From the President

Welcome to the June 2021 edition of Materials Australia magazine. Things are moving very quickly this year as we continue to discover what our ‘new normal’ actually entails. With Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout is progressing, it is clear that vaccination is the key to reopening our borders and progressing activities such as international meetings and conferences similarly to where they were two years ago.

I recently had my first vaccine shot. While I was in the waiting area afterwards to be cleared to leave, the absolute optimism of people post-vaccination was clear. We are on the way towards our post-pandemic future. One focus of many initiatives in 2021 has been the concept of building resilience. Being resilient in our industries, professions and workplaces is about far more than just continuing forward with business as usual. Resilience also refers to the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; it embeds an ability to help us navigate volatility, respond to uncertainty, mitigate risk, recover from adversity, and reimagine the unexpected. What this means for Materials Australia is a significant ramp up in our activities and under the assumption that borders will open in 2022. Planning for our conferences is proceeding at pace. Abstract submissions for CAMS are due by the end of July, and we are looking forward to a first-class meeting in December with a strong local content. Please submit your abstracts at the soonest opportunity. In the interim, we will also be holding, or taking part in, online and hybrid events. For example, in August, the University of Sydney Manufacturing Hub will be running a two-day event on additive manufacturing, which will be part faceto-face and part online. This event that will bring together many specialists in the additive manufacturing field. We are also initiating a new online conference and seminar series, Materials Forum, to be run in September and hosted by RMIT. The concept of the conference is different to the way conference events are often currently run, and we expect to foster great discussion and a deeper understanding of the presenting authors’ best work. Additionally, we will be running a three minute pitch event for postgraduate students to talk about their research. So far this year Materials Australia has maintained a steady membership base with plans for expansion across the state branches. The fantastic support from our network of volunteers and committees must be acknowledged. I would encourage you all to join the activities the state branches are holding. They are a great opportunity to network with colleagues and friends. We have almost finalised the details of the new Materials Australia logo, which I am pleased to say will be unveiled in the next (September) issue. In the last edition, I wrote about some initiatives in training and attracting talented staff to businesses. I recently saw a great initiative from the Steel Founders Society of America for their annual ‘Cast in Steel’ competition. Twentyseven teams from around the world competed to produce a functioning ‘Thor’s Hammer’. Each hammer was put through performance tests and each project included a video and technical report of the process. I was certainly pleased to see the winning team was Pittsburg State University in Kansas, which runs an exceptional program for students looking to enter the foundry industry or related fields. My employer, AWBell, is part of their internship program. Pittsburg State University also traditionally hosts the Investment Casting Institute’s course held every year for member companies. Using a combination of 3D printing in PLA, casting simulation and modelling, then investment casting, the Pittsburg team created quite an impressive result! Importantly, from across all participants, well over 100 students have now gained experience in steel founding and cast metals manufacturing. Videos and Technical Reports for each participant can be seen via the following links: https://www.sfsa.org/ castinsteel/?page=foundation https://www.sfsa.org/video/cis/2021/ PittState-1080p.webm I would really encourage anyone from Australian universities who is interested in entering a team in the next competition for 2022 that the SFSA runs to consider taking part. Finally, on a different topic, the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy was released last year and it is important Materials Australia helps to promote the long-term transformational outcomes for the Australian economy. Six areas of priority were listed in the roll out, and all are important to our members. They are: • Resources Technology and Critical

Minerals Processing • Food and Beverage • Medical Products • Recycling and Clean Energy • Defence • Space Local manufacturing is well positioned, and has the support of the both state and federal governments, to grow industries that are fundamentally based on advanced materials technologies. We all have an important role to play in creating this outcome, and we can make the most of the opportunity that is presented to us. If your company is successful in gaining grant funding for new projects under these initiatives as they are released, we want to hear your story!

Best Regards

Roger Lumley

National President Materials Australia