Today in Leadership in factory automation, Sercan Altun looks at the importance of data in the current industrial era, as well as the increasingly prominent role of mobile robotics.
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Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and AGL Energy (AGL) will undertake a feasibility study to repurpose infrastructure at the Hunter Valley’s Liddell and Bayswater coal-fired power stations to generate green hydrogen from water, using renewable energy. The companies said the announcement reinforced Australia’s potential to become a global green hydrogen superpower, in the process creating jobs…
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Agribusiness FMC Corporation and CSIRO-backed start up RapidAIM are to deploy internet of things sensing to monitor insect pests on Australian farms. The companies will deploy RapidAID’s digital surveillance system linked to FMC analytics in orchards in the Shepparton region of Victoria. While RapidAIM has focused initially on fruit fly, the collaboration aims ultimately to…
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ASX-listed medtech company Compumedics will reshore production of its Somfit device after a decade, leading to 33 new jobs, according to the Victorian government.
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Today in our editorial series, Leadership in factory automation, we turn to a dynamic Queensland contract manufacturer that is automating the production of lead acid battery components. Here Peter Roberts profiles the Evolve Group. Like most busy contract plastics manufacturing firms, Brisbane’s Evolve Group has had to get very good at flexibility. Switching from one…
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Perth mining equipment business Austin Engineering has signed an equipment supply and maintenance deal covering all of miner Rio Tinto’s global operations. The company will supply dump bodies, lightweight trays for ore trucks, heavy machinery buckets, water bodies and other fabricated products from its facilities in Australia, Indonesia and North and South America. Austin will…
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Fast-growing modular solar energy system provider 5B will acquire its manufacturing partner, Adelaide-based IXL Solar.
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Grant applications opened on Tuesday for Stage 1 of the Trailblazer program, which will select as many as two consortia and provide up to $4 million in funding for development of a lunar rover.
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Today Leadership in factory automation looks at the potential of collaborative robots as a low-cost, more flexible and safer alternative to traditional factory robots. By Professor Jonathan Roberts. Manufacturing in Australia is dominated by small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Many of these businesses are not in a position to adopt mass production manufacturing methods due…
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A $25 million facility focussed on additive manufacturing R&D by companies and researchers, and located at University of Sydney’s Darlington campus, was officially opened on Monday. The Sydney Manufacturing Hub would enable “concept-to-production demonstration capabilities” for faculty and students, as well as private businesses. It hosts equipment and software for design and topological optimisation of…
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