Property development and building products company Brickworks today reported it was emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with trading conditions strengthening in Australia, but remaining uncertain in the United States where the company makes bricks in the north-eastern states.
Australian explosives group Orica and Swedish equipment supplier Epiroc have combined to develop the world’s first semi-automated explosives delivery system for underground mining. Their new Avatel system (main picture and below) will remove people from the blasting face – the most dangerous place underground – providing a safer, more efficient and productive blasting environment when…
A new graphene technology Sparc Technologies Limited debuted on the stock market yesterday with its shares immediately rising by more than 50 per cent. The South Australian company, which has licenced graphene-based technologies from the University of Adelaide, rose quickly from its 20 cent listing price to 31 cents. The university, a cornerstone shareholder in…
A green hydrogen economy looks more likely to develop every day. Here Stan Thompson, Co-founder of the Mooresville Hydrail Initiative, compares the advent of hydrogen to that of electricity, and asks who will manufacture all the components, tools, test gear, safety apparatus and as yet unanticipated ancillary hardware needed for the new soft grid? While…
The federal government has announced $8 million in grants to 14 Australian businesses to support commercialisation. The latest Accelerating Commercialisation grants go to a range of manufacturing companies including Queensland firm Hypersonix, which will use its $952,575 to develop an Australian manufactured hydrogen fuelled scramjet engine, designed to put small satellites into low-level orbit. Scramjets…
Brisbane road safety systems manufacturer Arrowes has developed an automated cone truck which places and retrieves road cones from highways, reducing costs and the dangers faced by employees manually laying cones in high speed traffic. The Bendale company has completed and tested a prototype robotic truck (main picture, and below) and is in the production…
Comment by Peter Roberts Bed manufacturer A.H. Beard is an object lesson in clever marketing and manufacturing excellence that should be a wake up call for Australia’s broader manufacturing sector. Some years ago the company, one of three large local manufacturing firms that dominate the business of making beds, decided it would not go down…
Pharmaceutical developer Mesoblast has announced a breakthrough after more than a decade attempting to commercialise its lead drug – and it has taken the Covid-19 pandemic to make it happen. The company, which has operations in Australia, Singapore and the United States is awaiting a decision by the US Food and Drug Administration on the…
DevelopmentWA seeks interest in robotics and automation zone DevelopmentWA is seeking Expression of Interest (EOI) from businesses looking to be involved or have access to the test beds and future facilities of an automation and robotics precinct being developed at a site 40 kilometres north of Perth. The 51 hectare site, which is adjacent to…
Chemicals and explosives company Orica was hit hard by a slowdown in the mining sector through the Covid-19 pandemic, today announcing net profit after tax for the year to 30 September, down 31 per cent on the previous corresponding period. The Melbourne company revealed an underlying EBIT of $605 million, down nine per cent, as…
