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A Message From Bruce Grey
Manufacturing is currently generating lots of media coverage. This is important as the community needs to become engaged in the debate and to participate in deciding what type of economic mix Australia has in the future.
We have seen the past Prime Minister Paul Keating highlighting that Australia needs a message and a strategy for future economic development. Meanwhile Lindsay Fox has warned that the eastern states are gradually becoming a “rust-bucket” as traditional manufacturing gets reamed out by the strong dollar.
What is clear to all the participants in the AMCRC is that Australia’s high-tech sectors will drive the future of Australian-based manufacturing. Furthermore they see innovation in products and processes as more valuable to the long-term competitiveness of Australian manufacturing than cost-cutting. |
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Dr Roy Green, Dean of the Business School at the University of Technology Sydney makes some excellent points in his assessment of Australia’s manufacturing industry at the government’s Future Jobs Forum, but he misses the main one: he completely ignores the need for Australian SMEs to develop an intellectual property culture. In a global market, Australian manufacturers need to incorporate intellectual property as part of their business model. The lack of R&D spending and innovation is one reason why Australian manufacturing struggles and why jobs are being lost.
Writing in the Australian Financial Review on October 6, Green makes the good point that the mining boom has devastated manufacturers, partly because of the exchange rate appreciation but also because there are limited opportunities for downstream processing and supply chain access. Recruitment by mining companies also contributes to a skills shortage.
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A successful partnership: Tasweld Engineering Pty Ltd and CSIRO |
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Founded in Warrnambool Victoria, Tasweld Engineering is on the cusp of making history and creating new markets with its revolutionary RAM, or Rotated Arc Mixer which the SME developed in collaboration with the CSIRO. Tasweld has been working on this with the CSIRO for four and a half years now.
The RAM is an industrial mixer with the ability to mix thick viscous fluids such as paints, foods, cosmetics or explosives, the only one of its kind in the world. Conventional mixing technologies, such as static mixers, can clog and develop material build-up. This can result in production downtimes. But the RAM, which works with two cylinders, one inside the other, mixes materials without clogging or destroying ingredients.
It has been commercialised by Tasweld with the financial and management assistance provided by the Advanced Manufacturing Co-operative Research Centre and the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing.
Under the licensing agreement with the CSIRO, Tasweld will use the RAM to target the food industry which covers a wide variety of sectors, from dairy to confectionary to pet food. The processed food and beverage industry is Australia’s largest manufacturing industry and growth in the value of output has averaged around 2 per cent a year over the past ten years.
The RAM uses 60 to 90 per cent less energy than conventional devices while at the same time, potentially producing a better product.
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PhD introduction: Wen Li |
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Tracking the energy and eco-efficiency of manufacturing production is a major challenge. Companies now can only track their energy efficiency after the work is done. They measure it retrospectively.
Wen Li, a PhD candidate & researcher who is part of the Life Cycle Engineering & Management Research Group at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at University of New South Wales, is now, with the backing of the AMCRC, developing models that would allow businesses to predict energy consumption.
For manufacturers, reducing the impact of their operations is a key part of eco-efficiency and could be integrated into their strategy. But manufacturers will struggle to achieve it if they cannot predict it.
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AMCRC Student Prize: Katia Bazaka, JCU |
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The Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre Limited (AMCRC) is pleased to announce that Katia Bazaka has won its inaugural AMCRC Student Prize for James Cook University students.
The winning Proposal is in the medical technology area and is entitled, “Enabling polymer technologies from Australian Natural Resources,” The prize is valued at $5000.
“The aim of the award was to encourage students to develop a medical project that will reflect a very high level of innovative thinking and aptitude in advanced technology,” said Bruce Grey, Managing Director of AMCRC. “Katia Bazaka proposes to look at the role biomaterials can play in disease management and the advancement of health care – a key area of research given our ageing population.”
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AMCRC Student Prize: RMIT announced |
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The Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre Limited (AMCRC), announced its “Advanced Manufacturing CRC Student Prize 2011” on Wednesday 28 September 2011, for RMIT University students.
The Student Prize is a new competition award designed to encourage students to develop medical technology that will reflect a very high level of innovative thinking in advanced technology.
The competition is for the best overall proposal of a medical/health technology project judged to be worthy of funding by the AMCRC. An element of manufacturing or the creation of intellectual property suitable for eventual manufacture must be a project feature.
“We are committed to encouraging high quality research and innovative thinking with our partner research institutions,” said Bruce Grey Managing Director of AMCRC. “We will offer the $5,000.00 student prize to individual students or teams of RMIT University. In the latter case, the cash value of the prize will be awarded to the nominated principal of the team.”
Professor Daine Alcorn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation and Vice-President RMIT University said the launch of the AMCRC RMIT University Student Award reflected the positive partnership between the two organizations and their shared support for the development of manufacturing technologies in the medical sector.
“In terms of the importance of Advanced Manufacturing to the national economy, it is vital to instill the importance of innovation into our students,” said Professor Alcorn. “RMIT is very supportive of the AMCRC prize.”
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To read the full article, please click here |
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Innovation opens new frontiers for SMEs through INNOVATIVITY courses
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Innovation is a skill not a talent – and can be learned according to the Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre Limited (AMCRC).
Its popular ‘Innovativity’ course is now being extended to other States with the Brisbane course launching on 8 November 2011 (and 9, 23 and 24 November).
The Sydney course will run during February 2012.
According to Innovation Agent, Dr Steven Trpkovski there are significant benefits for businesses who can understand how to identify and exploit the technology potential of an enterprise and this is a key focus of the Innovativity course.
“The cost of NOT innovating can be huge, just look at the predicament Kodak is currently facing,” said Dr Trpkovski “Through this course, we give organizations of all sizes and at any stage of maturity the tools they need to identify and maximize innovation.”
He said AMCRC’s Innovativity course shows businesses how to align their intellectual property development with their strategy.
“It sounds obvious, but many businesses simply don’t grasp it – or know how to exploit their intellectual property,” said Dr Trpkovski.
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AMCRC announces new “smart grid” solar project
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A joint venture between the power technology company MIL-Systems Pty Ltd and RMIT University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering has resulted in an exciting new next-generation solar PV inverter.
L–R: Geoff Lowe (Director, MIL-Systems Pty Ltd), Professor Daine Alcorn (Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation and Vice-President, RMIT University) and Dr David Charles (Chairman, Advanced Manufacturing CRC), RMIT University & MIL-Systems contract signing, RMIT University Melbourne VIC
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Social Album |
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- L–R: Dr Geoffrey Vaughan AO (Independent Director, Advanced Manufacturing CRC) and Associate Professor Kirsten Heimann (Director of North Queensland Algal Identification / Culturing Facility, James Cook University) James Cook University Algal Facility Townsville QLD
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Back L–R: Professor Xinghuo Yu (Director, Platform Technologies Research Institute, RMIT University), Trevor Tappenden (Independent Director, Advanced Manufacturing CRC), Dr Geoffrey Vaughan AO (Independent Director, Advanced Manufacturing CRC), Professor Daine Alcorn (Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation and Vice-President, RMIT University), Bruce Grey (Managing Director, Advanced Manufacturing CRC), Andrew McLellan (Commercialisation Manager, Advanced Manufacturing CRC), Professor Grahame Holmes (Innovation Professor, RMIT University) and Kevin Smith (Managing Director, MIL-Systems Pty Ltd).
Front L–R: Dr David Charles (Chairman, Advanced Manufacturing CRC) and Geoff Lowe (Director, MIL-Systems Pty Ltd)
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