The finalists in the 2008 Endeavours Awards Technology Application of the Year, sponsored by Intercad, can now be revealed.
Australian Automotive Air
Project: Component Handling System
AUSTRALIAN Automotive Air (AAA) required a materials handling system that would allow it to operate without lift trucks and fixed racking, while simultaneously increasing OH&S standards for employees.
AAA decided to invest in Industrial Conveying Australia (ICA)’s Creform-based component and materials handling technology.
The technology includes a broad line of plastic-coated steel tubes, fittings and accessories that allow building and modification of versatile materials handling structures that can be changed again and again to match ongoing needs.
As a result of implementing the system, AAA says they are not only meeting the requirements of its Japanese parent company but says a further benefit is operator satisfaction.
BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi Alliance
Project: Suncat Inventory Management System
IT seems like a simple task to track and trace over 17,000 individual spares equipment items entering a warehouse in a real-time environment and link this information to an existing SAP system as the items are logged out of the warehouse, and the solution is complete.
BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) in Norwich Park Mine, Qld, installed a Suncat Inventory Management System using UHF for the solution. This enables BMA to have long distance readability with a 4W site licence.
The end solution combines tagging of inventory, job request forms and miners helmets. The system passively verifies and reports transactions and logs of the spares warehouse at Norwich Park mine.
BMA now have 300 mine personnel with RFID chips embedded into their mine helmets and they have coded over 90% of the 17,000 items and designed the firmware to link to SAP.
CaromaDorf
Project: AVM Pressure Casting
CAROMADORF has replaced its traditional plaster mould casting practices with an innovative new method.
Two AVM150 casting machines were installed with a Kuka robot for glue application, product de-moulding and storage handling.
The application of pressure casting technology has been instrumental in providing safer working environment, and the company says measurable improvements include an increase in mould life and the number of moulds and pieces produced.
The average number of pieces produced before mould replacement increased from 80 to 40,000 (500 fold) as a result of the resin durability.
The average casting cycle time has also been reduced from 240 to 20 minutes and the time available for casting has increased from 16 to 24 hours as a result of eliminating mould drying time.
CMA Corporation
Project Name: Meretec Zinc Recycling System
AUSTRALIAN manufacturing disregards a large volume of galvanised steel every year and traditionally, recycling industry practice has been to burn the zinc off the scrap metal, a costly process, both financially and environmentally.
Until now, there has been no ecologically sound or environmentally safe way to recover and recycle zinc from steel, but now a new technology at Meretec’s Ringwood plant in Melbourne has developed a way to safely process galvanised steel scrap.
The process involves adding steel to the reactor drum where hot caustic removes the coating from the steel, which is then washed and mixed with a rust inhibitor, purified and prepared for packaging.
Once the scrap metal is loaded onto the Meretec processor, the rest of the process is entirely automated, allowing both for far safer operations and reduced labour cost. Hazardous waste diverted from landfill saves 10,000,000t annually.
Coastline Kitchens
Project: Waste Handling and Energy Conservation
TO keep its manufacturing facilities free from wood-dust and air borne particles, Coastline Kitchens was using a standard bag collection system with a 45kW motor which relied on the industry norm – high-powered suction of dust from areas where the machines were in operation.
Recently the company went into nest-based manufacturing on machining cells run by powerful software and needed more negative pressure to remove the waste, which the old extraction system could not provide.
By moving away from normal waste handling technology and implementing Optiflow, the company now handles all wood-dust and air borne particles far more effectively in relation to OH&S practices, using much lower pressures (including negative pressure), thereby using less power than what would be required by a comparably sized extraction system it replaced.
Flowerex Technologies
Project: Pulsematic Filter Design Automation
FOWLEREX Technologies is a project-based company which designs, manufactures, installs and commissions air pollution control equipment.
Previously it experienced sharp peaks and troughs in its workload. It wanted to upgrade its CAD/CAM software with a suitable design automation system to help it lessen its dependence on contract staff and so reduce training requirements and improve retention of its intellectual property.
After viewing demonstrations, the pollution control equipment company decided to test its suitability throughout the proof-of-concept stage of the project.
The company now uses DriveWorks design automation technology, a SolidWorks associated CAD/CAM technology supplied by Intercad, to design parts for its air pollution systems.
The objectives of the project included eliminating training and resources drain; capturing design rules to ensure specialist information is retained, re-using existing design data for new projects and creating a more level workflow.
DriveWorks has been applied to three stages in the design process — the design of the filter,the production of drawings and the production of models. Fowlerex has used the software onthree projects and the implementation is currently 80 per cent complete, with further fine-tuningtaking place this year.
Heat Treatment Australia
Project: Vacuum Carburising and Vacuum Brazing
AFTER identifying a significant gap in the heat treatment sector for a thermal processing service able to supply the international aviation industry, Heat Treatment Australia undertook extensive investigation and decided to purchase two new processing furnaces, said to be unique to Australia.
A Vacuum carbonising furnace was selected as there are no oils involved in the process, keeping parts clean and with less carbon emissions and energy used.
The second furnace, a Vacuum Aluminium model, was chosen for its ability to join or braze complex aluminium. By investing in new technologies and by having the ability to finish components locally, the company has experience significant cost reductions and lead times.
Marand Precision Engineering
Project: Advanced Manufacturing Solutions using 3D CAD & CAE
MARAND Precision Engineering has a history of constant innovation.
An increase in workload prompted the company to concentrate further on streamlining its programming processes and reduce the bottleneck of routing all CNC programming through the one department.
The company undertook a review of available user-friendly 3D programming software packages that were based on a ‘shop floor’ programming philosophy.
The company decided on the purchase and rapid roll out of multiple seats of Delcam’s Power Mill.
The computerisation of the company’s entire business operations, not only with CAD, CAM & CAE but also an integrated ERP system, has allowed Marand to communicate seamlessly and efficiently with customers and suppliers, regardless of where they are.