Best of the week — the five most popular stories among @AuManufacturing’s readers

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading.

5) RAIL AGREEMENT TO MAKE SYSTEMS MORE INTEROPERABLE

The federal government and rail industry stakeholders have signed an agreement to standardise rail systems and bring Australia’s rail network into the 21st century.

The Australian and Victorian governments and the Australasian Railway Association on behalf of rail industry leaders signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to make rail more competitive and interoperable across Australia.

The agreement will see rail play a bigger role in the national economy while delivering more freight and passenger services, according to a statement from Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King.

4) $3.2 MILLION IN GRANTS AWARDED TO DEFENCE INDUSTRY SMES

The federal government has announced approximately $3.2 million in matched funding to six defence industry SMEs.

The grants came through two programs, Defence Global Competitiveness and Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority. 

According to industry minister Pat Conroy, the grants would help provide “the opportunity to deliver cutting-edge manufacturing and maintenance capabilities” to the Australian Defence Force for use at home and abroad.

3) MIGHTY WHITE: FINDING THE RIGHT MARKET FOR A SUPERMATERIAL

White Graphene makes a material described as analogous to regular graphene, with “two-dimensional” layers of hexagonally-arranged atoms, though is based on boron rather than carbon. 

Like their near-namesake, boron nitride nanosheets AKA white graphene come with a swag of potentially useful properties. 

According to White Graphene — a joint venture between PPK Group and Deakin University — their nanosheets are 138 times stronger than 304 grade steel, have a massive surface area, and have demonstrated big antibacterial, antifouling, wear resistance and other benefits at low loadings in coatings.    

2) FORTESCUE BREAKTHROUGH IN MAKING GREEN IRON MATCHES GFG ALLIANCE

Green technology company Fortescue Future Industries has claimed a major breakthrough in the production of green iron – a step towards manufacturing green steel – making it the second of two Australian companies which make such an ambitious claim, writes Peter Roberts.

The claim first surfaced in parent company Fortescue Metals Group’s FY23 half year results which said: “FFI achieved a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of green iron by successfully processing 150kg of iron ore to make metallic iron that could pave the way for the production of green iron at scale.”

In the half year FFI ramped up its R&D expenditure partly on green energy projects to US$160 million, a 75 percent rise on the previous corresponding period.

1) TOWARDS A BETTER AUKUS

SME business has taken a rather dim view to the long timelines associated with industry opportunities that could arise from the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the UK and the US. 

Here Paul van de Loo takes a jaundiced view, and presents an alternative industrial scenario.

And in case you missed our podcast…

In episode 54 we hear from White Graphene’s Lieuwke de Jong. WG was founded in 2020 to commercialise production technology developed at Deakin University for a promising 2D material, and is a nominee in our Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers list.

Picture: Osborne shipyard (credit Australian Naval Infrastructure)