the printed and vacuum formed front and end panels to strict specifications that pushed the vacuum forming process to the extreme and then lighting the panels with some eye catching LED’s to enhance the final product.

Working closely with customers at the design stage is becoming an important and integral part of the success of the final products as this allows all decorating options to be considered before final manufacturing is started.

Thinky Corporation, a leader in industrial mixing and deaeration, will showcase its Planetary Centrifugal mixer / deaerator that disperses materials uniformly and deaerates simultaneously.

Used by many in the plastics industry - especially when making plastic moulds - to remove air bubbles and mix at the same time, the unit can process various materials such as adhesive, silicon resin, epoxy resin, CNT, sealant material for LCDs. Quick processing, easy operation, high reproducibility, and the lack of mixing blades eliminate the need for cleaning the blades are some of the features.

Thinky is experienced in vacuum deaeration, emulsification, and nano pulverization.

MATERIAL VARIETY FOR CABLE CARRIER SYSTEMS Your application determines the material • Made from standard material or various special materials • Exactly matched to your respective application • Wide range from standard applications up to complex applications • Solutions for special requirements

TSUBAKI AUSTRALIA Pty. Limited Sydney: 02 9704 2500 · Melbourne: 03 9215 2888 · Brisbane: 07 3273 0600 · Perth: 08 6254 0000 · Email: sales@tsubaki.com.au · Web: www.tsubaki.com.au

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Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 45

NMW Preview 11-13 May 2016

Bilby3D Bilby 3D are your experts in 3D printers and scanners. Whether you are a school, design studio or manufacturer they have the experience in your industry to advise on the best technology and machine for your needs.

Bilby’s printers print in plastic filament, liquid resins or nylon powder, as well as metal and rubber elastomer blends and effects. They don’t just sell these machines: Bilby 3D use them in 3D printing and scanning service every day. This gives them

a unique perspective on which printer or scanner will best suit your needs.

They have a reputation for honesty, not only in reviews, but also their recommendations. If they don’t have a machine that fits your needs, they will advise where you can get one that will.

Bilby 3D stocks a wide range a of plastics, resins and consumables in their Sydney and Brisbane stores, from which they service and repair many models and makes.

Cryonomic Dry Ice Cleaning Dry ice cleaning is a significantly faster and more efficient method compared to any other cleaning system. It’s non-abrasive; there’s no wear to cleaned surfaces, which increases the life of moulds - ecological, economic and, because there’s no need for disassembly, delivers productivity increases.

Here’s what one dry ice client said: “Our injection machines are running 24/7 but some of the moulds must be cleaned every 48 hours to guarantee quality.

“In the past we have employed different methods including ultrasonic cleaning, grit blasting, solvents and cleaning with wire brushes. Cryonomic cleaning is by far the most effective and most profitable cleaning method.

“Now, one single person cleans their 10 main moulds whilst they are still hot and on the presses enabling more regular cleaning and eliminating extended downtime.”

In fact, this client reduced the company’s cleaning time by 80 per cent.

Multicam Systems See Multicam Systems’ live demonstration on Wednesday 11 May Australian made Multicam CNC routing machines are designed for profile cutting sheet product and extrusions including aluminium, and other non-ferrous metals, aluminium composite materials, plastics, insulation materials, foam, rubber, and timber products and laminates.

Multicam machines are an excellent alternative to plasma and laser machines and offer significantly reduced operating costs when compared to plasma and laser. With a range of specialist software solutions for insulation, ACM, cabinetmaking, shop fitting and kitchen industries to give you the most from your investment. Multicam CNC routers also integrate with industry standard software.

With offices in NSW, Victoria and Queensland Multicam machines are backed by a dedicated team of factory trained technicians ensuring that you get quick, reliable service when you need it.

46 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manmonthly.com.au

Pneutech Pneutech continues to expand its market offering to the plastics industry with new and innovative ideas to increase production rates whilst reducing overheads. This includes through the development of solutions with suppliers.

Pneutech now offers a huge range of drop in solutions for the PET stretch-blow industry such as improved spindle tips, compensation bars, oven spindle mandrills, transfer grippers and high pressure blow valves.

In addition, the use of MAC valves has proven to be the most reliable and efficient way of controlling blow fill machines in the market.

MAC valves continue to increase reliability, improve fill accuracy and reduce downtime in most areas of the blow fill process from mixing of syrups through to the capper. In addition they have developed similar innovative solutions for the thermoforming and continuous extrusion industries that continue to improve their customer’s profits.

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Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 47

InternetofTHINGS Graphene factory to put Aus at forefront of ‘Internet of Things’ Australia’s first graphene factory will open this year, and its owner believes it’s cracked the code for making the nanomaterial useful. Brent Balinski reports on the new Imagine Intelligent Materials plant at Geelong.

An artist’s representation of the plant.

It hasn’t been done before Though the Internet of Things has gotten a lot of people excited, we are nowhere near living in a world of things that communicate. Yet. “I say ‘the thing is a thing’,” said Dr Phil Aitchison, chief operating officer at Imagine Intelligent Materials, tapping a chair to highlight his example.

“It’s not a box of electronics. It’s not a fridge; it’s not a car. It’s a thing: it’s a table, it’s a chair, it’s a carpet fibre.”

Dr Aitchison co-founded the graphene technology company (formerly NanoCarbon), excited by the material’s potential to impact almost anything manufacturable.

Imagine IM has just announced that it will move from development to production, choosing Geelong as the site where it’ll take its next step.

It believes it’s found the killer app for exploiting graphene’s famous, but as-yet unrealised, potential: industrial textiles and fibres. Allow a structure to sense and report when it’s damaged or compromised and you’ll do wonders for the safety of bridges, tailings dams and more. You could also make any other “thing” smart, if this was needed.

This would also mean you’ll need a lot of graphene.

The company will set up its pilot plant - capacity roughly 10 tonnes a year - at the site of Austeng, with Austeng’s help.

Austeng has diversified away from supplying the auto industry in the late-1980s, and has worked on everything from renewable energy to cremation systems.

“We define our business as 48 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

really don’t know, because it hasn’t been done before,’ said George.

“The challenges are trying to guess - for want of a better word - how the material is going to behave and what sort of flexibility we need to build into the machine to cater for all the things that we don’t know about.”

Production of graphene for geotextiles is scheduled to ramp up briskly after the pilot phase. Cytomatirx estimates output to be two tonnes this year, then five to seven tonnes next year, 15 - 20 tonnes in 2018 and 50 - 100 tonnes in 2019.

Ross George, managing director, Austeng. engineering solutions or technology enabling,” managing director Ross George told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“So we get a lot of customers come to us with ideas or some technology and our business is to turn that into nuts and bolts and pipes and valves and wires and control systems, to take their idea and actually turn it into a manufacturing facility.”

Work in setting up a factory for Deakin University nanofibres spin-off Cytomatrix saw it highly recommended.

The new Cytomatrix factory involves taking a highly technical production method and industrialising it.

The engineering challenges are vast.

“There are no textbooks that we can go and read, there are no websites, or very few. Every time we turn around we say ‘I wonder what happens here’ and we look at each other and talk to Imagine and everyone goes ‘Hmm. We

Shifting to advanced manufacturing The presence of another high-technology manufacturer in Geelong is another step in the region’s journey from traditional to newer industries.

Its Ford factory will shut in October this year, and great efforts - in state and federal grants, university collaboration programs and elsewhere - have been spent to prepare the region for a post-heavy industry future.

“Alcoa’s gone and there are others under pressure - what it’s meant is that to maintain the employment and the economy we’ve had to diversify,” Rod Macdonald, Councillor at the City of Greater Geelong, told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“Obviously [graphene] is an industry that’s going from the laboratory into a commercial state - this pilot plant is the first commercial plant in Australia that I’m aware of and I think it’s terrific for Geelong to be at the

forefront of this technology.”

Macdonald, as with many others, believes graphene is an industry that holds great growth potential.

He also cites Austeng as a “a prime example” of what’s happening in Geelong.

“And they’re now finding out that their skills and the engineers they’ve got have been able to adapt and take on new projects,” said the Councillor.

“I’m pretty excited for Geelong, with the industry that’s emerging.”

Other initiatives to help the local industry adapt include a recently announced state government “ManuFutures” hub (there are currently few details available on how or when this will operate), the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund, and the state-of-the-art Carbon Nexus facility at Deakin University, Waurn Ponds.

Fit for purpose Graphene, which has been hailed as a “wonder material” since it was first created in 2004 by two University of Manchester Physicists, is produced in many places. (These two Russian gentlemen later claimed the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery.)

Just producing the atom-thin carbon layers is industrially meaningless, according to Imagine IM. In the way that “plastic” is a broad term that denotes many different types of materials with very different properties, “graphene” is a broad classification. The material needs to be manmonthly.com.au

functionalised for specific purposes or its impressive properties won’t be exploitable.

These properties include (in its purest form and at room temperature) being the most electrically conductive material known.

Making it at scale as well as functionalised to the point of usefulness have been chased by many, and have proven elusive. The facility at Austeng will be the first Australian graphene factory.

Getting to the point of manufacturing has required going “around the loop” many times, said Aitchison.

“We’ll change the textile to one that is more appropriate for the application we’re dealing with, and that requires different chemistry at our end,” he said of one instance with a customer.

“We go back and close the loop again and change our recipe, because we’re dealing with a slightly different material, and the properties of that material in interaction with our material are slightly different; go around the loop again. Any approval and

things need to be redone again.”

The company has found a recipe and an application coating geotextiles for a customer that it believes will be revolutionary, with both the partnership and initial field trials to be announced next month.

It’ll be hoping the concept is developed and can build on initial successes.

“We can produce materials which are sensors for temperature, pressure, strain, water sensing: very simple sensors, but used in a way where it becomes ubiquitous,” Dr Aitchison told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“It’s not an expensive widget that needs to be wired up to a modem. It’s not a complicated box of electronics.

There are no batteries, there’s nothing else. It’s now sensing everything, everywhere.

“Pressure sensors? Put it in carpet and you’ve now got a security system. You’ve now got golf swing monitoring. You’ve got yoga mats.

You’ve got - God knows - tree root detection. Are people sitting in

Vito Giorgio, product developer – composites, and Phil Aitchison, COO, Imagine IM. seats? Are people moving enough?”

The idea of simple, graphenebased sensors is the sweet spot for the nanomaterial, according to the company.

“Disruptive technology doesn’t need to be a standalone, brand new thing, whatever it is,” co-founder Chris Gilbey told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“There’s a huge amount of disruptive technology that is inherently

reliant upon a new infrastructure.”

IIM and others involved in the new factory will be hoping to add to the number of new, successful hightech manufacturing enterprises in Geelong, such as Waurn Ponds wheel maker Carbon Revolution.

The departure of old industries is always tough, but there’s hope with what the future may hold.

Not everyone will agree, but it’s been said that routine, lowvariability, large-volume production, heavy industry, like that seen at Ford Australia, is a poor match for the Australian economy. The opposite - very small, even to the point of being one atom-thick - could be where success lies.

“The manufacturing that Australia has got to move into, in my view, is the special, boutique, bespoke, probably low-volume, high-value-add, unique, smart space,” said George.

“And the graphene fits in with that, and obviously the machines that make the graphene fit in really well with that as well.”

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Manufacturers’ Monthly APRIL 2016 49

What’sNew

Brought to you by

Bulk fluid transfer EMCO Wheaton has released two new products, the EW Selector and the CombiCabinet, both designed to make the process of delivering bulk liquids safer, quicker and more effective.

With the selector and cabinet, operators no longer have to travel along the API envelope of the vehicle to operate the system, instead all the controls are at hand. Both products can be retrofitted onto tankers already in the field or provided as part of a new tanker system.

The EW Selector is installed directly above each loading or discharging adaptor, allowing the operator to quickly select the product to be delivered without the need to move away from

the tanker API envelope. It includes a compartment product grade selector which is able to indicate up to 10 different fluids.

The compact Combi-Cabinet is designed to remove the need for large additional control cabinets fitted upstream of the tanker. It centralises controls into one interface, maximising space and minimising weight. With all the connections consolidated in one place, this integrated system reduces the need for complicated pneumatics and overfill prevention system looms in separate locations, allowing ease of access and safer operation.

Emco Wheaton www.emcowheaton.com

Fluid sensors with fast switching status WENGLOR’S range of fluid sensors includes flow, pressure and temperature sensors that use a unique, patented measuring process enabling the product to be mounted regardless of position or flow direction.

The sensors come with intuitive operation, large seven-segment display and they also have a separate LED that allows for fast switching status.

The UniFlow flow sensors measure temperature and determine the speed of which media flow within closed systems. They are suitable for monitoring filling machines, cooling water control, monitoring cooling water in power generators and cooling of ship electronics.

The UniBar pressure sensors measure the relative pressure of any media in closed systems in the range of -1 to 600bar. They are suitable for monitoring processes, pressure in filling systems, filters and compressed air systems as well as determining

tank and silo fill levels, and pressure regulation of aggregates.

The UniTemp temperature sensors measure and monitor the temperature of liquids and gases ranging between 0 and 200°C. They can be used to monitor temperatures in brewing processes, monitor flow and return temperatures in solar thermal energy, regulate temperature in cheese production and measure temperature for tempering furnaces.

Treotham Automation 02 9907 1788 www.treotham.com.au

Advanced elemental analysis THERMO Fisher Scientific has launched the Thermo Scientific ARL easySpark analyser for secondary metal manufacturers to analyse a wide range of metals.

The benchtop optical emission spectrometry (OES) instrument features a multi-grating/CCD (charge-coupled device)-based optical system designed to deliver high spectral resolution and enhanced analytical performances.

It is easy to install, use and maintain; ideal for companies working in OES that require efficiency 50 APRIL 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

and productivity in metal and alloy production.

The instrument also analyses any solid metal sample from trace to percentage level and includes a spark generator that gives the chemical composition of samples.

It has minimal maintenance requirements and complies with quality standards of end users in the automobile and aviation industries.

ThermoFisher Scientific 02 1694 7222 www.thermoscientific.com

Relative humidity probe MITCHELL Instruments’ HygroSmart HS3 advanced interchangeable relative humidity and temperature probe is configurable by users, allowing maximum flexibility. It enables users to alter their RH and temperature measurements to monitor changes and developments in their process.

Users can set the zero/span range, output signals, and choose from five output parameters including dew point. Customers can order their probes fully configured or alter its settings with a PC via the application software.

The HygroSmart HS3 probe is designed for demanding industrial conditions, featuring a solid corrosionresistant body, 10 bar pressure sealing and an IP67 pressure rating. In addition, it has a 0.8%RH accuracy.

The probe also limits downtime by minimising maintenance due to the interchangeable sensor. When recalibration is due, the old HygroSmart HS3 sensor is simply exchanged for a newly calibrated one. Using the replaceable sensor ensures that the HygroSmart HS3 probe has a low life-time cost in comparison to fully disposable probes.

AMS Instrumentation & Calibration 03 9017 8225 www.ams-ic.com.au manmonthly.com.au

microScan3: A NEW GENERATION OF SAFETY LASER SCANNERS.

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31-Mar-16 11:48:14 AM

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BUSINESSES THAT INNOVATE ARE 60% MORE LIKELY TO INCREASE THEIR PROFITS. Australian Innovation System Report 2015.

The National Innovation and Science Agenda aims to encourage ideas and create opportunities for Australian businesses by: • providing new tax breaks to support businesses that take risks and innovate • encouraging businesses to work with researchers to create new products, processes and services.

Welcome to the Ideas Boom.

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#ideasboom

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