Gippsland, Victoria based DefendTex will use $3 million in Cooperative Research Centre Program funding announced last week to scale up its successful demonstration 3D printing of small-scale rocket motors. The demonstration, funded by an earlier CRC grant, will be scaled in a three year project to produce Australia’s first 3D printed rocket boosters in modular…
By Peter Roberts In a world where sporting goods manufacturing has deserted developed countries in favour of low cost locations there is one company that has managed not only to survive, but dominate the sports with which its name is synonymous. Everyone who has ever wielded a cricket bat knows the superior quality of Kookaburra’s…
NSW defence innovation boost The NSW government will invest $1.9 million to support the Defence Innovation Network to fund seed and pilot projects to create a collaborative research environment and develop hi-tech solutions for Defence. DIN announced four new pilot projects and two to receive $50,000 seed funding in an initial program costing $700,000. Projects…
Orbital Corporation has delivered its second unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) engine in a development program for a Singapore defence industry customer. The company, which manufactures UAV engines for Boeing offshoot Insitu, is designing, developing and providing initial low-rate manufacturing of multi-fuel engines with the first units destined for system evaluation and customer acceptance trials. Orbital…
Monash University in Melbourne has been revealed as the first in Australia to manufacture a mRNA technology Covid-19 vaccine candidate. The candidate, developed by the University, will be made at a new node of its Parkville laboratory to be located at Clayton, with the expansion made possible by of a $13.8 million grant from the…
Matrix Composites moves to loss in Covid year Underwater systems composite manufacturer Matrix Composites & Engineering has plunged to an EBITDA loss of $4.4 million in FY 21 as disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic slashed sales to $17.6 million compared to the previous year’s $27.4 million. However the company reported final quarter revenue of $6…
Australian Vanadium (AVL )will receive this month three vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) from its Singapore partner as it advances plans to manufacture vanadium electrolytes and VRFB’s in Western Australia. The batteries from V-Flow Tech destined for WA customers have been sold by AVL’s subsidiary VSUN Energy, which is leading the company’s push into vanadium…
Australia and New Zealand dairy manufacturer Keytone Dairy Corporation has announced the completion of a $2.5 million expansion of its state of the art snacking and bar product manufacturing plant in Prestons, Sydney. The upgrade of the plant followed the acquisition of AusConfec’s assets, and will produce multi-layered protein bars, cereal bars and fitness bars,…
Comment by Peter Roberts The first efforts to lift Australia’s chronically low rate of industrial R&D came in the 1980s and 1990s as manufacturing protection was wound back by the Hawke government revealing a generally low-technology sector that preferred to copy others’ ideas rather than develop ones of their own. The original support for research…
Sixteen South Australian wine producers will be supported to grow their businesses by entering into the US market through Wine Australia’s US Market Entry Program. Supported by the state Department for Trade and Investment, the program gives smaller wineries a chance to replace lost exports to China with another growing market for Australian wine. China’s…
