Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

FYI Resources begins high purity alumina production

FYI Resources and its partner Alcoa has begun an extended production run at its pilot plant facility of high purity alumina (HPA) to be tested by potential customers. HPA, which is used in battery manufacture and in synthetic sapphire to manufacture substrates for LED lights and semiconductor wafers, expects to dispatch samples to customers in June. The company told investors that it had completed calcining testwork to optimise its flowsheet design. In August FYI appointed Hatch Engineering as engineering services provider for its full scale scale production plant development planned for Kwinana south of Perth.

1414 Degrees holds name that silicon competition

Silicon-based latent heat thermal energy storage company 1414 Degrees has begun a competition to give a name which can be trademarked to its 14D BRICK – a high energy density brick made of the company’s silicon storage media. 14D BRICK is the temporary and internal name given to the brick what turns intermittent renewable electricity into reliable, carbon-free heat. According to 1414 Degrees: “The 14D BRICK (our Heat is an operational requirement of many large-scale industrial processes, including minerals processing. A wall of these bricks is being tested in our SiBox Demonstration Module, where they store and deliver high-temperature latent heat, up to 1200°C.” 1414 Degrees has been developing its long-awaited Aurora Solar Energy Project at Port Augusta in South Australia. But to market this product, it needs a name… A name we can trademark”

FDA allows manufacturing to begin at Anteris’s US site

Anteris Technologies announced on Monday (Australian time) that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined Anteris has met regulatory requirements for manufacturing DurAVR THV (Transcatheter Heart Valves) at the Company’s newly-expanded factory in Maple Grove, Minnesota. According to an ASX statement by Anteris, the FDA’s determination could lead to significant cost savings as it prepares to build build DurAVR in anticipation of upcoming clinical studies. The expanded Maple Grove facility complements existing tissue engineering capabilities in Malaga, Perth, where the company’s patented ADAPT anti-calcification technology is manufactured, whilst expanding overall production capacity. CEO Wayne Paterson said: “The commencement of valve production for clinical use at our US Maple Grove facility introduces great efficiencies and reduces
manufacturing costs and is within easy reach of the world’s largest TAVR centres and cardiovascular market.”

Henkel begins production at Kilsyth of improved formula wearing compound

German-based adhesives, sealants and coatings specialist Henkel has announced that production of an improved formulation of its Loctite PC 7218 Wearing Compound has begun at Kilsyth, east of Melbourne. The reformulated product is described as a “two-part, grey, epoxy-based surface coating for metals that protects against coarse particle abrasion or erosion, or for rebuilding worn parts” and as safer for the environment and application in confined spaces. “Now that we have embarked on the local production of Loctite PC 7218 Wearing Compound in Australia, it has opened doors for us to locally produce other adhesives like Loctite PC 9313 High Impact Wearing Compound in the later part of the year,” said the company’s ANZ General Manager of General Manufacturing & Maintenance, Matt Greaves. The news follows an announcement last August that it will begin producing Purbond at Kilsyth in the second half of 2023, citing interest in engineered timber for construction. Henkel currently has innovation and application Labs in Sydney and Auckland.

More predictable renewable energy could lower costs

University of Adelaide researchers have said lower electricity costs for consumers and more reliable clean energy could be benefits from a new study on how predictable solar or wind energy generation is. PhD candidate Sahand Karimi-Arpanahi and Dr Ali Pourmousavi Kani, Senior Lecturer from the University’s School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, looked at different ways of achieving more predictable renewable energy with the aim of saving millions of dollars in operating costs, prevent clean energy spillage, and deliver lower-cost electricity. “Peaks and troughs are the reality of this form of power generation,” said said Karimi-Arpanahi of solar and wind farms. “[H}owever using predictability of energy generation as part of the decision to locate a solar or wind farm means that we can minimise supply fluctuations and better plan for them.” The team’s research is published in the data science journal Patterns, and analysed six existing solar farms located in NSW and selected up to nine alternative sites, comparing the sites based on the current analysis parameters and when the predictability factor was also considered.

Incitec recovers 3 million kilograms of plastic through Big Bag Recovery

Incitec Pivot Fertilisers says it has now recovered 3 million kilograms of its own plastic bags since 2015 through the Australian government-accredited Product Stewardship scheme, Big Bag Recovery. Christine Corbett, CEO designate of IPF, said the initiative supports the commitment of both IPF and parent company Incitec Pivot Limited to achieve net zero operational emissions by 2050, or as soon as practicable. The company estimates it has saved $7.3 million in landfill space by recovering the plastic bags for recycling. “Our fertiliser bags are collected from farms or dropped off by farmers to local council depots or dealers, and instead of being burned or ending up in landfill they are recycled into new products” said Corbett said. IPL recently extended the bag recovery program to ammonium nitrate bulk bags in its explosives business, Dyno Nobel. Initiated in Queensland with fertiliser bags for the sugar industry in 2015, Big Bag Recovery is now Australia wide for all industries and sectors plastic bags over 15 kilograms per litre of contents.

Taste WA trade mission takes place this week

Picture: DurAVR valve (credit Anteris)