Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Great Wrap launches compostable machine pallet wrap

Stretch wrap business Great Wrap has launched a new machine pallet wrap (pictured) made from compostable biopolymers. The company took to social media and said: There has been a lot of research, trials, and material development happening behind the scenes to get it ready for launch. Pallet wrap is the connector of businesses and is a critical part of the global supply chain. Millions of pallets are wrapped every day with traditional pallet wrap that often ends up in our landfills — it can take hundreds of years for this material to break down.” Great Wrap launch Hand Pallet Wrap last year, then moved to meet demand for machine pallet wrap. The 20µm Compostable Machine Pallet Wrap comes on 3 inch internal cores, with the company recommending up to a 250 percent pre-stretch for optimal use.

Queensland tackles emissions from metallurgical coal

Expressions of Interest are now open for the $520 million Queensland Treasury Low Emissions Investment Partnerships programme. The new programme will initially focus on driving down emissions in Queensland’s metallurgical (met) coal industry by helping scale up investment in innovations such as the use of alternative fuels and capturing fugitive emissions from coal mines for power generation. Queensland is the world’s largest exporter of met coal, a critical ingredient in the production of steel. Energy efficiency, increased use of scrap, renewable electricity, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage, are some of the ways the industry is looking to decarbonise. Companies are invited to explore how CQUniversity’s participation could strengthen their proposals.

Anagenics raises $1.3m for health and beauty

Anti-ageing health and beauty manufacturer Anagenics has completed a share placement to raise $1.3 million from investors. The company’s major shareholder Hancock & Gore as well as directors Sandy Beard, Phillip Christopher, Scott Greasley and Karen Matthews participated in the raising. The cash will be used for future M&A initiatives, business integration costs, cost-out initiatives and working capital. Anagenics sells its own and licenced brands of health and beauty products in Australia and internationally.

Adbri CEO to receive $1.35m retention payment

Building products group Adbri has agreed to extend the services of Mark Irwin as CEO through a retention payment of $1.35 million, a sum equal to one year’s total fixed remuneration. Irwin’s term will now be extended from 1 October 2024 to 18 December 2024 – a period of a little over six weeks. The board of Adbri said it recognised the importance of leadership stability given the proposed takeover of the company by a consortium of global building supplies group CRH plc and local premixed concrete supplier Barro Group.

AICRAFT and GoMicro partner for agtech

Artificial intelligence company AICRAFT and quality control business GoMicro have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to utilise AICRAFT’s low-power, compact, high-performance edge computing systems for powering GoMicro’s AI assessment solutions for agriculture and other industrial in-machine applications. AICRAFT said on Monday that it will work with GoMicro and its designated agricultural partners to integrate edge computing solutions “for a wide variety of applications” with the project to use AICRAFT’s computing solutions developed for space and industrial environments. GoMicro’s CEO and founder Dr Sivam Krish said, “The fusion of AI and edge computing will de risk the entire agricultural value chain by removing the unreliability of manual sampling and the  subjectivity of manual quality assessment.” The first application of the partnership will be for the real-time quality assessment of grains as they are offloaded from trucks into silos. An initial prototype is scheduled to be tested by Walco Seed Cleaners based in Halbury South  Australia by end of the month. 

Alternative protein company Harvest B has announced the hire of Keshu Lakhotia as Senior Food Scientist & NPD Lead. According to an update from the company on Linkedin last week, Lakhotia brings over seven years’ experience from Unilever and completed a Masters at Wageningen University & Research, which specialises in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. “This change is rooted in my core values, cultivated during my tenure at Unilever where I worked on impactful projects aimed at benefiting both the planet and its people,” said Lakhotia. “…My journey to Harvest B reflects the belief that purpose-driven careers can drive positive change. As I embrace this new challenge, I am fuelled by the enthusiasm to contribute to a sustainable and nutritious future for our planet.”

NSW Government establishes Hemp Industry Taskforce