Hope for Immuron anti-diarrhoea vaccine

Biotechnology company Immuron has announced positive results for its anti-diarrhoea vaccine in targeting the main bacteria responsible for sickness that besets international travellers and personnel stationed overseas such as the military. The United States Naval Research Centre (NMRC) has completed analysis of cows vaccinated against Campylobacter and Entereotoxigenic Escherichia coli, noting a ‘robust immune response’.…

Altech Chemicals raises cash, moves to develop battery anode material

Altech Chemicals is deepening its involvement in the battery metals business, announcing a collaboration agreement with a leading silicon metal producer to develop a high capacity, long cycle life silicon battery anode material. At the same time Altech launched a $14.5 million partially underwritten pro-rata share entitlement offer. Major shareholders have taken up or underwritten…

Pharma group Probiotec buys Multipack packaging operation

Prescription and over the counter pharmaceuticals manufacturer Probiotec has purchased co-packing services provider Multipack-LJM, positioning itself as one of the country’s largest contract manufacturing and product packing businesses. Probiotec is paying $52.5 million for Multipack, which provides an extensive range of co-packing services for food and beverage, personal care and household and pharmaceutical companies. The…

Working smarter with data – digital transformation in a traditional SME manufacturer

@AuManufacturing‘s editorial series, ‘Working smarter with data‘, continues today with a look at digital implementation at 94-year old company Everhard Industries. Here Peter Roberts talks to IT leader Steve Dobe who made the transformation happen. It is hard to imagine a more traditional business than Geebung, Queensland’s Everhard Industries. From its roots in the 1920s…

Amaero international, PPK and Deakin collaborate to develop super alloys

Advanced materials group PPK, additive manufacturing technology company Amaero International and Deakin University have joined forces to develop new, super strong aluminium alloys. The three have established a joint venture research company, Strategic Alloys Pty Ltd, to formulate the new alloys which will be reinforced by boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) which act as a nano-reinforcement…

Rowlands buys AML3D robotic additive manufacturing module

Sheet metal fabricator Rowlands Metalworks has become the second company to purchase an AML3D 3D Arcemy Robotic Welding Cell. The purchase, which gives important third party validation to AML3D’s 3D Wire Additive Manufacturing technologies, will boost Rowlands’ move into higher value defence and agricultural technology products. AML3D delivered the first Arcemy 3D printer to aerospace…

CSL begins Covid vaccine manufacture in Melbourne today

CSL will begin manufacturing the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca AZD1222 Covid-19 vaccine candidate at its advanced manufacturing facility in Broadmeadows in northern Melbourne today. The high-tech biotechnology plant (pictured) is contracted to AstraZeneca and the Australian Government to manufacture approximately 30 million doses of the AZD1222 vaccine candidate. In a statement the company said first doses…

Working smarter with data – leadership and skills for digitisation by Richard Jenkins and Kerrie Clarke

@AuManufacturing‘s editorial series, ‘Working smarter with data‘, continues today with insight into the skills leaders, companies, and Australia needs to develop. Here manufacturing skills specialists Richard Jenkins and Kerrie Clarke suggest a wider lens for SMEs and their leaders and managers when looking to embrace new digital technologies. COVID-19 has pushed enterprises to pivot, reinvent,…