Manufacturing news briefs - stories you might have missed

XTEK’s HighCom awarded new armour order

XTEK has announced that its HighCom Armor Solutions division has received an international purchase order to supply ballistic body armour to an undisclosed European customer, worth $2.6 million. Scott Basham, XTEK Group’s CEO, said on Monday that the armour business — across manufacturing in Columbus, Ohio, XTclave technology development in Adelaide, South Australia, and new European office in Poland — designed, manufactured, and supplied world-leading, ultra lightweight ballistic armour solutions to militaries, law enforcement, and first responder customers all around the world. “This new international order, valued at A$2.6m received from a new undisclosed European customer, will see many thousands of individual advanced high-performance body armour products dispatched over the coming weeks to meet this customer’s delivery priorities,” said Basham.

WOA secures $5 million lupin protein production grant

Wide Open Agriculture has secured a $5 million grant from the Western Australian government to establish manufacturing facility for Buntine Protein enhanced oat milk. Buntine Protein is WOA’s proprietary sweet lupin-based protein concentrate. The new WA facility will increase the company’s production capabilities, enhance efficiency and reduce costs. The cash will be allocated on a staged basis on specific milestones and reporting achievements, according to the company. WOA recently manufactured a ready to drink prototype os its Buntine Protein oat milk. Initial production is expected this year, expanding across 2024 and 2025.

Oventus Medical wind up now complete

Queensland medical device manufacturer Oventus Medical, the maker of the O2Vent sleep apnoea treatment device, is in liquidation and has been wound up by administrators following the sale of all its assets. Administrator Grant Thornton determined there would be no return on the stock market. As a consequence Oventus Medical will be delisted from the ASX on Friday, 21 July and then formally deregistered.

Queensland celebrates female company founders with $1 million fund

Queensland female founders are being recognised for their contribution to Australia’s innovation ecosystem with almost $1 million in state government support. The government announced 11 successful recipients – including two universities – which are part of round one of the Accelerating Female Founders Program. The programme is a pilot initiative focussed on funding business and supporting initiatives that foster a pipeline of innovative Queensland female founders. The 11 organisations will provide a host of practical business development and technical skills programs for almost 500 female founders and leaders of innovation-driven enterprises. ARM Hub founder and CEO Dr Cori Stewart (pictured) was one recipient thrilled to be accelerating the success of women in business through the programme. “We will help these female founders through our inaugural Female Founder Business and Technology Roadmap Development Program, providing business owners with access to world-class experts to develop strategies to identify and overcome product and technology gaps and become investment ready.”

Grant to speed FYI Resources high purity alumina plant

FYI Resources has been awarded a $3 million Western Australian government grant to support development of its planned small scale high purity alumina (HPA) demonstration plant. The plant, to be built utilising FYI Resources’ innovative flow sheet, will be constructed at Kwinana south of Perth. The grant, which will be matched by contributions from FYI resources, is being made through the WA government’s Investment Attraction Fund, and is subject to agreement on key terms. The plant will deliver HPA for qualification by end users, typically in the battery manufacturing sector where HPA is used as a separator.

Michael Kennan appointed to Osteopore board

Wound healing manufacturer Osteopore has appointed former Coalition minister Michael Keenan as a Non-Executive Director. Most recently he was Minister for Human Services and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation under Scott Morrison. A Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2019, Perth-based Keenan is a member of the board of U Group and Co and defence think tank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Bayside trials recycled rubber in road

In June, Sydney’s Bayside council trialled the use recycled rubber from end-of-life car and truck tyres in the asphalt mix for their first road on Willison Road, Bexley, which they say “looks fantastic and is holding up well.” The paving program involves 12 Sydney Councils and is expected to achieve significant environmental and economic benefits, according to a statement from Bayside. An initial 3,600 standard passenger car tyre (equivalent) will be used in the crumbed rubber asphalt trial project, involving 12 councils. The project involves Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC), Tyre Stewardship Australia, Australian Flexible Pavement Association (AfPA), RMIT, Boral Australia, State Asphalt, Transport NSW, and the NSW EPA. Over an initial 12-month period, the performance of each asphalt mix will be monitored in a range of applications and conditions to measure product benefits.

Two new big batteries approved in NSW

Two projects have been approved in two of NSW’s Renewable Energy Zones, in Apsley (Central-West Orana REZ) and Muswellbrook (Hunter Central Coast REZ), with the building and operating of a 120-megawatt and 150-megawatt battery storage system connecting to the existing electricity network. According to a statement from the NSW government, the projects will create 132 jobs inject $280 million into NSW’s economy while helping maintain energy reliability. There are currently 27 large-scale renewable energy, transmission lines and storage projects under assessment in the NSW planning system. If approved, they would provide 9 gigawatts of renewable energy and 5.5 megawatts of firming storage. NSW energy minister Penny Sharpe said, “Batteries are not only critical to supporting our state’s transition to net zero, they will assist us to get there sooner.”

Monash Uni launches “massively scalable” businesses program

In what it says is an Asia-Pacific first, Monash Business School is partnering with Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) – an objectives-based, equity-free program for massively scalable science and tech-based companies – to establish a Melbourne location. Creative Destruction Lab partners with business schools, such as the Saïd School of Business at Oxford University, and has five sites in Canada, three in the United States and four in Europe. CDL-Melbourne will offer a nine-month program, debuting at the end of 2023, will be located at Monash Business School, and will become “the focal point for early stage deep technology ventures” in Australia and APAC. “Australian and regional deep technology ventures will be able to actively engage with some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and scientists,” Charlie Nave, Associate Professor of Practice at Monash Business School and CDL-Melbourne site-lead said. “As a measure of success, more than 1,700 companies have gone through the highly competitive CDL program, creating more than A$32 billion in equity value across twenty streams including AI, climate, fintech, energy, biotech, health, quantum and space.”

Picture: qut.edu.au/Dr Cori Stewart