Brent is a co-founder and editor of @AuManufacturing.

From data to decisions — three game changers explain how to get there

Nowadays manufacturers are, with few exceptions, in the data and analytics game. Data improves their own and their customers’ operations.  Three high-tech Australian startups provide extreme examples. Each is solving a very different problem — quality assurance and control issues in additive manufacturing, the need for robots to grip objects better, and finding the best…

Green hydrogen – steelmaking silver bullet or red herring?

By Brent Balinski Hearing Bob Dylan sing Hurricane for the first time. Stumbling across the TV series Fleabag. Andrew Forrest’s recent announcement that he will build a factory in central Queensland, with capacity to make 2 gigawatts of hydrogen electrolysers a year. Geoff Brooks, Director of Research at Swinburne University’s School of Engineering, insists he…

H2X selects Gippsland for hydrogen vehicle retrofits, aims to make its own vehicles in 2023

By Brent Balinski After initial plans to begin manufacturing vehicles at Port Kembla, NSW, hydrogen fuel cell hopeful H2X Global announced Gippsland as the home of its assembly operation on Wednesday. NSW hydrogen bus trials didn’t pan out as hoped and the company’s activities slowed in the state, H2X’s CEO and founder Brendan Norman explains.…

Winning scaleup businesses named at Australian Technologies Competition 2021

Winners at the 11th annual Australian Technologies Competition were named on Tuesday evening at a virtual event hosted in Melbourne. The 11 category winners were selected after a two-day competition (see below list) with the final stage a pitching contest.  Textile recycling company BlockTexx (which made the final cut in the Advanced Manufacturing and Circular…

SMEs need a hand finding the front door of public R&D facilities: STA

By Brent Balinski Industry brokers to link smaller companies with Australian research infrastructure are a way to boost local manufacturing, according to Science and Technology Australia. The peak body, representing over 80,000 of the country’s scientific and technology workers, made the recommendation to the Senate’s manufacturing industry inquiry, which is due to report next month.…