The federal government will spend $1.7 billion to acquire a new fleet of Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicles, signing a contract with Anduril Australia for delivery, maintenance and continued development over the next five years. According to a statement from defence minister Richard Marles and defence industry minister Pat Conroy on Wednesday, the fleet…
By Theresa Wolf and Andrea Willige Automation helped shape the First Industrial Revolution – and it continues to evolve in today’s Fourth. While automation has long been part of the manufacturing landscape, recent advances in artificial intelligence, vision systems and robotics hardware are enabling a new generation of more intelligent and adaptable machines. A new…
Following the launch of a new campaign by the Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance aiming to “challenge outdated stereotypes” attached to manufacturing, Professor Beth Webster and Dr Alexander Gosling focus on some common misconceptions about what drives competitiveness in the industry. It is a myth that manufacturing can only thrive in low wage environments. Much publicly-aired…
Manufacturing revenue figures are continuing to grow, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, outperforming a 13-industry aggregate for the month of July. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Monthly Business Turnover Indicator found an increase of 4.2 per cent for manufacturers compared to July 2024. The industry’s rate of growth for the year to July…
Additively manufactured heat exchanger specialist Conflux Technology has joined the Honeywell-led TheMa4HERA consortium, a project focussing on thermal management for hybrid-electric regional aircraft. According to a statement from Conflux this week, the clean aviation project TheMa4HERA (Thermal Management for Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft) aims to develop “advanced thermal management systems and architectures for next-generation hybrid-electric…
A startup is aiming to commercialise a desktop-sized device invented at University of Queensland and able to make the “workhorse chemical” hydrogen peroxide from water and air. According to a statement from UQ on Tuesday, its commercialisation vehicle Uniquest has licenced the device to Evimien Energy, which hopes to change production for an industrial chemical…
The Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance – one of the federally-appointed Jobs and Skills Councils (JSCs) – has launched a new campaign aiming to “challenge outdated stereotypes” attached to the industry. According to a statement from MISA on Tuesday, its Make It ManuFACTuring campaign hopes to communicate the possibility of a modern, “future-focused” career in the…
Researchers at University of Melbourne and Germany’s University of Stuttgart have developed a photonics-based method, which they say is able to detect nanoplastics as well as being “cheap, portable and powerful”. According to a statement from University of Melbourne on Tuesday, the invention offers hope for scalable monitoring of a type of pollution that can…
Counter-drone business DroneShield has reached another milestone, joining the ranks of the S&P/ASX 200 Index. According to a statement from the company on Monday morning, the inclusion in the index is effective prior to market open on September 22, and “marks DroneShield’s continued rise as a global defence technology leader”. It places the company as…
Cooperative investment in electricity transmission and generation infrastructure in the Pilbara could save the nation more than $30 billion over the next quarter-century, according to a new report commissioned by the federal government’s “green bank”, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The region contributes approximately 23 per cent of Australia’s industrial emissions, due to its heavy…