Australia’s leading machine tool manufacturer ANCA is to develop a novel hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing platform to manufacture Tungsten custom designed cutting tools.
The new line of machines (pictured), being developed with CSIRO, Sutton Tools and the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC), has the potential to disrupt the global Tungsten cutting tool market.
Successful completion of the project will allow ANCA to commercialise the new hybrid additive manufacturing machine platform while growing its workforce, revenue and fulfilling a gap in the global tooling market.
ANCA and CSIRO have demonstrated in a six-month pilot that the Tungsten-carbide tools could be made cheaper through improved production efficiencies compared to traditional Tungsten products.
The pilot was funded by the Victorian Government’s Boost Your Business voucher scheme.
ANCA is Australia’s most successful machine tool maker, and a global tier 1 supplier of CNC tool and cutter grinders to companies such as Airbus, Boeing, Renishaw and Fraisa.
ANCA’s Research and Technology Manager Dean McBain said: “Such a complex project and process wouldn’t be possible without the support of trusted partners such as CSIRO, Sutton Tools and AMGC.
“We rely on working with organisations like CSIRO who have the laboratory, equipment and knowledge that we do not have.
“Sutton Tools are also hugely important as they provide practical input from the end-user perspective.”
McBain said collaborating with others is vital.
Managing Director of AMGC, Jens Goennemann said that ANCA’s successful pilot is a great example of collaboration and technology combining to solve a complex problem.
Goennemann said: “ANCA’s project is a perfect example of how collaboration can find solutions to complex issues.
“In this instance the collaboration of two leading Australian companies and the country’s preeminent research institution to deliver an innovative solution to a multi-billion dollar global market”.
CSIRO project leader, Dayalan Gunasegaram, said: “We’re looking forward to continuing to work with ANCA to refine and develop their additive manufacturing platform for new tungsten carbide tools, given the value that this could create for Australian manufacturing.”
Images: ANCA/ANCA’s new hybrid manufacturing platform
Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.