Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

New Ford Mustang uses Carbon Rev weels

One-piece carbon fibre wheel maker Carbon Revolution announced on Friday that its wheels feature on the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse (pictured), its fourth program with  Ford Motor Company. The five-spoke, 19-inch wheels will be optional on the Dark Horse, said Carbon Revolution, and reduce unsprung, rotational mass by 37 per cent versus the aluminium wheels offered. Among firsts, the company added, it’s the first time it supplied a core vehicle program at Ford – previous programs have been limited to Ford Performance Shelby Mustang variants and the Ford GT — which allows wider adoption of its lightweight wheels. “This will also be the first Carbon Revolution wheel available on a Ford right-hand drive (RHD) platform, enabling wider global exposure of the Company’s wheel technology,” it said. The Dark Horse will be available “in key RHD Mustang markets, including Australia, the UK and Japan.”

Event to unleash the Power of AUKUS

The AUKUS Forum in collaboration with UTS is inviting attendees to a February 23 event highlighting new opportunities opening up through the Australia, UK and US technology and industry development agreement. The nuclear powered submarine project with AUKUS thrusts Australia into a whole new world where innovation and technology rule, according to the event organisers. “AUKUS will be much more than nuclear submarines and the opportunities will expand into infrastructure and energy too,” they state. “AUKUS is already expanding from nuclear with particular emphasis on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and more.” Sydney event details are here.

CleanSpace gets distributorship in North America markets

Advanced respirator manufacturer CleanSpace Holdings has been awarded three healthcare distribution contracts in the North American market. The company, which manufactures ClranSpace Respirators that deliver pure, filtered air to medical practitioners and in industrial settings, won deals with Group Purchasing Organisations and a medical equipment distributor, Medline Industries. CleanSpace CEO Graham McLean said: “We are excited by the opportunity to work with these well established and highly credentialed GPO, and are looking forward to expanding our business with these hospital groups to provide premium respiratory protection in this market.” CleanSpace’s Halo powered air purifying respirator (PAPR) is based on patented AirSensit technology and delivers cool, filtered air on demand for up to nine hours to a transparent mask.

ADN facility cleared for infant formula exports

The federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has given export certification to the Australian Dairy Nutritionals Group milk processing factory at Camperdown in Victoria. The plant can now export infant formula and other dried milk and milk powder products, subject to local requirements in export destinations. The company named its Ocean Road Dairies Organic A2 protein infant formula as eligible for export through the Chinese cross-border e-commerce channel, as well as other key markets. AHF representatives attended major trade shows in Asia in the last quarter of 2022, where there was strong interest in the organic A2 range.

XXXX goes 100 per cent renewable energy

XXXX will be brewed using 100 per cent renewable electricity, the Queensland government announced on Friday, after an agreement to power the brewery at Milton with electricity from the Woolooga Solar Farm. XXXX Brewery, through its owner Lion, signed a new Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to procure 100 per cent renewable electricity from the Lightsource bp solar farm in Woolooga, QLD. “With the PPA in place, Lion has reached their target of 100% purchased renewable electricity by 2025 in Australia, two years ahead of schedule,” Deputy premier Steven Miles And they’re Australia’s first large scale carbon neutral brewer.” Lion Sustainability Director Justin Merrell said in 2020 Lion became Australia’s first certified large-scale carbon neutral brewer. “The 144-year-old XXXX brewery at Milton is one of Brisbane’s most historic landmarks, but this latest evolution to 100 percent renewable electricity proves this icon of Australian brewing, is still capable of moving with the times,” he added.

Jevons Robotics signs MoU with ABD

Jevons Robotics has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ABD Solutions to integrate their Indigo Drive autonomy and communications software, hardware, and support solution on Jevons’ industrial electric vehicles. These vehicles will be operated automatically and supervised from a central control room, improving safety and streamlining the mining process, according to Jevons. “We are focused on changing the way the world currently works in hazardous environments,” said said Todd Peate, CEO of Jevons. “We are working with several mining companies to deploy payload agnostic driverless Electric Vehicles to operate safely, efficiently and sustainably within hazardous working environments.” According to the statement, Indigo Drive enables site operations to become more efficient and safer by limiting employee exposure to extreme, dangerous and often unpredictable environments, and is a cyber secure and certified system suitable for harsh operating environments.

Picture: credit Carbon Revolution