Digital shipbuilding revolution propels the Hunter programme forward

Australia’s largest manufacturing project – the construction of frigates for the Royal Australian Navy – is gaining momentum at the Osborne naval shipyard in Adelaide. Here Craig Lockhart outlines BAE Systems Australia’s vision of an all-digital shipyard. BAE Systems is progressing the world’s most advanced anti-submarine warfare frigate and building a critical industrial capability that…

Australia’s place in the semiconductor world – Software may be eating the world, but software is nothing without semiconductors

Due to an unexpected number of high-quality contributions, @AuManufacturing’s Australia’s place in the semiconductor world editorial series has been extended again. Here Mike Nicholls writes that Australia has the opportunity to build a thriving semiconductor industry without investing $20 billion to build a fab. But we do need to get started.  It’s hard to imagine,…

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

CSL opens its latest Victorian factory Biotechnology giant CSL has just formally opened its latest investment in Victorian pharmaceutical manufacture. The company’s $900 million Plasma Fractionation Facility (pictured) is the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Talent acquisition partner at CSL Sam Edwards said: “This represents a nine fold increase in our production…

How far has nuclear fusion power come? We could be at a turning point for the technology

By Nathan Garland, Griffith University and Matthew Hole, Australian National University Our society faces the grand challenge of providing sustainable, secure and affordable means of generating energy, while trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to net zero around 2050. To date, developments in fusion power, which potentially ticks all these boxes, have been funded almost…

Commercial trials expected in 2023 for Australian-developed waterless dyeing process

Xefco is moving to the pilot manufacturing stage for a new waterless dyeing and finishing process, which it says could cut energy and water use by 86 per cent and 88 per cent respectively versus conventional wet processes. The company’s Ausora solution is described as using a “plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition” method to apply dyes…

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

EMVision cashed up from three government and non-government grants Medical imaging company EMVision Medical Devices expects to receive $8.8 million in funding from three grant programmes in the current quarter. The company received in November $1.2 million in milestone payments from the Australian Stroke Alliance which is funding its development of a system utilising microwaves…