The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) today announced up to $45 million in funding to the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) to extend operations of their cutting edge solar photovoltaic (PV) research to 2030. Delivered by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, ACAP includes research groups…
BAE Systems Australia has launched a national STEM outreach program that aims to inspire Year 4-6 students by giving them access to leading edge technologies in partnership with specialist Australian education technology company, Lumination. Named ‘Beacon’, the program will initially involve 15 schools in South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia and grow in…
@AuManufacturing’s social media discussion and networking group, the Australian Manufacturing Forum on Linkedin, has passed an important membership milestone. The Forum, Australia’s largest professional social media group of Australian manufacturers, passed 11,006 members this morning with the admission of 10 new members. The Forum has grown steadily since its founding in 2013, and 18 months…
Lighting manufacturer Pierlite has acquired the SenseAgent smart building technology portfolio from Brisbane industrial IoT developer Levaux for an undisclosed sum. Pierlite made the purchase together with parent company Signify to bolster the group’s Interact smart IoT ecosystem offering. SenseAgent is a smart building platform that promises to give owners and occupiers of buildings fine-grained…
Robotic integration companies Aerobotix and Automated Solutions Australia (ASA) today announced an international robotic automation partnership for the development, testing and manufacturing of hypersonic missiles. The partnership follows the 2021 signing of the AUKUS security pact between the US, UK and Australia which includes provisions for the allies to work together on hypersonic and counter-hypersonic…
Additive manufacturing technology company Titomic and production line builder Repkon Machine and Tool Industry and Trade Inc. have signed a formal joint venture to establish a gun barrel manufacturing facility. However disappointingly, the facility will not be built in Australia as originally announced. When first revealed in @AuManufacturing a year ago, the hybrid additive manufacturing,…
Elexon Electronics has invested nearly $4 million in new design, prototyping and manufacturing equipment with a focus on Industry 4.0 interconnectedness and automation. The initial procurement round of high-precision automated surface-mount technology (SMT) equipment allowed intelligent material handling, solder paste jetting, vacuum vapour phase soldering and X-Ray inspection. More recent procurement of intelligent production, inspection…
The Western Australian state government has launched a new prospectus promoting investment opportunities in the state’s growing battery and critical minerals industries. The prospectus, which has already been presented to potential investors in Germany by development minister Roger Cook, aims to build on the state’s minerals endowment and local companies’ increasing involvement in critical metals…
BlueScope steel has announced an ambitious exercise to plan for the reuse of potentially up to 200 hectates of land it occupies adjoining the Port Kembla steelworks. CEO Mark Vasella announced the appointment of ‘world-leading architects and urban designers’, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to develop a Master Plan for the company’s excess landholdings. Vasella described…
Graphene technology company Sparc Technologies has developed a commercial manufacturing process for the production of graphene based additive products, and will begin manufacture. The company has identified, trailed and ordered specialised graphene based additive manufacturing equipment and has located a manufacturing site. Sparc managing director Mike Bartels said: “Our path to commercialisation is now clear…
