Manufacturers’ Monthly - September 2016

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12 6 Editor’s Comment

21 Transport Solutions

32 Adhesive Technology

8 Industry Comment

22 Collaboration

34 Packaging

10 IT @ MM

24 Endeavour Awards

36 Level Measurement

14 Robotics

26 Sustainability

37 New Products

16 Automation & Control

28 Lean Manufacturing

39 The Last Word

18 Conveyors

30 Energy Costs

Behind the cover THAI investment in robotics and automation is rising steadily, but the country is leaving nothing to chance in its efforts to modernise, recently announcing several new incentives in an attempt to speed up its industrial modernisation. As raw as it is, one measure of an industry’s efforts to lift its productivity is in the number of factory robot units purchased.

This is seen in figures from Industrial Federation of Robotics’ last three surveys, highlighting China’s dash to cope with

rising manufacturing wages. The trend is clear, with 36,560 in 2013, followed by 57,096 in 2014, and (a forecast) 68,000 in 2015. Ajarin Pattanapanchai, Deputy Secretary General at the Thailand Board of Investment, says the country’s industry is rapidly modernising, with investment on electronic control and robotics up about 20 per cent a year for the last five years.

“Mechanical robot arms are going up about 34 per cent per year in the last five years,” she told Manufacturers Monthly.

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Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 5

Comment

BRANKO MILETIC – Managing Editor

Planes, trains and automobiles (that we used to make)

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AST month I had a somewhat public rant about the decision by the NSW state government to award the contract to build new trains for NSW to an overseas (mainly South Korean) consortium.

While my op-ed piece may have been construed as being a touch sensationalist, overall the amount of support and positive commentary that I received for my online rant was not only surprising; it was in many ways very heartening.

As I wrote: “What is clear by the many comments is that the Baird government – the ideological soulmates of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who continually espouses the ‘jobs and growth’ mantra – has basically kicked its own party and the people of NSW in the guts with this odious and short-sighted announcement,” it dawned on me that those in power truly do not (or perhaps cannot) understand the real value that our manufacturing industry brings to the community.

Back in the day when manufacturing meant grimy overalls and thermos flasks filled with black tea, it was never clearly articulated to our ruling elite just how critical and for that matter, crucial manufacturing is to any society’s or for that matter, country’s economy.

Think about it - manufacturing has always been something that very few people in Australia fully understood or for that matter talked about. I include in this our esteemed gaggle of publically-quotable economists, who, while treating the manufacturing sector as a line on their spreadsheets, also rarely talk about the macroeconomic value-adding effects that this sector provides.

But let’s not confues ourselves about the big picture when personalisation (or micro-economics if you will) can give you the exact

6 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

gravitas of the manufacturing industry.

As I noted, my own father’s first job in Australia was working as a fitter and turner for ComEng, helping to build the silver double-decker suburban trains that are still in service today. That job helped put food on our table and allowed us to buy a car, a house and helped us live a good life.

Now let’s expand that into a bunch of semi-rhetorical macro-economic questions. Just how many auto makers did we once have? How about train makers? And what about plane makers? Yes, Australia once made planes - Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) was an aircraft manufacturer owned by the Government of Australia based at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne, which in 1987 was renamed as Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) and then privatised.

As for car makers - how about Holden, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Leyland?

And train makers like CommEng, English Electric, James Martin & Co., Clyde Engineering - the list goes on and on.

Just how much value-adding did these companies do for the Australian economy via local employment and export earnings, only a select few economists would be able to answer.

However, what is crystal clear is that as our economy shifts to a smarter (read: smaller) manufacturing base, although I’m not an economist, I can safely say the overall benefit to Australia’s GDP will just not be the same.

There is a reason why the NSW government has for some time been selling off most of our industrial heartland to property developers.

As Bruce Springsteen wrote in his song My Hometown: “Foreman says these jobs are going boys, and they ain’t coming back.” branko.miletic@primecreative.com.au

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Comment

JON BRADSHAW – Manufacturing on the Move co-founder

Let’s talk about apprenticeship reform A recent report from the Apprenticeship Reform Advisory Group makes for some interesting reading in regard to what they propose for the apprenticeship and traineeship system. If you haven’t read it, it’s available on the Australian Apprenticeship website.

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PPRENTICESHIP “reform” became an oft-repeated component of Australian workforce political dialogue in recent years, with this the latest federal report with its origins in the previous Abbott Government and resultant employer groups urging politicians to find new, less-regulatory routes to lower costs, raise productivity and address perceived skill shortages.

It is therefore probably excusable given the political mood of that time that the makeup of this panel (and arguably the agenda) appears to have been geared to the hospitality and Registered Training Organisation (RTO) sectors, rather than what, in retrospect, should have been an opportunity for a serious scoping study regarding the specific skills, delivery structure and training needs of a scaled-up sovereign defence industry capability.

Even the most recently announced Apprenticeship review in NSW appears to be focussed on industrial relations factors and structure rather than seizing the opportunity for a proper scoping study on defence industry skill sets.

Done properly, this would look at the inclusive skills base development process, transferrable and up-skilling opportunities represented currently, with relevant

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a qualification process comparable to, say, the UK Defence industry, and validated by the ‘defence primes’ operating in Australia.

This would aim to provide a flexible pool of high skills with the baseline training to be quickly up and cross skilled to provide the changing needs and drivers of not only defence, shipbuilding and aerospace but our mining, rail, new energy and auto industries.

Unfortunately, what we now see in this report appears to have received little input regarding the special and specific needs of the innovation, defence, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, engineering or electronics sectors ...and what is rather astonishing is that it appears that not one member of the panel has any direct and relevant experience of actually being an apprentice!

Many of the reports’ recommendations represent an improvement and result from a better understanding of the main issues affecting apprentices generally, but there has also been valid comment on several recommendations in the report. Certainly questionable is the value of aggregators or brokers being involved in facilitating preapprenticeship commencements as outlined in recommendation 16, and others similar that appear to relate

little to the training and welfare of apprentices, but rather to the ‘orderly marketing’ of what have now become highly problematical vocational training packages.

Investment in apprenticeships and skills can certainly create capacity for companies to grow, replace a retiring skill base or re-shore manufacturing capability. But only if the quality and process of the apprenticeship is right, and only if the apprentices are part of a wider system of industrial partnership providing access and exposure to the very latest technologies and offering valid career progression pathways.

Apprenticeships need to offer a clear and unambiguous career pathway to today’s tech savvy school leavers particularly. We need to spend a lot more time on educating school leavers on what apprenticeships are all about.

Apprenticeships need to offer a real qualification that can be progressed to graduate diploma or degree as part of a career progression.

They need to provide for not only vocational skills development, remembering that over 25 per cent of STEM skills are delivered in vocational training, but also the now-essential soft skills that enhance their value to employers. This includes health and safety, computer aided design and programming, communication, project management, presentation and negotiation.

Importantly, Australian apprentices themselves need to be represented in all matters regarding their training and welfare. Are our student teachers, trainee nurses, police and service personnel similarly disenfranchised and marginalised?

Of course not! There are just too many reports of exploitation and abuse of the apprenticeship process There are much better ways.

The UKs Sheffield University recently became one of the first to offer quality advanced manufacturing undergraduate and masters degrees using the apprenticeship model funded with industry. Successful apprentices will have the opportunity to continue their studies up to masters level.

This pioneering new education route will train the advanced manufacturers of tomorrow, filling vital skills gaps, from research and development to supply.

It will provide demographics currently underrepresented in higher education access to world class university education in an internationally leading translational research context, with simultaneous work based training to create the next generation of engineers.

We need to aspire to these global exemplars that provide quality industry-powered apprenticeships that play a key role in cementing collaborations between universities and industry and will boost Australia’s productivity.

Sadly, however, if all we do in an apprenticeship reform agenda is to continue to shut our eyes to the devaluation of the apprenticeship ‘brand’ by providing or facilitating a job creation track leading nowhere, we have solved or reformed absolutely nothing, and lost a genuine opportunity at inclusive, real-world nation building.

Jon Bradshaw commenced his career with a five-year engineering apprenticeship, integrated tertiary training and subsequent career development as an Industrial/ Manufacturing Engineer with BHP Group subsidiary Tubemakers of Australia. A long-time advocate of highvalue manufacturing, John is also one of the joint founders of Manufacturing on the Move LinkedIn group. manmonthly.com.au

Comment

INNES WILLOX – Chief Executive, Australian Industry Group

Energy risks – and opportunities – for manufacturers in the renewables transition

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LECTRICITY is a major cost for many manufacturers and a business-critical requirement for all. Price and reliability matter.

And right now both seem to be under a cloud. In South Australia, contract prices have been increasing sharply, and short-term spot prices reached extraordinary highs in July. Other regions of the electricity market are seeing an uplift, and the Australian Energy Market Operator warned recently that expected generator closures could see Victoria and New South Wales fall below their reliability buffers within a decade.

What is going on?

Many factors are assailing SA, which sits at the end of the network and has long had higher and more volatile prices than anywhere else.

Upgrades to the interconnector with Victoria have dragged on and wound up coinciding with winter peak demand for heating. Heating demand also saw the spot price of gas spike, with a tight gas market struggling to meet enormous new demand for Liquefied Natural Gas exports. SA’s generation sector is very concentrated, with several producers closing or mothballing capacity in recent years.

One of the common threads in these events is the rise of renewable energy, which has taken off fastest in SA but is set to play a growing role everywhere. Large scale wind and rooftop solar are variable, but it doesn’t look as though a lack of wind or sunshine was particularly significant in the SA events. Instead the growth of renewables has taken volumes away from incumbent generators and often suppressed wholesale prices. Inflexible ‘baseload’ generators have engineering and financial difficulties in ramping up and down frequently to supply in such a market, and this is part of the reason why coal-fired power stations have closed in SA. But variations in renewables supply and consumer demand still have to be met. The

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interconnector to Victoria becomes ever more vital, and expensive gas fired generators set the market price more frequently. Everyday prices increase and extreme prices will result when the interconnector is constrained.

With a new SA price surge looking likely when summer hits, should we be halting the rollout of renewable energy in Australia? No. The rise of renewables looks unstoppable; even without supportive public policies, it looks difficult for other energy sources to compete. Large scale solar energy projects are being contracted overseas for as little as 4 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s half the projected cost of energy from new Australian coal-fired power plants, even excluding a potential carbon price. If projects can be built at a comparable cost in Australia – a big if – future energy costs may be lower than we often fear.

But while renewables may dominate in the long term, in the here and now the transition is a massive challenge. The variability and intermittency of renewables becomes a serious problem for reliability at high penetration levels.

The problem can be solved with a mix of inter-regional linking, demand side flexibility, stronger gas supply, energy storage and other steps. But it is not solved yet. Australia’s energy market rules, pricing structures, technical standards and investment conditions are very far from where they should be.

The Commonwealth and the States have been quick out of the gate with ambitious renewables targets, even while they drag their feet on the reforms needed to ensure the electricity market can actually digest the new capacity while meeting industry’s need for reliable, affordable energy. The latter include reforms to increase competition and ease new production in the gas market; a ‘demand response mechanism’ that would

reward energy users who can easily cut back demand when prices are high; dynamic network tariffs that motivate consumers to reduce congestion; management reforms and new investments in interconnectors; and technical standards, market rules, incentive structures and seed investment to underpin the wide rollout of energy storage.

are needed to minimise the immediate risks to energy users.

Manufacturers with exposure to the spot energy markets should be particularly wary and ready to scale back activity on short notice if necessary; scheduling maintenance or other downtime for the JanuaryFebruary period could help. Energy retailers should seek out more

In mid-August the Council of Australian Governments’ Energy Council met in the shadow of the SA price events, and Ai Group argued strongly for action on all of the above.

Nearly all stakeholders from industry, energy supply, government and beyond agreed that the transition underway to more renewables is necessary – and difficult. But COAG moves slowly. Positive reforms on gas are moving forward, making it more likely that this fuel will be available and affordable while it plays a central role in balancing the electricity market. But other elements are more tentative.

None of these reforms will bear immediate fruit, and the Energy Council meets again in December, by which time fresh SA price spikes may be only a month away. Different actions

businesses and other energy users who are willing to reduce demand for a few hours during extreme events. Governments should also encourage energy conservation and efficiency more broadly. The SA-Victoria interconnector upgrade should be complete by this time, and a great deal depends on how it performs.

Governments continue to make ambitious announcements on renewables; Victoria recently consulted on a policy to hit 40 per cent renewables by 2025.

At every opportunity, Ai Group will be encouraging all levels of government to get real, and make the reforms to ensure a more renewable grid delivers.

Ai Group 1300 55 66 77 www.aigroup.com.au Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 9

IT@MM Not horsing around: new Windows trojan saddles up With such a massive install base, it’s no surprise that the occasional Trojan makes its way through Windows defenses to target users. As noted by Softpedia, however, a new, info-stealing Windows Trojan has emerged, and this one is after enterprise data, writes Douglas Bonderud*.

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ARGETING files specific to the corporate environment, the malware looks to grab everything from passwords to financial data and then send this data to a command-and-control (C&C) server. Even more worrisome, while 34 out of 55 antivirus programs could detect the new attack, none of them properly identified the threat.

Here’s a look at the latest malware to saddle up and chase corporate secrets.

Windows trojan swipes enterprise data While there’s not much data on the distribution method of these attacks, it looks like at least some cybercriminals are using a file named Aug_1st_jave.exe to spread their new code. According to BleepingComputer, which first identified the new Windows trojan, once installed, the malware injects itself into the registry to run on startup and then compromises an active process, such as Google Chrome.

Next, it starts scanning victim PCs and sends back data including the computer name, username, Windows version, installed service pack details and the list of programs found in specific registry keys. Once a solid C&C connection is established, the Trojan looks for certain file extensions.

Data is then sent back to the C&C server. In many cases, companies aren’t aware any intellectual property has gone missing, let alone being sold on the dark web for cash. While the BleepingComputer team tracked down a compromised website hosting a hidden iframe and prompted it to clean up its domain, the original C&C server is still up and running.

Trojan triple threat This isn’t the only trojan threat to hit Windows users in recent weeks.

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As noted by The Next Web, a piece of malware supposedly created by cybercriminals calling themselves PeggleCrew has been making the rounds. Surprisingly, the source is app download site FossHub, which prides itself on “no adware, no spyware, no bundles, no malware.”

The new code acts like a circa-1990 virus by overwriting the victim PC’s master boot record. An attacker claiming to be from PeggleCrew said FossHub left a network service open and unauthenticated, allowing them access.

The boot trojan isn’t hard to fix with a Windows recovery CD. Still, it’s clear that Windows trojans remain a real problem.

Defender does double duty The problem is so real, in fact, that the Windows Defender tool has been busy detecting trojan threats other antivirus programs apparently can’t see, according to Windows Report.

A number of users have reported up to ten trojan warnings per day.

These users said that Defender isn’t actually removing the threats and occasionally asks them to reboot their computers, even after a full clean starts the warning cycle again.

There’s no word from Microsoft on the issue, but a clean install is recommended. The behavior seems suspiciously like a legitimate

service that’s been compromised by an outside actor.

Minor threats are par for the course, but more sophisticated attack vectors are on the rise as cybercriminals recognise the value of infiltrating corporate networks and exfiltrating critical data. They’re no longer horsing around with personal PC compromise; expect a run on enterprise entries and data disruptions. * A freelance writer for three years, Doug Bonderud is a Canadian with expertise in the fields of technology and innovation. This article was originally printed in IBM’s cybersecurity magazine securityIntelligence.com. manmonthly.com.au

IT@MM What really causes sudden spikes in traffic?

The topic of bandwidth is at the forefront of many enterprise IT department conversations, thanks to the growing popularity of mobile technology and the switich from brick and mortar to e-commerce. With today’s online consumptions rates, many attribute network traffic spikes to external demands on infrastructure or the release of the next ’it’ product online, writes Andrew Timms, Sales Director for APAC at Paessler AG.

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OWEVER, hidden network traffic spikes are not as straightforward, and have the potential to impact the everyday activities and efficiency of enterprise bottom-lines. As a result, bandwidth monitoring is key to any IT departments’ day-to-day activities.

Traffic spikes that show up on bandwidth monitoring solutions Something happens after IT teams implement a bandwidth monitoring solution: They get inquisitive. Many IT teams adopt bandwidth monitoring solutions to help identify alarming or sudden peaks in their network traffic, by communicating the data through graphical interfaces. The challenge, however, lies in being able to swiftly solve the mystery of what’s causing the peak in traffic.

The core job of a network bandwidth monitoring solution is to fundamentally to inform the IT team when major problems are developing on the network, as well as when further investigation is required. Nevertheless, getting inside your network’s head can be difficult at times.

Top 5 causes of sudden spikes in network traffic 1. Scheduled backups inside the LAN: Many backup products can be scheduled to run at a specified time, and they can cause enormous loads on any connection.

2. Remote backup tools: Many networks use cloud based solutions for their backups.

Uploading huge backups can cause serious load and manmonthly.com.au

significantly slow down the internet connection.

3. Virus scanner or software updates that are distributed inside the LAN. 4. Mail server problems: Situations where a remote mail server tried to deliver a 15 megabyte mail to a company’s mail server every five minutes – again and again – even though the target mail server denied acceptance and discarded the mail. The two SMTP implementations were just a bit incompatible and – to solve the problem – the target mail server had to be set to deny access from the remote server’s IP. 5. Malware outbreaks and hacking attempts can cause spikes in network traffic. This can help to identify and take action against them.

The top five list indicates some of the most serious situations. There are many other causes of traffic spikes, including large downloads

by users, video conferencing or hardware failures. However, it is important to identify the origin of a peak. IT teams can use the top five list as a first guide or point of reference when their bandwidth monitoring solution indicates a peak in traffic. Yet, the best and essentially the only way for IT teams to know exactly what’s causing traffic spikes is through manpower and traditional network troubleshooting.

the pattern with processes on your network (i.e. a CPU load peak of one of your servers may be in-sync with the bandwidth load).

3. Try to analyse the traffic with a proprietary packet sniffer or a flow monitoring tool. For modern switched networks, this can sometimes be more challenging, but it is the best way to find out which computer system is causing the trouble.

Steps you can take to find out what’s causing spikes

Ultimately, there is always a chance that the peaks displayed by a bandwidth monitor simply aren’t real. Some peaks may be caused by a bug-riddled device or software. Often times, for SNMPbased monitoring, a false spike stems from “counter-overflows” or “counter rollovers.”

In other words, most SNMP devices use 32-bit counters to count the number of bytes transferred via a data line. Depending on the bandwidth usage, the values at some point in time can reach the 32-bit barrier.

1. Try to find a pattern in the spikes. For example, do they appear roughly at the same intervals or at the same time of each day? Do they show up during business hours (more likely that a user is causing the peak) or later (more likely a scheduled issue)?

2. When you find a pattern, try finding other monitoring points on the monitored system that match these patterns. Compare

Andrew Timms was appointed to Sale Director for APAC in January 2015, to meet the rising demand for the company’s network monitoring and testing solutions in the region.

Andrew brings more than 18 years’ experience across IT, sales and channel distribution and management in many global computing software companies.

Paessler AG https://www. paessler.com/ 0477 048 850 Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 11

IT@MM

Using CMMS to cut your costs proactively Across Australia’s diverse manufacturing sector, operators are looking to more effective and productive ways to utilise their equipment, and keep it running in peak condition.

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CCORDING to Siemens’ global head of customer service for its industrial business, Dr Thomas Moser, “Operational phases represent about 95 per cent of the lifecycle costs – compared to just 5 per cent or less in the capital investment phase, so hi-tech service becomes

more at lower costs and avoid downtime that can cause losses and negatively impact company share prices.”

This maintenance and high tech service is an essential part of running an organisation, and the new age of smarter devices and equipment i.e. The Internet of

Before companies can achieve zero unplanned maintenance, they must strengthen their asset management practices.

critical to drive increased overall equipment effectiveness while reducing these operational costs.”

“Now more than ever, it’s critical for companies to embrace hi-tech service to produce 12 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Things, is giving operators an edge to cut costs and lift productivity.

By 2020, Gartner forecasts the global incremental gross domestic product of the Internet of Things will grow up to US$1.9 trillion.

No more downtime Through full integration and smart data utilisation operators can achieve that end goal dream of many businesses, zero unplanned maintenance, fully predictive and proactive maintenance schedules, and no more downtimes.

However, according to Deloitte’s latest report on heavy industry, “Before companies can achieve zero unplanned maintenance, they must strengthen their asset management practices.

“Simply putting sensors onto all equipment is insufficient if the company lacks the ability to analyse the data output.

“With tools that give visibility into the health of the assets companies can amass and analyse baseline data points to predict things like regular failure points, asset wear-and-tear, required maintenance frequencies, shifting demands, and optimal resource

deployment, ultimately minimising maintenance costs and improving efficiency.”

Siemens’ Moser added, “It’s about being competitive to secure your place in the global supply chain. Through modern technology and services, companies can achieve operational effciencies, extend the life of their assets, optimise performance, reduce energy consumption and protect investments.

“Remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, simulation and cloud based asset management are just some of the new technologies and practises that operators can utilise.”

CMMS for greater visibility Computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) are one of the major tools enabling this visibility and control, and can form the core of maintenance operations for many manufacturing industries. manmonthly.com.au

IT@MM By providing an accessible and easy to understand maintenance management platform, operators can now break down ongoing patterns in machinery wear, usage, and access granular data to know when machines will breakdown, and organise their operational schedule appropriately ahead of time to take the equipment out for repair at the optimal time, eliminating unscheduled downtimes and unexpected hits to the bottom line.

With this capacity for forward planning, better asset management and ordering systems can be implemented, and in turn more efficient work orders for maintenance.

One of the major benefits of a CMMS system is that it allows for massive savings to be made on purchases, through which advanced inventory planning allows managers to have more time to shop around for spare parts instead of having to buy in a hurry.

Additionally, compared to manual

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asset management there is less potential for organisations to be susceptible to theft. In relation to the monitoring of assets for regular safety checks or warranty information that may be required from time to time, manual asset management has been proven to be less efficient than an automated process.

But it is about more than just the maintenance of equipment, it is also about the maintenance of the workforce, and liability.

CMMS ensures clear OH&S and work records are kept Work order tracking ensures that jobs completed are properly documented and logged, because if they are not then it puts a company at risk in case of a safety incident.

It is important companies understand the responsibilities of Engineering/Maintenance Manager; for example, if something was to happen - an equipment failure, or an accident - who is the first person questioned; why and how could have

it been prevented, and what steps are in place to prevent this?

Having the ability to keep the asset in safe working condition, while ensuring the correct qualified person is doing the job is the answer, or in this case the answer is an effective CMMS. Effective maintenance now, and planning for the future, prevents poor overall performance and protects companies.

This leads directly to cost savings on purchases as stock levels

can not only be maintained, but more forward-thinking purchasing can be carried out, eliminating unscheduled downtimes which are further compounded by having to wait for critical parts.

This forward planning capability also means increased equipment uptimes, as equipment is repaired around your operational schedule, not the vagaries of the equipment.

MEX 07 3392 4777 www.mex.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 13

Robotics Thailand’s robotics drive Thai investment in robotics and automation is rising steadily, but the country is leaving nothing to chance in its efforts to modernise, recently announcing several new incentives in an attempt to speed up its industrial modernisation. Brent Balinski spoke to Ajarin Pattanapanchai from the Thailand Board of Investment about the efforts to encourage automation.

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S raw as it is, one measure of an industry’s efforts to lift its productivity is in the number of factory robot units purchased.

This is seen in figures from Industrial Federation of Robotics’ last three surveys, highlighting China’s dash to cope with rising manufacturing wages. The trend is clear, with 36,560 in 2013, followed by 57,096 in 2014, and (a forecast) 68,000 in 2015.

New robot sales are also trending sharply upwards in Thailand. A separate study from the IFR predicts imports of industrial robots will

jump 133 per cent between 2015 and 2018, led – as is the case globally – by automotive and electronics industry investment.

Ajarin Pattanapanchai, Deputy Secretary General at the Thailand Board of Investment, says the country’s industry is rapidly modernising, with investment on electronic control and robotics up about 20 per cent a year for the last five years.

“Mechanical robot arms are going up about 34 per cent per year in the last five years,” she told Manufacturers Monthly.

“There’s a very, very high demand in Thailand to use more automation and robotics.”

As well as imports, the country wants to build a robotics industry of its own. Employment in the sector is predicted to double to 15,000 by 2018, and the country’s government has rolled out incentives to try and stimulate investment.

Officially, the country is on a “Thailand 4.0” drive. Like many other nations it has identified a future based on high-value production, enabled by connectivity, data and high levels of automation.

Its manufacturing sector has been described as less sophisticated than some others, but it has notable successes in two crucial areas: automotive and electronics, as well as in processed food.

According to April’s Thailand Investment Review, the country is 12th in the world for motor vehicle production. In electronics, it is the world’s second-ranked producer and exporter of hard disk drives, with the total export value of electronics growing seven per cent from 2011 to 2015.

However, the need to modernise its

The Thai Summit plant

14 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

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Robotics Toyota’s Ban Pho factory

manufacturing sector is significant.

For example, the Thai auto sector is still described by Austrade as needing to raise its skill levels to be more competitive, and possessing “limited local ability to design and produce high technology parts.”

There’s work to be done to get to Industry 4.0.

“At average, the industrial [environment] in Thailand may be level two to three,” explained Pattanapanchai.

“We have several of the big multinational players, and their factories in Thailand are [approaching] 4.0. Very automated, very connected to the supply chain – we have some there, but on average they are about two to three… The very small ones are maybe at the level of two.”

Part of how the Board of Investment plans to join the so-called fourth industrial revolution involves a manmonthly.com.au

set of tax breaks and other incentives to encourage investment.

Under the Super Cluster policy, announced earlier this year, investment in targeted industries – including automation and robotics – attracts an eight-year corporate income tax holiday followed by a fiveyear 50 per cent corporate income tax relief after that. There is also import duty exemption on machinery and raw materials.

It applies to sectors identified as “advance technology and future industry”- oriented, including automotive and parts, electrical and electronics, eco-friendly chemicals, digital, food, and medical.

Conditions include those wanting to claim the tax breaks having to collaborate with educational institutes. This is to “support or enhance or build a human resource in Thailand to match that demand,”

explained Pattanapanchai.

According to this year’s edition of the triennial Deloitte Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, the nation is ranked 14th (Australia placed 20th) in the world.

The nation’s competitiveness, if this is to be strengthened, will depend on higher levels of automation, said Pattanapanchai.

(Thailand is also attempting to recover its levels of investment following its military coup, with applications for foreign investment slipping from 3,469 in 2014 to 1,038 in 2015.)

As the Deloitte report points out, the world is moving towards an advanced manufacturing future, driven by a convergence of physical and digital worlds. It’s predicted to be good news for established industrial nations like the United States and Germany, whose relatively high wages

mean less than they used to.

Policymakers in countries like Thailand know that if they are to encourage investment and subsequent economic returns, they will have to encourage the use of advanced technologies.

In terms of Super Cluster tax breaks, Pattanapanchai’s organisation hopes they will be bear fruit as soon as possible.

“The [incentives] provide that for the project you set up your business in Thailand within this year and the production or the service – if it’s software or it’s system integration – the production and the service should start by the end of next year,” she said.

“This is the condition of our timeframe.”

Thailand Board of Investment, Australia 02 9252 4884 www.boi.go.th Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 15

Automation&REMOTE CONTROL

The future-proof plant Schneider Electric BDM Pacific, Shane Ayerst, explores how process automation systems can evolve mining plants and help address the process operation challenges faced by mining industry today.

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LOBALISATION, competition, material and resource pricings, aging workforces and regulatory pressures are just some of the challenges facing Australian companies. Some of these challenges grow more daunting by the day. But Australia has always been an innovative force in making the best of difficult situations.

The external factors that affect industry are so volatile that it is difficult to pin down with absolute certainty what things will look like in a year - let alone five years or a decade. To combat these unknowns, companies are using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies to more effectively control their own assets and in-turn, are creating future-proof plants with modern process automation at its core.

The future-proof plant helps organisations in three ways: keeping pace with accelerating business and operational requirements; evolving with changing technologies; and attracting the right people, then supporting them with the required knowledge.

16 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

The speed challenge Over the last decade, critical business variables associated with industrial production have fluctuated. For example, today the price of the electricity that an operation consumes might change every 15 minutes. This increase in speed has also impacted the frequency in variation of the production value and material costs of an operation.

Now, the speed of business is so fast that industrial operations must be able to respond to market changes in real time, including many traditional functions that industrial operations have performed in transactional business systems.

Real time business functions such as performance measures, activity-based accounting and profitable safety and asset performance management, will need to operate succinctly in process automation systems.

These systems must be designed right from inception to be extremely agile, adapting to process changes quickly and easily. As these process changes are implemented,

object-based industrial serviceoriented architecture (SOA) can help industrial companies to adapt flexibly. This future-proofs the operation while maintaining the operational integrity of the plant.

Tightly integrated, resourceto-market, data-driven businesses allow advanced Supply Demand Optimisation (SDO) systems to be implemented. These systems provide real-time visibility and predictive capability, allowing businesses to overcome the challenge of complex interlocked operations. In turn, this enables ‘lean’ production that meets market demands whilst mitigating bottlenecks.

The technology challenge As well as helping companies meet business challenges by futureproofing operations, modern process automation systems embody all the characteristics essential to keeping ahead of ever-evolving technological developments by future-proofing their technology as well.

Control room components such as

operator consoles and engineering tools have much shorter lifecycles than process-connected components such as transmitters and control hardware. There is also an increased use of mobile technology, with two out of three businesses in a recent Schneider Electric IoT survey planning to implement the Internet of Things via mobile applications in 2016. No single computing architecture will monopolise these systems. Instead, IoT will flourish across systems, both at the edge and on premise. This in-part reflects ongoing security concerns, with cybersecurity threats related to IoT a critical challenge for future business. Making information available across heterogeneous computing environments will help end users adopt IoT solutions in the way that best suits their security and mission-critical needs while also offering those with legacy technology infrastructures a logical and manageable path forward.

Industrial businesses can protect their engineering investments manmonthly.com.au

Automotion&REMOTE CONTROL and in many cases, use emerging technology to drive more value from their automation solutions. From an architectural perspective, the key features of such an automation system are threefold: providing a distributed software architecture that operates in standard operating system environments, utilising open industry standards and building a distributed object-based communication infrastructure.

In recent years, the concept of continuously-current technology has been taken to a new level by extending the basic system design to become an industrial service oriented architecture (SOA).

This approach means process manufacturers have the flexibility to continuously upgrade smaller components to meet emerging business needs, without having to upgrade everything at once, thereby minimising downtime.

Increased use of open standards, with a transparent data-driven approach is based on the desire

among industrial companies to have common approaches, allowing systems to integrate and interoperate. Better integration enables the flow of data to information, knowledge and offers operational insight, encouraging efficient collaboration across mining plant operations.

The people challenge A final important issue facing industrial companies over the next few decades will be the changing workforce; retirements of the older workforce and training the next data-driven and more transitory generation. The processes of a future-proof plant help reduce the impact of these changes, primarily by using automation technology such as virtual reality to embed expertise into systems rather than people.

Properly designed automation software can help capture the intellectual property of engineers and operators before they

depart, safeguarding important information and valuable processes. Software workflow engines at the system layer allow intellectual property to be embedded into the system environment. Therefore, critical information and knowledge can be passed on to new employees in the most succinct and efficient way. With these assets available on demand, operators and maintenance workers can be guided through unexpected and perhaps unsafe events via intellectual property embedded in automatically triggered workflows.

Automation systems with sophisticated design are also able to help facilities improve both safety and efficiency standards.

With the challenge often lying in training new operators how to respond to infrequent or unexpected events, simulation and augmented reality software can be programmed to effectively teach this.

Embedding lifetime training capability into the online environment through performance feedback mechanisms and performance prediction software ensures continuous worker development after certification.

Since people learn by feedback control, providing the capabilities of the future-proof plant’s operational insight environment drives workers to even higher levels of performance than that of their predecessors.

The future and beyond IIoT automation system technologies cannot address every challenge faced by Australian companies. But creating FutureProof Plants ensures that a company’s assets are used at their maximum capacity and efficiency and will continue to do so effectively in the coming years.

Schneider Electric 1300 202 525 www.schneider-electric.com.au

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Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 17

Conveyors Examining Lagging Friction Does your lagging optimise your convey’s performance? Flexco chief engineering Brett DeVries explains

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ONVEYOR lagging has long been used to both protect conveyor pulleys and to increase the available friction for driving the conveyor belt. A primary consideration in the choice of lagging is the coefficient of friction.

Designers use the friction coefficient in the pulley wrap factor equation to calculate the drive capacity of the conveyor, so the behavior of lagging friction under real world conditions is of extreme interest.

Through advancements in research and testing, lagging is available in various designs with differing stated capabilities and strengths. As belt technology innovates with increasing tensions and more power delivered through the drive pulleys, a correct understanding of the source of friction – a primary consideration in the choice of lagging – is necessary.

Pulley lagging is available in a myriad of styles and materials. The most common types are autoclave rubber, sheet rubber, strip rubber, and ceramic imbedded in rubber (CIR). All exhibit different coefficients of friction by nature of their design, creating a confusing choice for the conveyor designer.

Some established design charts for friction exist like those contained

in CEMA’s Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials 7th Ed., and the DIN 22101 standard, but they are generalised, come from best practices, and assume a constant coefficient of friction.

In contrast, values published by lagging manufacturers may vary significantly from the charts.

Additionally, there is no standardised test for determining the lagging friction coefficient or an industry standard for applying a safety factor against slippage. So how does one decide which is the best choice of lagging for their conveyors?

Testing, testing, testing The engineering team at Flexco, as part of their continuous efforts to improve not only their lagging solutions, but the lagging’s performance with other belt conveyor components, developed a test apparatus for measuring lagging friction in which friction coefficients are measured under uniform pressurised loading using a tensile test machine. Applied pressures range from 5 to 100 psi, including some measurements to 120 psi for various lagging types.

Five different types of cold bond strip lagging were measured to find the coefficient of friction versus

Determine a way to measure the friction The test fixture was designed to be used with a standard 50kN tensile test apparatus. The test fixture used floating pressure plates that are guided by track rails along the bottom edge. Belt samples are secured to the pressure plates such that the bottom covers of the

belts face inwardly towards each other. Between the pressure plates is the steel shear plate with lagging samples bonded to it.

The design of the fixture uses Newton’s principle of equal and opposite force reactions to assure the load is equivalent on each side.

The pressure plates are substantially thick to prevent flexure. There is a load cell located between the large airbag and the first pressure plate to measure the applied load.

The tensile tester has a load cell attached to the shear plate via pin connection on the protruding

Figure 2.

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Figure 1.

increasing pressure. Test conditions were also varied. Each lagging type was measured under conditions termed “Clean & Dry”, “Wet”, or “Muddy”.

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18 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

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Conveyors Figure 7.

Figure 9.

Wet - Available Driving Shear Stress vs. Wrap Pressure 400

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tab. The effective area of the steel shear plate is 64 square inches. The airbag is capable of applying loads in excess of 6400 pounds, allowing for measurements to 100 psi if the entire area is used.

The test procedure consisted of placing the shear plate between the pressure plates. Air pressure was then applied and allowed to stabilise to the proper reading. Next, the crosshead translated vertically upward at 50.8 millimetres per minute for a distance of 6.35 millimetres, while data was recorded regarding the position of the crosshead and the vertical load measured. While the data from the pressure load cell was not dynamically recorded, it was observed from the digital display that it did not vary during the test. Each test set was a unique combination of conditions (clean & dry, wet, or muddy), lagging type, and pressure and was repeated five times. Compressed air was used to blow off debris or dust generated during testing.

Analyse Stage 1 results The classical representation of the friction force between two solid objects is that there exists a static coefficient until the start of motion, which then quickly drops to a lesser value know as kinematic friction.

The lagging in these tests behaved differently. The measured extraction force vs. displacement curves do not contain a local manmonthly.com.au

600

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maximum force with a rapid decay to a lower value as would occur in classical friction. Upon visual inspection, it was clear that there had been movement between the lagging and the belt samples, so the absence of a transition was not due to insufficient applied force or displacement. This indicated nonclassical friction behavior.

This led to the question of how to measure a friction coefficient at all, since the pull force had not yet stabilised even though slip had clearly been observed.

Another aspect observed was that a doubling in the pressure was not resulting in a doubling of the

Full ceramic dimpled

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extraction force. See Figures 2 & 3.

This violated classical friction theory which states there is a constant coefficient of friction, which is independent of pressure.

After additional research was done regarding the dynamics of a belt traversing a pulley with a 180° wrap, 6.35 millimetres of crosshead movement was selected as the measurement point for the lagging friction coefficient.

Analyse Stage 2 results Using 6.35 millimetres of crosshead movement as the threshold for developing friction, the coefficient of friction vs. pressure test results

Diamond Rubber

Plain (full) rubber

of each combination of lagging type and conditions were graphed.

Exponential curves were fit to the data to allow for automated calculation of the coefficient of friction.

The curves showed a general downward trend in coefficient of friction as the pressure increased, except for the medium and full ceramic lagging samples. For these, it was observed that the coefficient of friction peaked at 30 psi. It is inferred that this is the requisite pressure for the 1mm tall surface nubs to fully engage with the belt.

After the peak, the ceramic plots all trended downward like the other samples.

Using the fitted exponential curves, it was possible to consolidate several of the lagging types onto one graph to illustrate the relative friction performance.

Clean & Dry – conditions were as optimal as possible. The lagging and belt were in new condition.

Wet – conditions are dew-like.

Water was sprayed onto the lagging with a trigger sprayer until water dripped from the lagging. This data does not represent lagging that is hydroplaning or immersed in water.

Muddy – samples were painted with an Illinois basin coal fines slurry. The slurry was a mixture of clay and coal particles of unknown distribution. Ratio by weight was 3:2 coal fines to water.

Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 19

Conveyors Figure 9.

These results showed a strong dependence of lagging friction on pressure. In practice, pressure arises from the belt tension wrapped around the pulley. Where p = 2 x T/ (BW x D), we see that wrap pressure is a function of belt tension. Since drive pulleys remove tension and thereby, pressure, from the belt, the results show that the coefficient of friction is changing as the belt traverses.

Applying the results So what should a conveyor designer do? The new data suggests the reason the pulley wrap factor equation has worked is because of generous safety factors in the assumed friction coefficient, especially at pressures below 70 psi. However, since available friction is pressure dependent, it is difficult to know the actual safety factor and correct results are not assured using this equation when pressures increase.

Ideally, the equation would be modified to include pressuredependent friction. However, an analysis shows it cannot be solved by conventional means. An approximation method must be employed.

20 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Utilise an approximation method Friction force is usually expressed as coefficient of friction multiplied by a normal force. Normal force is distributed over the apparent area of contact and could be expressed as a pressure. So, pressure multiplied by the coefficient of friction is the friction force per unit area between the two apparent areas, otherwise known as shear stress. Conceptually, this could be considered the grip or traction that the lagging has on the belt.

Graphs (Figures 7-9) were made showing the theoretically available driving shear stress. Curves were created from multiplying pressure by the measured coefficient of friction equations.

As the pressure increases, the available shear stress increases, but at a diminishing rate. The graphs suggest maximum grip for each of the different lagging styles.

This is predicted by the origin of the friction force. Friction force arises from adhesion in the areas of true contact between surfaces.

True contact area is much less than the apparent contact area for most substances and can linearly increase with increasing

Muddy - Available Driving Shear Stress vs. Wrap Pressure 400 350 300 shear Stress (kPa)

Discuss the results

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pressure. But not rubber. Since it is homogenous and soft, true contact quickly approach apparent contact area. If the true contact area is approaching the apparent contact area, and friction is the result of adhesion forces between the surfaces, then there will be a limit at the maximum shear stress value those adhesion forces can sustain.

From a practical standpoint, the goal of the conveyor designer is to assure the belt will be driven under all foreseeable conditions. One method to achieve this is to use a safety factor. Once the effective shear stress required to drive the belt is known, it can be compared against a theoretical maximum available value and a design safety factor calculated.

It should be noted that there are three ways to increase the safetyfactor.

Increase the T2 This can be an inefficient way to improve safety factor in some cases since the available shear stress increases slowly at higher tensions.

Change the lagging type.

Full ceramic lagging showed the best performance for pressures exceeding 50 psi.

Increase the pulley diameter or wrap angle to increase the contact area. Pulley diameter plays a pivotal role in driving the belt as compared to the pulley wrap factor equation. With the new method,

Diamond Rubber

Plain (full) rubber

traction is being increased by placing more lagging area in shear due to the extra circumference generated by a larger diameter.

This improved method for calculating conveyor drive capacity is based on the induced shear stress at the interface of the belt and lagging. It originates from measured coefficient of friction data and a modern understanding concerning the origin of rubber friction. It provides the designer with improved accuracy and confidence. Gone are the assumed coefficients of friction that do not match measured data. The improved method also captures and quantifies two intuitive concepts: there is an upper bound for frictional adhesion and larger pulley diameters have moretraction.

A consequence of this approach is the potential for the designer to avoid excessive T1 tension by increasing the pulley diameter or adjusting the lagging type. Since T1 tension commonly guides the selection of the belt minimum tension rating, reducing it may save on belting costs. Depending on the length of conveyor, large savings may be possible by selecting a lower tension rated (and less expensive) belt and choosing instead to invest in a larger diameter pulley and ceramic lagging. manmonthly.com.au

Transport Three-way tipper with eco options As part of the new Daily range, Iveco has introduced an innovative three-way tipper concept.

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hen Iveco launched the current Daily model in late 2014, it left no stone unturned to catch up with the light commercial vehicle competition from Germany. The third generation of Iveco’s best-seller ended up winning the coveted International Van of the Year trophy in 2015 and has since also convinced many a buyer in Australia.

One thing Iveco hasn’t changed for the new model, however, was the old model’s much praised ladder frame architecture with rear wheel drive.

Again, the move proved to be a wise one, allowing the company to offer a strong, yet smart three-way tipper body right off the factory line.

The classic, full-length chassis provides a firm base for the factory tipper, which is fitted to the Daily at the company’s assembly plant at Suzzara, south of Verona in northern Italy. The tipper body features an

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unusual design that is capable of tipping material off either sideways or at the rear end.

The body sits on four ball mountings at the corners of the body.

There are two pins fitted, which – depending on their location – turn the mountings into hinges, thus allowing for three-way movement via the centrally located hydraulic lifting mechanism.

Our test vehicle featured what is likely to become the favourite engine of the range, a three-litre, 125kW unit that puts out 430Nm of torque – enough to handle the two available GVM options at 4495 and 7995kg.

The Daily is also fitted with one of the options that make it stand out from the rest since the latest makeover – the Hi-Matic automatic gear box. This eight-speed box was designed

by ZF specifically for the Daily range, but it may start appearing elsewhere

in the future, too. The ratios are well set-up and the smoothness of the changes makes acceleration and deceleration appear seamless.

If the driver wants to override the auto selection – a move that doesn’t seem likely in this kind of vehicle – gear changes can be made manually via a lever on the dash. There are also power and Eco options on the controller, with Eco making the

changing process feel a little more restrained, yet without losing the car-like sensation the Daily causes in normal mode.

On the job, this Iveco Daily proves to be quite flexible: the tipping body can unload in any direction and is as solid as the proven chassis would suggest. Together with the car-like feel and performance, the award-winning Daily remains a solid choice.

Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 21

Collaboration

Adelaide strategic R&D partnership The University of South Australia (UniSA)’s Future Industries Institute (FII) has announced a research collaboration agreement with LaserBond after a recent MOU signing was endorsed at a full board meeting on campus in late May 2016. This strategic combination between UniSA:FII and LaserBond provides the foundations for a Centre of Excellence in Wear-life Extension for Resource industries.

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NISA is part of a national collaborative group of five major Australian universities that form the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN), a new generation of universities focused on industry collaboration and realworld research with accelerated commercial impact. UniSA has a strong foundation in materials and mineral sciences, and in advanced laser manufacturing technologies.

UniSA’s new multi-million dollar FII focusses on building knowledge and capacity in core future industries. Its 22 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

objective is to develop informed, industry-connected research and innovation in engineering and the physical sciences.

The strategic collaboration of UniSA-FII and LaserBond offers resource industry companies access to the world-class skills, knowledge and facilities of the university, together with LaserBond’s 25 years of surface engineering experience in solving wear life problems in heavy equipment.

LaserBond’s research and development and advanced manufacturing facilities group is located just a few minutes away

from UniSA’s Mawson Lakes Campus in Cavan, SA, where it is developing and manufacturing a range of products and services with embedded IP for direct or indirect export markets. This North Adelaide location is ideal for supporting innovation in several key growth centres, particularly in resources, agriculture and defence.

The company was established in 1992 as a surface engineering firm, dedicated to developing new surface engineering technologies.

In 2000, LaserBond achieved a world first by designing and building a high-powered integrated

laser cladding system, capable of metallurgically bonding a wide range of metals to heavy machinery components.

Subsequently, in 2015, they developed a revolutionary new laser deposition method, which virtually eliminates substrate dilution and detrimental heat effects. This new technology makes laser cladding technology available and economical for a wide range of industrial applications, in particular, high-wear applications common in resource industries, and as a replacement for hard-chrome, as used on hydraulic cylinders in manmonthly.com.au

Collaboration

mining and drilling.

To properly understand the metallurgy and bonding of surface engineered coatings, 20 years ago LaserBond invested in an in-house Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). To this day, no other surface engineering firm has invested in such sophisticated and costly apparatus to support their R&D. They have also worked with the Australian Synchrotron facility to gain high-resolution insights into the metallurgical structure being achieved by its 2015 innovation. Through this research collaboration, UniSA will apply its extensive material characterisation laboratories and testing systems to support the development of new cladding materials, applications and technology.

To meet customer demands, LaserBond is also investing and developing new laser additive advanced manufacturing systems.

It is hoped the collaboration with UniSA:FII’s laser engineering

group will deliver dividends for local manufacturing.

Commenting on the agreement, Allan Morton, Chairman of LaserBond, said, “It’s truly pleasing to see LaserBond’s history of industry led innovation is taking another step. A great deal of effort, time and money has been committed to experimental surface engineering developments since 1992 when the company was formed.

“Founder and Executive Director, Greg Hooper, has always had a passion for continually pushing the boundaries and exploring all things metallurgical.

Together with brother, Wayne, they have driven the company to outperform the rest, with innovations in application systems and materials.”

As an example of this, added Morton, Hooper recently met with the Fraunhofer Society in Germany to confirm that the company was at the cutting edge of laser deposition technology globally.

It employs around 24,000 people, mainly scientists and engineers with an annual research budget of AUD3 billion. More than 70 per cent of its funding is earned through contract work, either for government-sponsored projects or from industry.

“It’s our belief that this format of industry-lead research collaboration brings the best of industry problem solvers together with best academic capabilities in minerals and resource engineering,” said Hooper.

“Almost always our innovation is through unchartered waters, but it creates the foundation for LaserBond’s growth. We’re proud that our company has now been endorsed by these two highly respected organisations.

“We can look forward to a growing cluster of technology companies hastening and broadening of our laser cladding technology to help more industries in more parts of the world”.

LaserBond 02 4631 4500 www.laserbond.com.au

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16/08/2016 2:22:46 PM

EndeavourAWARDS Meet an Endeavour Awards winner: Queensland Gaskets Third-generation manufacturer Queensland Gaskets is preparing for the next chapter in its long history. Carl Quarterman, the company’s managing director since 2012, told Brent Balinski about some of the reasons for the family-owned business’s endurance.

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HERE’S over 150 years’ worth of experience on the floor and over 150 years’ worth of it in sales and management at Queensland Gaskets, according to Carl Quarterman’s count.

Quarterman is managing director at the third-generation company, which began at his grandfather Quentin Shelley Quarterman’s house in 1953 and has been headquartered in Salisbury since 1983.

It’s a close, intensely committed team of a little under 20, attacking a niche spanning a big number of industry verticals.

“A number of our current staff have been with the business for over 20 years and a few have been employed with Queensland Gaskets for over 35 years,” Quarterman told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“Our longevity is born out of our can-do attitude and willingness to embrace the challenge from everyone involved in the business over that time.”

Its endurance can be put down to a few things, but hard-won experience (and the retention of this) is certainly high on that list, as is versatility, adaptability to different problems and clients, and a commitment to excellence in the huge range of what’s produced.

Customers are all over Australia, in industries including defence (products can be found in the Collins Class submarines and embedded in the F-35 Strike Fighters’ electronic warfare and mission systems), in hospitals, ships, refineries, food processing plants and many other settings.

Staying relevant for more than six decades has of course also included staying modern through investments in machinery and processes.

In 2011, after discussions with its clients, “an easy decision” 24 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

was made to move on from QG’s internal QMS and to acquire ISO 9001 QMS certification.

Other significant developments in recent years have included acquiring a CNC router in 2013, which added a “‘3D’ cutting ability with chamfers, rebates, grooves and engraving,” explained Quarterman.

Through this and other investments in two high-pressure waterjet cutters, overhead presses, guillotine and roll slitters, the company has upgraded from being just sealing specialists to thinking of itself as cutting specialists as well.

This year the company also invested in a 3D printer, further broadening its range of manufacturing services.

“We wanted to be able to offer our customers this service with confidence and we have already delivered a number of parts to customers in a range of industries,” said Quarterman.

“We believe that our experience in manufacturing can give us the edge over other suppliers for 3D printed parts.

Earlier this year, its commitment to and success in serving its broadranging client base earned it Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Award in the Outstanding Small Business category, as judged by an independent panel of experts.

The story of QG’s adaptation, commitment to its staff and customers, and its longevity (“who even makes gaskets here nowadays?” one judge said with admiration at the awards dinner) impressed the panel.

“We are pretty successful at applying our experience and good judgement and as a result it increases our chances of getting the “right goods – right first time” to the customer,” said Quarterman when asked about how the business had

sustained over 63 years.

As for its way with adaptation, this will be put to the test in coming years.

As with many Australian SMEs, there are issues to deal with in terms of an ageing workforce and replacing its know-how when this moves on.

According to the managing director, a 30 per cent turnover of staff is expected due to retirement in the next six years. The company will be doing its best to document as much of the soon-to-depart wisdom as it can, then pass this on to the next generation of staff. Then there’s the matter of making sure the new workers are the right ones.

“We engaged an external HR consultant to review our current business structures and collaborate with us to create a viable and sustainable business model for the Queensland Gaskets of the future,” said Quarterman.

“Part of the challenge is understanding what is so special about working at Queensland Gaskets and why so many have spent most of their working lives

committed to the business.”

Developing the right succession plan will be one of the major issues occupying this enduring manufacturer in coming years.

But it’s survived many stumbles as well as many victories, said Quarterman. The stumbles are there to be endured, and the victories to be celebrated.

“The Endeavour Awards gives us an opportunity to celebrate the members of staff who contributed to the success of Queensland Gaskets over such a long time,” he explained.

“The Outstanding Small Business Award which we won this year as exactly that, the nomination recognised the excellent effort by our staff but the victory was a real feather in our cap.”

The 2017 Endeavour Awards will be held on May 11. Go to endeavourawards.com.au for more information.

Queensland Gaskets www.queenslandgaskets.com.au 07 3277 3922

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SAVE THE DATE

11 MAY 2017

MELBOURNE WWW.ENDEAVOURAWARDS.COM.AU

Sustainability Manufacturers cannot afford to view sustainability as a luxury: Kimberly-Clark Kimberly-Clark ANZ’s Sustainability Advisor Ryan Kane spoke to Brent Balinski about the company’s sustainability drive, and the priorities that will take it through to 2020.

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S committing your company to sustainability worth the effort and expense?

According to Kimberly-Clark Australia, which recently released its five-year sustainability strategy, it’s essential.

The company decided in 2011 – matching a triple bottom-line approach – to approach sustainability in three areas: people, planet and product. Of nine goals among these three pillars, it met eight.

For the planet pillar, for example, it reduced carbon emissions by 37.4 per cent and cut manufacturing waste delivered to landfill by 88.6 per cent.

Ryan Kane, Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Advisor at Kimberly-Clark - KimberlyClark Australia and New Zealand, conceded that while things such as committing to the Forestry Stewardship Council and partnering with WWF-Australia come with their costs, they are also a differentiator in K-C’s market.

The next five years will see the global organisation’s approach shift to five key priority areas: social impact, forests and fibre, waste and recycling, energy and climate, and supply chain.

“The biggest shift in our thinking and reporting is based around the social impact stemming from the power of our brands and partnerships,” explained Kane.

“We’re working with our brands to build new capabilities and stronger partnerships to solve environmental and social problems, improve lives and add lasting impact and value.”

“We are also continuing to challenge ourselves to continously improve processes at our manufacturing sites to drive energy efficiencies, emission reductions and waste diversion from landfill.”

MM: One statistic from the five-year achievements was the reduction 26 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

by 88.6 per cent of diversion of manufacturing waste from landfill.

What steps were needed to achieve this? How was this part of the “planet” pillar managed?

RK: We put a great deal of focus on finding solutions to eliminate waste from our manufacturing sites as well as helping our consumers and customers find solutions for the disposal of our products’ at the end of the products’ lifecycle.

In 2009, our Millicent Mill formed a “Green Team” with an ambitious plan to reduce the mill’s landfill waste to zero by utilising sound diversion and recycling strategies involving employees, suppliers and contractors. The team identified all waste streams that were still going to landfill and classified what could be concentrated, collected and potentially recycled or value added.

At our Ingleburn Mill over the past two years, manufacturing waste going to landfill has increased significantly which has also greatly impacted Ingleburn’s cost for waste management. Since 2013 our Ingleburn Mill team has been working to find a solution for a difficult manufacturing waste stream.

In late 2015, we found an Australian waste management company that can convert this waste into processed engineered fuel pellets to create energy in cement factories.

With this solution, our Ingleburn Mill manufacturing waste diversion rates are estimated to have reached over 90 per cent in 2016, getting us back on track to achieving our goal.

MM: Some manufacturers seem to view sustainability as a luxury and an expense. What is your position on this?

RK: Organisations today cannot afford to view sustainability as a

luxury. Sustainability and corporate responsibility are so important in today’s challenging business environment and need to be embedded in the overall business strategy of the organisation. Our consumers and customers want to buy and partner with companies that are leading the way in this space.

Our employees (and perspective employees) tell us they want to work for a company that does the right thing.

At Kimberly-Clark, sustainability is a key element of our company’s heritage, our business strategy and our vision to lead the world in essentials for a better life. Our commitments and actions are motivated by our values and desire to create a better future.

We see many opportunities for new innovation coming out of the sustainability space. A few examples on how Kimberly-Clark Australia is driving sustainability include:

Although our commitment to FSC and our partnership with WWF-Australia comes at a greater business expense, we see operating in this way a given and a differentiator in the market.

2. Post-Consumer Waste – REDcycle Partnership We’re taking an innovative approach to the role our brands can play in inspiring a sustainable future and using the power of our brands to make a difference.

“Conscious Consumption” is currently a hot topic with “Going Green” currently the number one global consumer trend and number two consumer trend in Australia

1. FSC certification and WWFAustralia Partnership As one of the first brands to advertise Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification on our packaging in 2011, we’ve been continuously supporting the efforts of the FSC to increase consumer and business demand for FSC certified products, the most robust certification scheme for paper products.

Since 2011 we’ve been a foundation partner of WWF-Australia’s Love Your Forests campaign, which aims to raise awareness of FSC as the certification of choice, and the importance of sourcing tissue, paper and timber products from responsibly managed forests.

This a key example of how our efforts in responsible sourcing use the power of the marketplace to end deforestation and safeguard forest ecosystems. manmonthly.com.au

Sustainability (according to GFK Roper Research, 2015). This is a key trend that is currently on the top of the priority list for consumers and therefore our customers in the retail space across Australia. In Australia and New Zealand, Kimberly-Clark is supporting Conscious Consumption in many ways. For example, we’re focused on diverting waste from landfill; our partnership with the REDcycle program and retail customers has meant that consumers have recycled over 20 million pieces of K-C branded flexible plastic packaging waste since the beginning of the partnership in 2013.

However, it’s more than just tapping into the green market; rather, it’s taping into what consumers want. They want to buy from trusted brands, with great quality products that innovate to deliver to their needs. They want to be assured that these products are produced in an ethical way with the highest environmental

and social standards, this what the success of our market leading brands is built on.

MM: Could you tell me about the goal to reduce carbon emissions by 40 per cent? Does this assume the policy settings staying as they are? How will this be achieved?

RK: At Kimberly-Clark Australia, our local emission reduction goal is to reduce our carbon emissions by 40 per cent from a 2011 baseline which does not include the closures of our Tantanoola Pulp Mill in 2011 and our Albury Mill in 2015. This represents just over a 6 per cent reduction needed by 2020.

In order to achieve this challenging goal, we are continuously improving processes at our manufacturing sites to increase production and energy efficiencies, implementing LEAN energy at our Millicent Mill, and evaluating strategic investments in technologies where appropriate.

MM: Do you believe cutting greenhouse emissions is a goal other manufacturers should be trying to match as a matter of responsibility?

RK: As I mentioned prior, organisations today cannot afford to view sustainability as a luxury.

Sustainability and corporate responsibility are so important in today’s challenging business environment and need to be embedded in the overall business strategy of the organisation.

MM: Lastly, on the topic of sustainability, South Australia’s renewable energy adoption has been blamed by several manufacturers (though not everyone, of course) for high power prices. Could you please tell me of the effect of recent power price spikes in SA on your Millicent Mill, and if you blame the state’s eager adoption of green energy sources like wind?

Ryan Kane

RK: Our Millicent Mill in South Australia, the home of KimberlyClark’s Kleenex Tissues, Kleenex Cottonelle Toilet Tissue, VIVA Paper towel and Kimberly-Clark Professional products accounts for around 90 per cent of KimberlyClark Australia’s energy footprint.

To remain competitive as an Australian manufacturer, solutions to minimise manufacturing costs are very important. For that reason, we invested over $33 million in a cogeneration plant to make our Millicent Mill more energy efficient and help reduce our operational carbon footprint.

Cogeneration means the mill produces electricity from a gas turbine for our site which generates steam and heat that is used to dry our state of the art tissue paper.

By capturing the waste heat in the exhaust of the gas turbine and using it as a replacement for natural gas in paper drying and steam production, the mill benefits from lower energy consumption, lower energy costs and the overall environmental benefits of reduced carbon dioxide emissions. This Cogeneration Plant has set a global Kimberly-Clark energy efficiency benchmark and we have been externally recognised with a number of sustainability awards over the past three years.

The cogeneration facility: • Provides 100 per cent of the mill’s steam, 92 per cent of the mill’s total electricity and 85 per cent of drying heat for the line that makes Kleenex Cottonelle and VIVA products; • Produce 20MW, enough to power 36,000 average homes making the mill largely self-sufficient in power; Not only does our award-winning cogeneration facility help reduce CO2 emissions, it also helps save money through energy efficiency.

The project has challenged us to think about what else we can do to drive both business and sustainability results.

Kimberly-Clark 1800 028 334 www.kimberly-clark.com.au

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Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 27

LeanMANUFACTURING Trimming the factory floor fat Sustainability prevails routinely as an environmental solution. But its relevance on the manufacturing shop floor is gathering strength as more organisations take on concepts focusing seriously on slimmed down factory floor and management practices. Robyn Short reports.

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OLUTIONS to identifying and eliminating waste from almost all manufacturing processes need to stem from the factory floor operator. This is what former senior manufacturing lecturer, Ian Wood, and professional researcher, Ron Litjens, principal of Two Foot Lean Consulting, told managers and engineers at a recent seminar at Engineers Australia, Victoria.

“Management in the 21st century homes in on cultural change in the identification of specific

28 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manufacturing processes and technologies across a business,” said Wood, whose work has included specialisation in industry processes as a lecturer at Melbourne based RMIT. Wood has also worked for almost 20 years as a business coach, including in the Australian furniture industry.

Today’s lean or slimline factory management does not require a high degree of technical understanding, but simply a different way of thinking, he suggested.

Lean techniques “That is, identifying what process steps are actually value-added, and identifying the work done on a particular process that is not valueadded,” he said.

Advisory work included assessing alternative routines such as rearranging factory floor machinery and equipment. “This can mean the difference between wasting space and using the space cost-effectively and sustainably,“ Wood said.

Wood pointed to time-honoured

parallels of slimline management in icons such as Henry Ford.

“Henry Ford had inventory reduction, for instance, down to a fine art in transportation, Wood pointed out. He referred also to the legendary Guinness brewer employing a mathematician to study statistical process control. “In 2016, we are also getting approaches from organisations outside manufacturing to study the concept of eliminating waste in all processes, ” he said.

On today’s factory floor

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LeanMANUFACTURING techniques, both Wood and Litjens told their audience that employees working as floor operatives across industry represent the most important informants to achieving efficiencies.

Litjens studied inorganic chemical engineering at University of Western Australia and worked as a manufacturing consultant for Kodak Australasia in the early 2000s. “Too many bosses in Australia sit in offices directing what solutions they think have always worked,” he said, These included getting to the root causes of issues and ranged from time taken to put together a piece of machinery and its placement on the floor ahead of completion, to maintaining excess inventory.

Such studies at floor level are not greatly explored in Australia, Wood said, citing the well-known example of automotive giant Toyota.

“Theirs is an example of a culture change other Australian manufacturers need to make, and study whether they themselves are resistant to change” explained Wood.

“It’s whether a systematic way of finding a solution to perhaps existing problematic processes or whether higher statistical techniques should be considered.”

This applied to machinery as well as to processes that include drilling, welding and the like. “It’s

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about understanding what time and cost each of these steps represent,” he said.

Nor should production necessarily stop simply on the demands of a valued customer.

“A customer per se may not understand critical factory processes, or that any temporary cessation of machinery may cost a company principal dearly,” said Wood.

Practices described as fat, or cumbersome, and as diverse as inventory, motion and waiting times called for closer scrutiny in factories.

“All processes cost money including sometimes unnecessarily time-consuming yearly stocktakes.

This needs to be recognised,” Wood said.

Follow-up actions should range from unnecessary testing and over-batching, to long set up times, incorrect forecasting and duplication of operations due to re-work represented common issues.

“Each process, even handling, as well as storage sometimes caused by defects, will come into focus for the cost and time-conscious manager.

This included overprocessing on routines such as unnecessary product testing. When processes had been seemingly satisfactorily developed, factory testing ran the risk of causing over-processing.

Traditions Litjens described reducing time across the entire process, at the actual point of operation to the point of cash received for goods, and from product concept to factory launch, as critical.

“While sitting in an office, the factory clock is ticking away,” he said. Simple actions such as questioning non value-added processing assembly or finishing work times became invaluable in cost-effective management, Litjens said. He cited one example as that of using the same truck for unloading as reloading, depending on the industry. Litjens said he sees manufacturers, where appropriate, continuing using traditional Japan-originated justin-time systems where most of the actual work is getting changeover times down.

Costly time-wasting may also be discovered if a firm decides on producing large batches. This could create big inventory challenges, causing waste, significantly in transport, or in stock sitting around.

Smaller batch production became one solution.

Another example was discovered in too much walking around the floor by floor employees, Litjens said.

“In one situation, after analytical studies, and scrutiny of spaghetti wall

diagrams, we advised and convinced the company to install wheel bases on all the factory floor equipment to prevent these time-wasting processes” Time honoured Jidoka zero defects techniques also continued to work well. Litjens said: “That is, never pass on a defect to your customer, stop and fix the product, and use a root cause analysis, taking note of the cause of the defect as a gift from which to repair a problem.

“The technique requires asking the question ‘why’ a number of times, or right through all the levels of detail,” Litjens cautioned. He described visual controls that quickly show how a process is running, making it obvious when a defect occurs, and knowing how to correct it, as worthwhile practices.

A Japanese Kanban style visual signal which automatically communicates stock levels may also prove effective in some settings, he said.

As one example, he pointed to a machine sensor misaligning, causing production to stop. Depending on the context, this could have a number of solutions, Litjens said.

“Putting fixes in place to stop the sensor misaligning again, became the challenge.

“In one case, the solution became the erection of a guard around the machinery.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 29

EnergyCOSTS Gas prices and global competition Australian manufacturers are facing ever-escalating prices for gas. Bruce Robertson, Analyst, Institute for Energy Economics explains why.

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Spot gas prices in Japan and Brisbane 2016 12.00 10.00 8.00 SA/GJ

6.00 4.00

Brisbane Spot Price

2.00

Japanese Spot Price

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N 2016, local spot gas prices have gone from being substantially less than those in Japan to being substantially more. Spot prices will put pressure on contract prices.

On average spot gas prices in Australia were 33 per cent higher than Japanese prices in the month of July 2016. The previous month the situation was even more absurd, with Australian consumers paying on average 62 per cent more than their Japanese counterparts for gas produced in Australia. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of LNG and Japan is our largest customer.

Australians should pay substantially less than their Japanese counterparts.

To get the gas to Japan it must go through the expensive liquefaction process and be shipped in purposebuilt vessels, a process that costs at least A$3/GJ. In Australia there are three Short Term Trading Markets, run by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) operating in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.

The volatility within the three spot markets as shown in the graphs below makes spot gas markets in Australia virtually useless for Australian manufacturing businesses. What the graphs do not show is that the daily

Source: Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI)

volatility is even greater.

In Adelaide in July local consumers paid 65 per cent more for gas produced in South Australia than the Japanese for the same gas.

In Brisbane in July local consumers paid 20 per cent more for gas produced in Queensland than the Japanese for the same gas.

In Sydney in July local consumers paid 14 per cent more for gas produced in Australia than the Japanese for the same gas. In June the situation was more extreme with Sydney consumers paying 82

per cent more for gas produced in Australia than the Japanese for the same gas.

Historically, the East Coast Australian gas market was domestic only, with stable prices around A$3-4/GJ. With the building of the three LNG export facilities at Gladstone, the East Coast Australian gas market was opened up to exports the market went from being a wholly domestic market to a “global market” with prices linked to “global prices”.

What has transpired however, is

that local prices are now above those of the most expensive market for gas in the world, the north Asian market.

The gas industry often quotes the term “global market” and the need for Australian consumers to pay “global prices”. It then proceeds to cherry pick the most expensive gas market in the world, the north Asian market, to compare us to.

A far more appropriate comparison for global prices would be the third largest LNG exporter in the world, and one of the largest domestic markets in the world, the USA, where domestic consumers pay $A3-4/GJ. Perversely, the same price as East Coast Australians used to pay prior to the LNG export industry opening up the market.

Spot prices are, of course, only part of the problem. Contract prices are even more important for the manufacturing industry.

Unfortunately, information is sparse in the gas industry. What is known, however, is that as of December 2015, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) prices had risen pretty consistently and stood at A$8/GJ nationally. This is around the current contract price in Japan.

It must be remembered that

Spot gas prices in Japan and Sydney 2016

Spot gas prices in Japan and Adelaide 2016

12.00

16.00 14.00

10.00

12.00 8.00 SA/GJ

8.00 6.00

Adelaide Spot Price

4.00

Japanese Spot Price

2.00

6.00 4.00

Sydney Spot Price

2.00

Japanese Spot Price

Source: Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI)

30 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

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Source: Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI)

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EnergyCOSTS Global Glut While prices in Australia continue to rise, globally gas is in a state of glut and prices have crashed. The oil-linked basis of contracts is under threat and contract defaults have already begun to occur.

While gas prices are depressed globally our major customers Japan and Korea are faced with declining demand and a surplus of contracted gas. They have had to re-export some gas. Essentially, our customers are now competing with Australian producers on the global spot market for gas. Gas prices will stay depressed as the spot market gets flooded with gas.

The glut will deepen into 2017 and 2018 as more plants that are nearing completion open and demand is crimped by declining demand and competition from renewable energy sources.

The Solutions prices in Australia should not include the costs of liquefaction and shipping and so should logically be at least, very conservatively, A$3/GJ less than those in Japan.

So why are you paying way over the logical price for gas in a nation that is awash with cheap gas supplies?

Lack of transparency the key The first reason is the extreme lack of transparency and lack of information that Australian consumers and policy makers can obtain from the gas industry.

In the production part of the industry, reserves and resources are calculated using totally different assumptions as to oil prices, gas prices, forward curves for prices and exchange rates. This makes intercompany comparisons extremely difficult and industry aggregation almost impossible. Essentially no one really knows the reserves and resources of gas that exist in Australia today.

The same goes for current production capability of the wells that are in existence. No policy makers can tell you what the current production capability of the industry is. It makes a mockery manmonthly.com.au

of claims of a “gas shortage” in a nation like Australia that is awash with cheap gas.

You do not have to believe me however, you can believe the head of BHP petroleum Mike Yeager, who said in 2012 that: “We want to make sure that the market knows that the Bass Strait field still has a large amount of gas that’s undeveloped.

“We have a lot of gas in eastern Australia that’s available. It’s more important to let the citizens of Victoria and New South Wales, and to some degree, you know, even Queensland … there’s plenty of gas to supply those provinces for – you know, indefinitely.”

The same goes for the transmission pipeline sector of the industry where super monopoly profits are being made at the expense of the Australian manufacturing industry. This is a whole topic on its own that has been covered in this article.

Suffice to say that in the UK, Europe and the USA gas transmission pipelines are heavily regulated as to price and availability. Pipeline companies are also forced to produce individual

pipeline accounts. No such regulation or transparency exists in Australia and hence pipeline costs domestically are not globally competitive

Market Structure The market on the East Coast of Australia is dominated by five companies: Shell, Origin, Santos and BHP/Exxon.

With so few major producers, one would have thought that our regulators would be particularly wary of anything to lessen competition, however, the ACCC has allowed BHP and Exxon to form a “Joint marketing arrangement”, further lessening competition.

The power of this “Joint marketing arrangement” in the domestic market has been enhanced, as the other companies in the industry are heavily committed to the export industry through their shareholdings in the three LNG plants at Gladstone.

It is little wonder that manufacturers fail to get many offers for gas or at a reasonable price. The cartel of gas producers has no incentive to sell gas at a reasonable price.

The manufacturing sector has been poorly served by its peak bodies that have failed to grasp the scale or the causes of the problem. Many are now calling for the opening up of more onshore gas into a global gas glut. This will not solve the problem. Onshore gas in Australia is more expensive to produce than offshore gas and producing expensive gas is no method of bringing down the price.

In addition most of the onshore permits are owned by the existing members of the cartel.

The existence of a cartel is the problem. The market structure allows the gas companies to extract extraordinary prices for gas domestically in the face of a global glut and globally depressed prices.

Until policy makers and peak bodies recognise that the market structure is the problem all solutions proposed will fail.

Australian manufacturers do not have the luxury of time to watch the proposed reforms fail.

Bruce Robertson, Analyst Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis brobertson@ieefa.org 0434 197 932 Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 31

Labelling&ADHESIVES Modern adhesives – a key manufacturing technology of the future In recent years, the use of modern adhesive technologies has become increasingly prominent in the industry. There is a good reason for this, as high-performance adhesives deliver numerous advantages for constructors and processors alike.

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LMOST all types of metals – both conventional standard steels and stainless steel and aluminum – as well as synthetic and fiber composite materials and glass or ceramics can be combined adhesively with professional application. In this way, the specific material properties can be optimised for a component in product manufacture.

“Structural bonding has now become an essential fitting method in all industrial sectors, especially where different materials have to be bonded together,” according to Gerd Dietz, Henkel’s Technical Customer Service Manager. Manufacture of domestic appliances, building facades, filters and wind turbines – there are many examples of the wide range of industrial applications. In truck construction, nearly all modern box bodies are now bonded and sealed at the same time.

Structural Adhesives Compared with Other Fitting Methods In addition to their all-round versatility, there are other factors in the increasingly important role of adhesives in trade and industry. On a like-for-like basis, the traditional connection technologies have familiar disadvantages.

Mechanical processes such as riveting or bolting only enable transfer of force at specific points.

The flux results in peak stresses at the whole or spot edges that increase the risk of fatigue fracture and thus adversely affect the dynamic and static strength of the bond. In contrast, when bonding connections are effected correctly, the stress or load transfer is more evenly distributed across the entire bonding surface.

Compared with traditional fitting methods, bonds are superior in the presence of dynamic stress. In 32 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

addition, the parts to be bonded are not weakened by the drilling of holes.

Compared with welding and soldering, the use of adhesives chiefly stands out by virtue of its flexibility.

Heat-sensitive materials such as aluminum or plastic as well as very thin components can therefore be securely bonded. There is no negative impact on the strength of the material here.

The low heat build-up is another key criterion when processing fitting parts that already have their final surface finish, for example chromeplated steel. As a non-conducting material, cured adhesives also have an insulating effect, thus preventing contact corrosion.

Practical Applications in Industry

So Who Benefits?

Technology Overview

Adhesive technology can be practically integrated into existing production processes in all industrial sectors.

Depending on the application, the coating is applied manually, semiautomatically or fully automatically by robot.

According to the quantity and type of adhesive used, a suction device is sometimes necessary – staff is advised to wear protective clothing and equipment in each case. The principal factor in the quality of the bond is the surface quality of the fitting parts. For example, inadequate cleaning of oil or grease from fitted parts to be bonded is a common source of faults in practical application.

The extent to which the use of structural adhesives at metalprocessing firms pays off commercially must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. In the design and manufacture of composite materials, the fitting method of bonding provides significant freedom of design and the ability to integrate many functions in one component.

Optimising the materials used not only reduces the weight of the component, but also enables a more cost-effective design. In addition, the possible increase in process speed compared with many mechanical joining technologies also delivers commercial benefits. In terms of visual aspects, one advantage is the

Depending on the field of application, various adhesive technologies with specific product properties are available for structural bonding. This chiefly involves one or two-component reaction adhesives that cure at room temperature or as a result of heat.

This includes epoxy, acrylics and polyurethane adhesives as well as silane-modified polymers and siliconebased products.

One distinguishing criterion is the difference between rigid and flexible bonds, both of which have different advantages. Conventional rigid bonds are mainly used for high mechanical transfers of force and replace traditional fitting methods in this case.

They enable a tough adhesive bond on the surfaces to be joined, and meet all practical requirements in terms of their strength properties, as demonstrated by numerous examples in the aircraft and vehicle industry.

In contrast, elastic adhesives are increasingly being used in the presence of high dynamic stress resulting from temperature differences or component movements.

Another essential condition is correct application of the adhesive by the staff. The effectiveness of bonded structures is heavily dependent on the production conditions. These include preparation of the fitted parts, correct mixing in the case of two-component adhesives and their application as well as fixing of and adherence to curing times.

This is why adhesive manufacturers like Henkel regularly arrange seminars and workshops to train specialist workers.

prevention of surface pitting due to spot-welded connections.

In future, the economic success of a metal-processing firm will increasingly depend on the extent to which the high innovation potential is utilised in the manufacture of composite materials.

In this context, structural bonding is an important factor, which is why it is constantly referred to as a key technology of the 21st century.

Loctite Australia 1300 88 555 6 www.loctite.com.au manmonthly.com.au

Packaging&LABELLING New adhesives handle difficult labelling issues Self-adhesive specialist HERMA, a company which knows how to handle difficult labelling issues, has launched two innovative new products.

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HE first offering, HERMAsuperTack (63Vst) is a completely resin-free adhesive for labels that require extremely strong initial tack.

Since migration is determined by the adhesive’s resin content, the new HERMAsuperTack (63Vst) offers especially low migration levels. It features correction factor two, and reaches the approval for dry, moist, and fatty foods.

“Thereby, we are coming closer than ever to the zero migration benchmark,” said Dr Ulli Nägele, the company’s Head of Research and Development.

Because of this and its excellent initial tack, the product is ideally suited for labels that are applied to whole sausages or raw ham without a barrier layer made of film. Since adhesives owe most of their good adhesive properties to resins, it had been nearly impossible to dispense with them up to now.

“The lower the resin content, the lower initial tack and final adhesion, especially on films,” explained Nägele. “But by applying our multilayer technology, we were able to develop an adhesive that does enable us to dispense with resins – without any compromises.”

While its excellent initial tack means HERMAsuperTack is ideally suited to problem-solving when it comes to films and moist, fatty, or slightly dirty surfaces, its range extends well beyond food labelling. It makes the most of its advantages at near-freezing temperatures combined with condensation.

“The adhesive received top marks in tests at 0°C and +2°C on polar and non-polar surfaces,” said Nägele. “Even at temperatures below minus twenty degrees, it does not lose its tack.”

But that’s not all: due to its temperature resistance, the adhesive is also suitable for foodstuffs that have been recently heated, such as boiled chicken.

34 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Tamper-evident labels

HERMAsuperTack's outstanding initial tack, even under cool and moist conditions, makes the new adhesive great for use with many critical surfaces, such as plastic transport boxes.

Its temperature resistance means HERMAsuperTack is also suitable for foodstuffs that have been recently heated, such as boiled chicken."

Universal use

The other new product, HERMAsuperPerm (63S) ensures that labels cannot be removed, even from lacquered cardboard, plastics or steel. As such, it allows users to economically equip packages with tamper-evident labels. Such tamperproof features are mandatory for prescription drugs in many countries.

Its final adhesion is so high that sealing labels equipped with the adhesive cannot be removed from lacquered packaging as well as many other polar and nonpolar surfaces, such as paper, cardboard, or plastics and steel without destruction of the label or the packaging surface. Elaborate and costly special materials like self-destructive films, holograms, cellophane wraps, or even completely new folding box designs are thus no longer required.

Besides being extremely ageresistant, HERMA superPerm 63S is highly resistant to water, hot air, and various solvents.

Since it is a dispersion adhesive, adhesive materials can be easily processed in spite of relatively thick adhesive coating.

A number of reasons can be argued for the use of sealing labels to ensure a first-opening guarantee.

“Labels on pharmaceutical packaging are, as a matter of principle, accepted in the market. Moreover, they do not change the established appearance of existing packages,” explained Nägele. “Folding boxes and folding box machines that have already been validated can continue to be used.”

The application process for the labels, which have an essentially conventional design, is technically uncomplicated.

“The main reason against using conventional, economic labels for reliable tamper-proofing was the fact that they are removable.

This has been invalidated through HERMAsuperPerm 63S,” Nägele added.

Result Group 03 9706 4474 www.resultgroup.com.au

HERMAsuperTack, the world's first resin-free adhesive for labels that require strong initial tack, offers especially low migration levels. It is therefore suitable for use with fatty foodstuffs.

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LevelMEASUREMENT When it comes to level measurement, size matters The latest radar level sensor from Vega is the first such product that operates at a frequency of 80 GHz. And, according to its makers, it is just what food and beverage makers have been asking for. Matthew McDonald writes.

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OOD and beverage processing, like the rest of the manufacturing sector, continues to demand ever improving efficiency. Any product that speeds things up, decreases downtime, or makes life simpler on the factory floor is always welcome.

For example, food makers who need to do processing and mixing in vessels and need to be able to measure tank levels, want devices that are simple to use, versatile, intuitive, easy to clean, safe and reliable.

In particular these days, businesses want sensors that can work well with small vessels. Vega has released such a product, the VEGAPULS 64.

“About two years ago we released our solids radar development [the VEGAPULS 69] which is a radar level transmitter used predominantly for measuring solids material, so your grains, your flours, your mixtures like that,” John Leadbetter, Managing Director of Vega Australia told Food & Beverage Industry News.

“And then with the success of that particular unit, we brought forward by three years the development of the VEGAPULS 64 which is the liquid version of that particular development.”

Leadbetter explained that the unit is the first of its kind to use an ultra-high frequency of 80Hz. “This gives us some refined improvements such as narrower beam angles, faster updates and more resilience to things such as build up sprays - things like that which are normally present in the food industry,” he said.

In other words, it provides accurate level measurement even in poorly reflective liquids and in in vessels with internal installations such as heating coils and agitators.

In addition, the sensor has the smallest antenna of any such product and can function accurately with small storage vessels.

36 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Small vessels Leadbetter explained the use of small vessels is very much an industry trend. “We develop due to industry feedback and the industry was telling us that they need smaller devices, they need smaller fittings.

They need to adapt to narrower vessels.”

Pet foods, dairies, biscuit makers, and so forth are making vessels in smaller sizes these days and know that, when it comes to fittings, bigger equals more expensive.

As such, the VEGAPULS 64 has a thread that measures just ¾ inch.

To demonstrate just how small a vessel it can be used with, the company connected the sensor to a 300ml bottle of water and successfully measured its contents.

“No other radar on the market can do that,” Leadbetter said.

“It’ll still work in larger vessels but it’s specifically been targeted at the smaller end of the market.”

Asked about cleaning procedures, Leadbetter explained that normal industry procedures should be followed.

“Most applications in the food industry using cleaning in place with caustics, so we’ll all fully approved, we have temperature ratings and everything for that. Realistically in the food industry you’re going to have no little gaps or anything like that so it’s going to be a smooth finish.”

The level sensor is suitable for use in areas other than the food and beverage sector.

“When developing a product, we look at all markets then make changes in options to adapt to the different markets,” said Leadbetter.

The product is suitable for use with any type of conductive fluid including water, bitumen, chemicals and so forth. Where the model for the food sector differs from models for other industries is that has received all relevant food approvals.

“We will change fittings or change approvals to adapt to the industry we are going into…it’s just the adaption and the fitting that are changed,” said Leadbetter.

According to Leadbetter, the market for level measurement sensors is changing.

“A lot of the technologies of the past which were traditionally used such as capacitance and ultrasonic

where there are no fittings on top of the vessels to use things like radar level transmitters.

It is a horses-for-courses approach and Leadbetter often returns to the theme of responding to industry demand.

“It’s [about] helping the customer streamline and improve their processes and responses and things like that,” Leadbetter said.

“In most cases we’re able to.

In some cases, it’s a little bit

pressure and things like that are going to become less and less effective (or used) and these more developed products like 80 GHz radar will start replacing those older technologies for size, for convenience and for adaptability,” he said.

Still, the business of level measurement is not a one-size-fitsall proposition. Vega makes other devices such as tuning fork point level switches which are used where it is only necessary to know when a material has reached a particular point; and pressure transmitters which are suitable for applications

far-fetched. We don’t believe we’ve reached the end of radar development and we think there’s a lot more to go yet but this is certainly along the path the food industry is taking us.”

“Other industries have different criteria so we adapt to their types of requirements for their industries - high temperatures, fumes, larger vessels, faster filling, things like that. We try to adapt to all things as much as possible.”

Vega Australia 02 9542 6662 www.vega.com

The future

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Hydraulic training system BESTECH AUSTRALIA has introduced Fluid Power Training Institute’s MF102-H-TSE. Designed by renowned hydraulics instructor Rory McLaren, it helps students understand the principles of hydraulics and shows them applications of the various principles and theories taught throughout their education.

Students will be able to learn about fixed displacement pump circuits, pressure-compensated pump circuits, as well as load-sensing circuits all on one training system. It also contains six directional control valves – three parallel industrial type, one series industrial type, one cylindrical spool

- centred mobile type and one motor spool centred mobile type.

The system is designed to be an efficient and convenient use of space and energy, and is 76cm deep, 122cm wide, and 196 cm high. It was designed to fit trough a standard doorway. Exclusive to the MF102-H-TSE is its Safe-T-Bleed safety system, which de-energises and air-bleeds hydraulic systems and components.

Bestech Australia 03 9540 5100 www.bestech.com.au

Plasma cutting at 400 amps HYPERTHERM, a USA-based manufacturer of plasma, laser, and waterjet cutting systems, is introducing SilverPlus electrodes for its HyPerformance HPR400XD plasma cutting systems.

Laboratory testing has shown SilverPlus electrodes outlasting standard copper electrodes in most cutting applications. Instead of replacing the electrode at a pit depth of 0.040 of an inch, as recommended with standard copper electrodes, Projekt6 18.07.16 16:15 Seite 1

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these are designed to last to a pit depth of at least 0.080 of an inch.

The electrode also delivers a consistent range 4 and 5 cut quality throughout its life, allowing lower operating cost with no impact on quality or speed.

When used with an oxygen plasma gas on mild (carbon) steel, SilverPlus electrodes can burn deeper than copper electrodes extending the life of the electrode. Additionally, silver electrodes help to

preserve the size and shape of the nozzle orifice increasing nozzle life as well.

In addition to the new 400 amp electrode introduced today, Hypertherm also offers 130, 200 and 260 amp versions with similar performance.

Hypertherm www.hypertherm.com

Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 37

What’sNew Portable computing power METROMATICS is supplying NextComputing’s very small, lightweight, portable Radius computer.

The Radius is ideal for deployable use cases requiring high-end processing and storage, such as data recording, webcasting, graphics generation, deployable server applications, deployable virtualisation applications, and graphics editing

Mini DC electric linear actuator MAXON MOTOR AUSTRALIA can supply completely customised miniature electric linear actuators for po-sitioning tasks.

Combining a 16mm 60W 24V brushless DC motor with an integrated radial and axial thrust block bearing system allowed the shaft to be manufactured directly as a ball screw assembly.

Despite the tiny dimensions available with motor diameters as low as 6mm, the unit can deliver high linear forces.

This 16mm ball screw version delivered to an Australian customer recently has a force delivery capability of 403N. Combined with the brushless motor’s high-speed capability, having the ability to accelerate to 12,000rpm in under 2ms, the actuator is also extremely dynamic.

The motor is fitted with an integrated digital encoder for detent free smooth positioning. The length of the ball screw and the nut details are all configurable to suit the machine design requirements. maxon motor Australia 02 9457 7477. www.maxonmotor.com.au

38 SEPTEMBER 2016 Manufacturers’ Monthly

applications. Its internal architecture is modular and scalable, ideal for innovators to personalise a platform specific to your application requirements.

The unit can be optimised for various work flows by selecting a preferred combination of Intel Core i7 and Intel Xeon multi-core processors, high performance 2133MHz memory, and up to six removable,

enterprise-class SSD, SAS, or SATA hard drives. The system also features up to three PCI Express 3.0 slots (and a single PCI Express 2.0 slot) for high-performance I-O, graphics, co-processing cards, or RAID controllers for recording, streaming and databases.

Metromatics 07 3868-4255 www.metromatics.com.au

Service-free edge v-belt GATES has launched what it says is the first 100 per cent service-free belt, the Quad-Power 4. These latest generation EPDM belts deliver an extended service life and have been designed to eliminate costly downtime for re-tensioning, repair and replacement.

Unlike conventional belts, the Quad-Power 4 raw edge v-belt does not suffer from severe tension decay in the first hours after installation. This negates the need for a run-in period and ensures that the belt will never require re-tensioning throughout its service life.

The new raw edge, moulded

notch construction not only saves on downtime and maintenance costs, but by using state-of the-art profiling technology, guarantees consistent pulley/ belt contact resulting in energy efficiencies as high as 98 per cent, or 3 per cent higher than wrapped v-belts.

The belt maintains its performance in extreme cold conditions as low as -50 degrees celsius. Its newlyformulated EPDM rubber resists hardening to avoid cracking in temperatures up to +130 degrees celsius, making it suitable for hot

air HVAC applications or other high temperature environments.

Gates Australia 03 9797 9688. southpacsales@gates.com

Dictation software solutions NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS has announced a new suite of Dragon professional productivity solutions for PC and Mac, using Nuance Deep Learning technology to drive new levels of documentation productivity.

The new releases are Dragon Professional Individual, version 15, and Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, version 6. Both feature dictation, transcription and customisation capabilities. These new releases follow the recent updates to Dragon Legal Australian and Dragon Legal New Zealand software.

The new Deep Learning technology at the core of its speech engine improves accuracy, with an enhanced ability to learn individuals’

voice patterns and accents, and to adapt to acoustics in open office or mobile environments. This, according to the company, is the first time Deep Learning capabilities can run embedded on a PC leveraging a users’ speech data to improve their own language and acoustic model.

The new Dragon also brings with it advanced transcription, powerful customisation, and an improved ability to work with portable touchscreen PCs, extending the benefits of speech recognition to more mobile use cases and environments. As a result, documents are completed with higher accuracy in a fraction of the time, giving professionals across a number

of industries – such as legal, public safety, social services and education – the ability to focus more on missioncritical tasks.

Nuance Communications www.nuance.com

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The LastWORD Aussie companies’ curiosity in disruption growing According to Autodesk, Australian manufacturers are cautious in adopting a collection of trends that are redefining how things are made. Brent Balinski spoke to Autodesk’s Rod Hunt about local interest in some of the disruptive technologies highlighted by the company.

A

S it has for the last two years, US software giant Autodesk brought its Autodesk University event to Hilton Sydney, presenting examples from around the world of what it calls “The Future of Making Things”.

With clients across a broad set of industries – including synthetic biology, architecture, entertainment and advanced manufacturing – the collections are both varied and tailored to inspire.

This time around, the mood among its Australian manufacturing audience at the event was buoyant, according to sales manager Rod Hunt.

“Buying trends are definitely up; the one thing that manufacturers can see through our discussions is we’re a lot broader than just the engineering department,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

“And it’s taken a little bit of time for that to sink in, but right now, a lot of it’s to do with the Future of Making Things, and that message we’ve been taking out to the market.”

Regarding some of the big trends embraced by the picked-to-inspire Future of Making Things examples, though, the Australian industrial community seems to be cautious in latching on. This includes concepts such as microfactories, wearable technologies and the internet of things.

For these three examples, local clients seem interested rather than eager adopters, according to Hunt.

In terms of microfactories – highly flexible factories enabling short, highly variable runs, often of very different products – there is interest but no specific local examples right now. US examples of such factories include GE’s Appliance’s FirstBuild and those used by Local Motors.

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When it comes to wearables, there is potential and even a few impressive examples (such as Catapult Sports). This is, however, another area where local manufacturers have not latched on to a significant trend, said Hunt.

The internet of things boom is predicted to bring the world 5.5 million new connected devices, every day, this year, according to research firm Gartner. There will be, according to the same report, 6.4 billion connected devices by the end of 2016.

There are local examples, certainly, of IoT businesses and research-led efforts. Though again, things are at an early stage of development, said Hunt.

“Everybody that I talk to, it’s on their mind. They’re thinking about ‘how do I take advantage of this? I know it’s coming, so how do I adapt my products?” he said. “[There’s] the opportunity of $200 million alone of connected consumer

devices within Australia this year, right, and that market is about to grow more and more. So it’s a massive opportunity.”

Another area where there is potential is in a “power by the hour”- type model, whereby manufacturers,particularly those with industrial clients, sell uptime rather than a product.

“I’m in the midst of conversations with quite a few companies that are looking to do exactly that,” said Hunt of local clients.

This magazine knows of one Australian manufacturer preparing to launch such an offering, and there may be others, but according to Autodesk it is an area of stilluntapped potential.

“They’re just sort of trying to understand that,” said Hunt.

“I don’t think you’re going to see [examples] for maybe another year or so. But then I think it will take off in a hurry, and I think we need to be ready to handle it.”

While the above trends might not be ones local companies are leading the world in, Hunt predicts them to catch on soon.

After 13 straight months of growth, widespread optimism seems to have returned to Australian manufacturing. Many companies are investing again and have switched from survival mode, are looking to invest, and are considering newer demands from consumers and newer ways of designing products.

“What we actually see now is it’s taking manufacturers a bit of time to get their head around ‘how do I move out of what I used to do? And how do I transition to this new market, this new opportunity?’” he noted.

“So we’re seeing the manufacturers within our space ask the right questions, and the questions aren’t ‘how am I going to survive?’ It’s “now I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and what do I do to make sure I position myself for success.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly SEPTEMBER 2016 39

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