SOUTH AUSTRALIA
STATE SPOTLIGHT Adelaide-based assistive tech company Link Assistive specialises in eye gaze technology for non-verbal people.
“To source parts more and more locally, that’s the long-term strategy,” Tijdhof said. “At the moment, if something needs to be fixed or repaired, we have to send it to manufacturers overseas. Tonsley will give us the space to increasingly do work ourselves, decreasing turnaround times to get products back to clients and get a better understanding of the manufacturing process. “We now have quite a big say in the hardware and software, and we are heavily involved in development with our clinical team continuously feeding back data. I am very proud of what we are doing.”
Established in 2008, Link Assistive currently employs nine staff in Adelaide and a further four interstate, including a series of speech pathologists and occupational therapists. It supplies its technologies all over Australia, as well as exporting products to New Zealand and Singapore. It’s hoped its bigger footprint at Tonsley will not only allow for larger-scale importation of assistive technology from Europe, the US and the UK, but also to provide scope for future SA-based manufacturing.
Currently working out of a house at Pasadena, Link Assistive staff will move into a 600sqm space, prominently located next to Siemens within the Tonsley precinct. Link Assistive will be the second and final tenant in the building after perfume robot manufacturer Accurate Dosing Systems announced it was joining the precinct in November. Link Assistive is one of a growing number of businesses including Ziptrak, Nice Australia and Western Air that have chosen to relocate their operations to Tonsley over the past 12 months to take advantage of the world-class expertise in high-value manufacturing on site. www.linkassistive.com
Fleet Space Technologies’ factory plan cleared for launch The Australian space industry is set to soar to new heights with Fleet Space Technologies winning state and federal government backing to build its new Hyper Factory in Adelaide. The Federal Government on 3 March announced $20m in grant funding support for Fleet Space’s Australian Space Manufacturing Hub – to be located at the recently announced Australian Space Park at Adelaide Airport – under the Collaboration Stream of the $1.3bn Modern Manufacturing Initiative. The South Australian Government is also contributing $20m towards the $66m project, which is expected to create 221 local jobs, as well as more than 1,000 others indirectly.
Fleet Space Technologies co-founders Matt Pearson and Flavia Tata Nardini.
Fleet Space is Australia’s leading space company. The company has designed, built and launched the country’s only commercial satellites and has six satellites already in orbit as it works towards a mission towards building a constellation of 140 small satellites in Low Earth Orbit. Fleet Space plans to build a satellite Hyper Factory in Australian Space Park in Adelaide, and develop new 3D printed small satellites. The Federal and State funding will supplement industry investment into the Australian Space Park by Fleet Space Technologies, AT Space, Alauda and Q-CTRL. The purpose-built facility will drive collaboration between Australia’s local space manufacturers to build innovative satellites and rockets. It will make South Australia the largest manufacturer of satellites in Australia. From the Hyper Factory, the Fleet Space’s Alpha smallsat constellation will be designed, engineered and manufactured. Working with a range of partners, Fleet Space Technologies will help local companies in neighbouring industries like defence, communications and precision engineering enter the space supply chain and harness local robotics and automation expertise. Fleet Space is currently enjoying a period of rapid growth and global expansion. In February it announced that it had established
its first international HQ in Houston, Texas. The choice of Houston as an anchor location places Fleet Space at the heart of the world’s leading government space agency NASA, following collaboration between Fleet and NASA on the Artemis manned missions to the moon planned for 2024. “The technology we have developed has the potential to provide worldwide connectivity to multiple industries,” said Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO and Co-Founderof Fleet Space. “This is reflected in our global ambition and commitment to the United States as the first phase of our international expansion. We have built strong links in the US through our work with NASA’s Artemis Mission and we look forward on building on these foundations in the world’s fastest growing space market.” www.fleetspace.com
AMT APR 2022
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