BOC opens second Australian Application Technology Centre

Industrial gases specialist BOC has officially opened its second Application Technology Centre in Australia, with federal assistant manufacturing and trade minister Tim Ayres cutting the ribbon at a new site in south-west Sydney on Wednesday,

According to a statement from BOC, part of the Linde group, the facility is world-class as “will showcase state-of-the-art welding processes and equipment to customers, industry and educators” with a focus on industry 4.0 technologies.

The facility demonstrates the use of collaborative robots for semi-automated welding, which have relevance in a local environment that is badly short of trained welders. According to Weld Australia, the nation is on track to be short of 70,000 welders by 2030.

The new BOC site possesses gas and metal fabrication specialists, according to the company, “able to give face-to-face or virtual demonstrations” customers throughout Australia.

“It is critical that businesses continue to invest in research and development to ensure they can remain globally competitive and create the high-value, high-wage and high-tech jobs of the future,” said Ayres (on the right in the main picture.)

Managing Director of BOC South Pacific, John Evans (pictured left), said the new facility would allow BOC to demonstrate productivity improvements and share innovation from global R&D centres in Munich, Shanghai and New York.

“We have partnered with leading manufacturing OEMs to take our automation and industry 4.0 solutions to the next level,” he said.

“The Application Technology Centre provides an interactive, technology-ready space for customers and industry to solve challenges and learn how smart welding processes and equipment can improve quality, productivity and safety.

“Our gas and metal fabrication specialists can use the facility to replicate key challenges in Australian factories, and recommend solutions that can achieve productivity improvements. In some cases, this can be a simple welding gas or wire change, or automating parts of a welding process to solve labour challenges or using data to make more informed business choices.”

Evans said BOC has had a presence in Western Sydney for over 30 years and had invested over $130 million “in many facilities, including our Sydney Operations Centre, BOC’s busiest production site processing in excess of 1.3 million cylinders each year.”

BOC’s other Australian Application Technology Centre is in Rocklea, Queensland.

Pictures: supplied