Not just a curious idea – Thompson Couplings takes out the Australian Industrial Product of the Year Award with JNI Pallet Systems and Peacock Bros highly commended. Katherine Crichton writes.
SAID to be one of the most important mechanical inventions of the modern era, the Thompson Coupling, proudly an Australian invention, has helped solve a 400 year old puzzle.
After several years in development, the coupling, developed by the Orange-based company, is a constant velocity device with no load bearings or sliding surfaces.
It is described as the world’s first and only true constant velocity joint, said to be more efficient than existing universal and constant velocity joints due to pure rolling motion of standard bearings.
Due to the absence of sliding surfaces, friction and heat is reduced, wear is improved and efficiency increased to the point with the coupling will reduce fuel usages and greenhouse gas emissions.
A commercial version of the product is now available to industry, but just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither was the Thompson Coupling.
Len Kosharek, CEO of Thompson Couplings, explained to Manufacturers’ Monthly the idea around the couplings took several years of extensive R&D.
“Compared to other technologies it’s quite a novel concept. It’s unique and inventions like this only come round every once in a while.
“It took around six or seven years of effort to conceive the idea, progress through the prototyping/proof of concept phase and produce the couplings,” he said.
Close to $4m was raised to design and test a commercial ready version of the Thompson Coupling, with much of the testing carried out in the company’s own purpose-built test facility in Orange.
Kosharek said winning the Endeavour Award’s Industrial Product of the Year 2008 was great for the company, particularly from a recognition standpoint.
“This award is acknowledgement that the Thompson Coupling is more than just a curious idea.”
HIGHLY COMMENDED
JNI Pallet Systems, one of Australia’s largest manufacturers of steel pallet, cages and stillages has developed a innovative way to handle common timber pallets.
The company’s collapsible timber pallet converter is built to suit a standard timber pallet. Made from galvanised steel sections and mesh, the pallet converter has both sides and rear gate fixed; on the front gate is removable for access to the goods.
With a 300mm collapsed height, the converter is said to offer economical return transport. Other features include entirely captive rear and sides, removable front gate — single or half drop.
It was the first time JNI has entered an awards program and Jeff Basset from the company said the Endeavour Award’s presented a good opportunity to showcase the company’s unique product.
“As far as we know there is no exact opposition in the marketplace, any alternatives weren’t fully collapsible with fixed components.
“We have a unique product. It is a simple idea but the technology behind it is much more complex and we were very happy to be recognised in this category.”
HIGHLY COMMENDED
PEACOCK’S new indoor vehicle and product tracking system tracks, record and monitor the activities of any indoor vehicles and RFID tagged pallets within a warehouse.
The Sky-Trax combined RFID solution provides for the first time complete visibility of all indoor vehicles within a warehouse environment as well as the location of RFID tagged stock pallets. Designed to be accurate up to 3m2, the system improves the performance and management of forklifts in real-time as they operate within a warehouse or distribution centre.
An optical image reader called Sky-I, mounted on the top of the vehicle and pointed upwards, can determine the position, speed and direction of vehicles by references to roof suspended Sky-Markers. The Sky-I optical reader can be connected to a vehicle mounted mobile computer such as an Intermec CV30 or Motorola VC5090 connected to any WIFI wireless network.
Robert Deane, National Business Development Manager with Peacock Bros was on hand to accept the award for the company at the gala Endeavour Award’s dinner.
He told Manufacturers’ Monthly everyone at Peacock Bros were happy to be nominated, let alone being awarded in the top two of a field of 12 strong contenders.
“We have been supplying business solutions to companies in Australia and New Zealand for over 120 years so to receive an award for innovation in 2008 is wonderful.”
“It is very pleasing to be recognised in this category as our technology is still very new and not widely known in this country, so to have this product acknowledged in a national awards program for manufacturing excellence is fantastic.”