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

Curious about what people were most interested in during the week just finished? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading.

SIEMENS, APPLIED EV ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION ON PLM SOFTWARE

Siemens and Applied EV have announced a partnership, with the Melbourne-headquartered EV company to use Siemens’ product lifecycle management (PLM) software to support the design, quality assurance and assembly of autonomous vehicles.

The announcement on Wednesday follows news of Applied EV’s recent success testing a self-driving cabinless commercial vehicle on European streets, and an investment from Suzuki Motors.

According to Julian Broadbent, co-founder and CEO of Applied EV, Siemens’ software was helping them meet a growing demand for fully autonomous vehicles through better change management and quality.

$43 MILLION KOMBUCHA MANUFACTURING CENTRE FOR DANDENONG

The Victorian government is backing construction of a $43 million, state-of-the-art kombucha manufacturing centre in Dandenong, south east Melbourne.

Remedy Drinks has combined all its operations, including research and development, manufacturing, warehousing and distribution into the new 18,000 square metre site – the same size as the MCG.

Managing Director of Remedy Drinks Chris Gillard said: “The new Remedy Fermentary in Dandenong will allow us to deliver on significant increases in demand as well as provide opportunities for ongoing innovation, delivering better beverages across all drink categories.”

LAND FORCES 2022 — COLD SPRAY AM CONTINUES TO PROGRESS ALONGSIDE DEFENCE

Satellite radiation shielding. Gun barrel manufacturing. Ballistic protection. Pressure vessels.

To speak to Dominic Parsonson, Head of Sales at Titomic, is to hear a person discernibly excited about the potential – only a tiny, tiny fraction of it realised so far – of what their company’s technology offers.

He is quick to acknowledge that cold spray additive manufacturing isn’t exactly new, as anybody who is introduced to it quickly learns. But it’s taken two Australian companies to bring it beyond coating and repair applications. (The defence sector in the US was an early adopter of cold spray repairs, for helicopter gearbox housings.)

LAND FORCES 2022 – SMES SUFFER AS DEFENCE CONTRACTS DELAYED, BY MICHAEL SLATTERY

On the first morning of LandForces 2022 the new federal government announced that it was deferring the Land 400 Ph3 programme.

This was not unexpected but it did remind defence industry once again of the time, money and risk assigned to working in the defence sector.

Many companies within the sector are considering their future, their human capital resources and where to invest – many have already invested millions, particularly since 2016 and the proposed revival of continuous naval shipbuilding.

LAND FORCES 2022 – AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY AND THE GROWTH AND ROLE OF AUTONOMY

From Ukraine to the Middle East, autonomous land and aerial systems have long played a role on the battlefield, with surveillance and combat drones increasingly effective in multiplying the effectiveness of human-based systems.

But there are many levels of autonomy from crude systems that are barely able to function without some human intervention to those capable of carrying out complex tasks, including in defence, using only onboard hardware and software systems.

According to Michael Crump, BAE Principal Technologist Autonomous Systems: “There is always debate about whether it is autonomy if it is a remote controlled vehicle – is it autonomous?