Warren Randall buys four more McLaren Vale vineyards
Major Australian wine company Randall Wine Group has acquired four more vineyards in McLaren Vale totaling 142 hectares to become the region’s largest vigneron.
Geelong hemp processing business ramps up machinery exports
Textile & Composite Industries is exporting two of its D8 hemp decorticators to a farm in Pennsylvania. The units, which retail for roughly $350,000, are the eighth generation of the machine, and are produced by Geelong engineering business Austeng. Founder of TCI, the late inventor Adrian Clarke, made his first machine in 1994. …
Activated carbon startup eyes commercial plant
A South Australian startup that has developed a low-cost technique for making activated carbon from agricultural waste will soon begin a capital raising round to fund commercial production.
Adding more layers: plenty of room left to innovate with polymer 3D printers
As the market for additive manufacturing has exploded in recent years, so has the range of solutions available. Driven by a need for answers to various limitations, a proverbial 1,000 flowers have bloomed among machine providers. Newer techniques inspired by metal injection moulding, jetting with binders, and fast curing of polymers using light and…
Titomic producing trial parts for major space, nuclear, defence customers
Metal 3D printing company Titomic’s (ASX: TTT) Melbourne production bureau has been busy manufacturing test parts for prospective customers using its Titomic Kinetic Fusion process (TKF) 3D printers. In his monthly investor update, Titomic managing director Jeff Lang listed a number of cases where the company’s strategy of producing test parts for customers was leading…
Behind those headlines. Why not to rely on claims robots threaten half our jobs
By Michael Coelli, Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne and Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne Should we believe headlines claiming nearly half of all jobs will be lost to robots and artificial intelligence? We think not, and in a newly released study we explain why. Headlines trumpeting massive job losses have been in abundance…
NSW energises industry with plan for electric bus fleet
The New South Wales state government has galvanised the bus manufacturing sector pledging to switch to an all electric bus fleet as part of the government’s privatisation plans. Minister for Transport Andrew Constance said in a statement that zero-emission buses are becoming the global standard with the significant environmental, health and operational cost benefits. Constance…
Eilbeck delivers Melbourne Metro cranes
Eilbeck Cranes has successfully delivered a specialised 105 tonne portal crane for Melbourne’s largest infrastructure project, the Melbourne Metro. It is the latest in many cranes the company has designed and manufactured for the $10 billion project. including the recent delivery of three tunnel works cranes for John Holland (below). Owner Tom Eilbeck said: “We…
Stop shaming and start empowering: advertisers must rethink their plastic waste message
Discussion of the environment is embedded in our culture as public awareness over issues such as climate change and plastic pollution has grown. Advertisers are not shy about tapping into this concern for their own benefit.
Our ability to manufacture minerals could transform the gem market, medical industries and even help suck carbon from the air
By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland and Paul Gow, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an examination of the…