Manufacturing news briefs - stories you might have missed

Calix/PLS demo plant construction resumes

Calix announced the recommencement of the Mid-Stream Demonstration Plant Project developed in a Joint Venture (JV) with Pilbara Minerals on Thursday. The decision follows execution of a $15 million grant from the Western Australian government, the company said, with that funding used to reduce the respective construction cost share of the JV parties. Calix said the project — a pause on which was announced last October — remains on budget and is 74 per cent complete to the end of December. The aim is for complete construction and commencement of commissioning in the December Quarter 2025. Calix CEO and Managing Director Phil Hodgson said, “We stand ready with PLS to demonstrate the exciting potential of electrification for lower cost and lower carbon lithium processing to the global lithium industry.”

Make R&D policy fit-for-purpose: ACCI

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) welcomed the release this week of a discussion paper marking the first key milestone of the federal government’s R&D review. ACCIT said R&D is critical to productivity, yet investment in it has been declining for more than a decade. Australian expenditure on R&D sits at 1.8 per cent of GDP, well below the OECD average. “R&D is just one factor in enabling productivity but it’s an important one—it’s how we stimulate innovation, it’s how we advance new ideas, and it’s how Australia has led the world with inventions like WiFi, pacemakers, and even Google maps in previous decades,” said ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar. “But that kind of creativity is stymied when the policy settings are not fit-for-purpose. We have been encouraging the Government to set a target of 3 per cent… for several years now and build a strategy to work towards that.” He added that high tax rates “are a significant disincentive to investment in R&D”, as was the “excessive complexity of the R&D Tax Incentive”.

MEMKO begins shipping AM armrest parts

Engineering company MEMKO, which recently announced design and production certification of additively manufactured A320 arm rest covers from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), said this week that it has just made its first shipment of these. Produced at the company’s Collins Street, Melbourne premises, the order “has just been dispatched with sufficient parts to replace all the armrest covers on our customer’s A320 aircraft.” it posted on its Linkedin company page. “These arm rest covers are certified to be fitted to aircraft under our recently granted CASA 21.G production approval.”

Q-CTRL expands US presence

This week quantum computing company Q-CTRL announced the opening of its newest office in San Francisco. The company said it was strategically expanding its global footprint “to remain at the forefront of innovation”, and the new office formalised “its existing presence in Silicon Valley, a global hub for deep technology, cutting-edge research, and venture capital, and is representative of the recent trend in quantum-focused companies establishing themselves in the Bay Area.” Q-CTRL VP of Product, Alex Shih, said, “As we continue to scale and pioneer new capabilities, this office will allow us to deepen our engagement with industry partners, attract top-tier talent, cross-pollinate ideas with the local technology ecosystem, and strengthen our leadership in making quantum technology a core part of future compute and sensing platforms.”

Monash researchers develop AI for tackling microplastics

Monash University researchers have developed what is claimed to be “a ground-breaking AI program” to assist scientists in addressing “the scourge of environmental microplastics.” Many scientists and policymakers still don’t understand the scale of the issue, including exactly what kind of microplastics are out there and where they are ending up, Monash said this week. The program analyses thousands of samples in fractions of a second – a process that can take months for humans – to gain a crucial understanding of where and how to act, using chemical components that make up materials to identify characteristic “signatures”. The program is claimed to be the first in the world capable of analysing a library of microplastics signatures, and was pioneered by lead researcher Frithjof Herb, a Monash University PhD candidate, and supervisor Dr Khay Fong, Senior Lecturer in the Monash School of Chemistry.

Bidirectional charging roadmap launched

A National Roadmap for Bidirectional Electric Vehicle Charging, commissioned by ARENA in partnership with RACE for 2030 and delivered by enX Consulting, was released this week. According to ARENA, it lays the foundation on which key industry and government stakeholders can identify and adopt policy settings and strategy initiatives to realise the benefits of such charging, which refers to the ability of an electric vehicle (EV) or other energy storage systems to both draw power from the grid but also to send it back. ARENA CEO Darren Miller, said, “By the early 2030s, the battery capacity of our electric vehicle fleet is projected to outstrip all other forms of energy storage in the National Electricity Market… This innovation isn’t just beneficial for the grid – it could also save Australians up to $5 billion in total by reducing the need for large-scale battery storage investments.” The roadmap can be accessed here.

Kord Group wins US Army contract

This week defence company Kord Group announced that it has secured an Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide its remote technology to the US Army. According to the company, its RACU System Technology “equips soldiers with a centralised point of control for all their weapon-mounted and body-worn electronic devices” and “significantly benefits soldier performance, lethality and situational awareness.” Kord added that RACU has been developed and tested “over many years” by the Australian Army and the US Marine Corps. Group Managing Director Dr Peter Moran said it was, “a wonderful example of the collaboration between Australia and the US across militaries, innovation and industry for the benefit of both countries. We’re proud to advance our AUKUS agreement goals and continue to strengthen the relationship between our two countries.” The contract is valued “at up to US$7m [AU$11m]”.

Picture: credit Pilbara Minerals