With business and direct government spending on R&D falling, and only university research rising, our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – turns to collaboration between industry and public sector researchers. By Dr Tony Peacock. If Australia is to turbocharge our R&D to reach 3% of GDP, businesses will have…
Less than two weeks before our Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers awards event at Cockle Bay Wharf, we profile another of the standout candidates. Brent Balinski speaks to Sleeptite founder Cameron van den Dungen about an eight-year quest to develop what’s been described as “a bed that watches you sleep”. Sleeptite did not set out…
An RMIT University-led team has designed and manufactured a surface, made of silicon and covered in tiny “nanospikes”, which is showing promise in controlling transmission of potentially dangerous viruses. According to a statement from the university, the results of a study that made the cover of nanoscience journal ACS Nano show 96 per cent of…
By Charlie Huang, RMIT University Australia’s largest export, iron ore, has long been a powerhouse of economic growth. Over the past two decades, its contribution to our national income has surged from just A$8 billion in 2005 to over A$124 billion today. But the Australian iron ore industry faces a major challenge as its biggest…
An upcoming report on Victoria’s textile, clothing and footwear manufacturing industry has calculated the sector as worth $960 million in economic value and a source of employment for 10,300 people. According to a statement from the Australian Fashion Council on Tuesday, Moving the Needle: The State of Play of Victoria’s Textile, Clothing & Footwear Manufacturing…
A 3D printed ‘metamaterial’ boasting levels of strength for weight that have not been manufacturable could change how we make everything from medical implants to aircraft or rocket parts. RMIT University researchers created the new metamaterial – a term used to describe an artificial material with unique properties not observed in nature – from common…
An international team led by RMIT University is developing what they describe as recyclable “water batteries” that address the safety problems of lithium ion-based energy storage. Lithium-ion is the dominant type of battery chemistry – powering many household devices, vehicles and more – due to its technological maturity, but also presents safety concerns due to…
Researchers from RMIT University are using nanodiamonds to create smart textiles that can cool people down faster. The study found fabric made from cotton coated with nanodiamonds, using a method called electrospinning, showed a reduction of two to three degrees Celsius during the cooling down process compared to untreated cotton. They do this by drawing…
@AuManufacturing is on the hunt to identify and celebrate Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers. Here, Peter Roberts profiles one of 2023’s most innovative – 3D scanning manufacturer for the apparel sector, Bodd. In a back street off trendy Chapel Street Prahran in Melbourne what looks like a warehouse converted to a town house is the…
Australian researchers have investigated adding graphene oxide to cement, resulting in concrete that works better as a 3D printing material, according to a statement from RMIT University. Engineers from RMIT and University of Melbourne found that addition of the nanomaterial increased the strength of concrete by as much as 10 per cent and made it…