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) PURE HYDROGEN TO REVEAL HYDROGEN POWERED PRIME MOVER

Hydrogen, gas and mobility business Pure Hydrogen will reveal Australia’s first hydrogen-powered prime mover (pictured) at the Brisbane Truck Show on 18 May this year.

The company’s ‘Taurus’ truck follows the release of the company’s hydrogen powered waste and cement trucks, and will go on trial with PepsiCo after the show.

Taurus is an Australian designed 229kW 6×4 prime mover with a hydrogen refuelling point, low voltage power system and ‘luxurious cabin interiors’.

4) HYPERSONIX TO “GET OUR FIRST RIDE FROM ROCKET LAB”

Hypersonix has selected Rocket Lab USA as its partner for the maiden launch of the DART AE craft, as part of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) HyCAT program.

According to a statement from Hypersonix, made during the Colorado Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Rocket Lab’s Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket “will safely bring DART AE to its initial operating speed, allowing DART AE to demonstrate its non-ballistic flight patterns, acceleration, flexible engine burns and up to 1000 km range, and collect valuable flight data from its journey at hypersonic speed.”

DART AE’s scramjet engine needs to reach Mach 5 speed in order to self-ignite. “Once flying at this speed, the oxygen-breathing and hydrogen-fuelled engine, manufactured out of high temperature alloys, is capable of accelerating to speeds of up to Mach 7,” according to the statement.

3) BEVERAGE COMPANIES DITCH THEIR OPPOSITION AND SUPPORT CONTAINER DEPOSIT SCHEME

Leading beverage manufacturers have now put their past, vigorous opposition to container deposit schemes behind them and have strongly backed the new CDS Vic scheme announced by the state government last week, writes Peter Roberts.

Lion, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Asahi Beverages, all members of not for profit group VicReturn which has been appointed as Scheme Co-ordinator, issued statements welcoming the scheme and extolling their actions to date.

Group CEO Asahi Beverages Robert Iervasi said the maker of Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Schweppes, Pepsi Max, Solo and Cool Ridge water was that its beverage containers would now be recycled and play a part in the circular economy.

2) OUR SEARCH FOR AUSTRALIA’S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES – HOW PPK WENT FROM MINING TO CUTTING EDGE MANUFACTURING

@AuManufacturing is searching for Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers, and today we feature our latest nominee for recognition, technology investment powerhouse PPK Group. Here, Peter Roberts interviews co-founder and Executive Chairman, Robin Levison.

Want to join @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here.

1) NEW UQ THIN-FILM SENSOR SETS THE GOLD STANDARD

A thin, flexible gold sensor engineered at The University of Queensland (UQ) has the potential to unlock the next generation of implantable medical devices.

Researchers at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) have produced a small film-like sensor that is both flexible and sensitive enough to enable more streamlined electronic medical implants.

The intricate approach used by Dr Mostafa Kamal Masud and PhD candidate Aditya Ashok (pictured) represents a breakthrough in the field of flexible nanoarchitecture and, ultimately, suggests a new way to miniaturise and improve medical devices for diagnostics, biological sensing, and neurological exploration, according to UQ.

And in case you missed our podcast…

In episode 57 of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, Ian Lowrey from Wireman — another nominee for our Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers list — tells us about trying to contribute simple though meaningful innovations to the fencing industry, a place where a lot of products “haven’t really been looked at in any great detail for well over 100 years.”

Picture: credit University of Queensland