In the Media

(SYDNEY, 6 OCTOBER) A new collaborative project backed by the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC) will greatly expand output and lower costs at Sydney Composites, a specialist advanced composites manufacturer that takes projects across a range of industries from design and simulation through to tooling and finished parts. The project will help the company pursue international opportunities, scale its business, and bring a new production technology to Australia.

It was a holiday in Indonesia that led young engineer Joshua Wigley to do what he currently spends his days doing: building additive manufacturing (AM) machines that can make super-sized structures like boats, homes, and concrete formwork. “I was in Bali at the time and there's a lot of plastic there piled up or in the rivers and the oceans, floating," the Hyperion Systems founder explained. "And really the idea was 'what if we could combine all that plastic into something else that floats, like a boat?'” “Myself and my co-founder were already in the 3D printing space and we thought, ‘okay, what if we just built a bigger version of a desktop printer and we just scale that up?’

Two themes stood out during the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) annual Partner Meeting last week. One was the intensified focus on industry-led R&D and commercial readiness. The other was AI, which as one guest put it: “isn’t the elephant in the room. AI is the room.”

August 27 – Five doctoral students got a chance to rethink their research in commercial terms through a nation-first pitchfest at the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC) annual Partner Meeting last week. 

A project supported by the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) links Oilfield Piping Systems (OPS) and The University of Queensland (UQ) to develop more durable sucker rod guides, essential components for the oil and gas industry.

July 13 – A team from Hypersonix Launch Systems and The University of Queensland has beaten the extreme heat produced when travelling more than five times the speed of sound while also disproving the old proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone.”

July 8 – A new artificial intelligence-based manufacturing augmentation platform, supported by the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) and developed at Deakin University’s Applied AI Initiative, has the potential to create billions of dollars in efficiencies if adopted throughout the country.

June 12 – The Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC) has supported a newly-developed digital platform, delivering cash-strapped smaller manufacturers, startups and others access to vital but often-unaffordable machinery, while also helping unlock new value from idle assets.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – The global marine industry is facing an unprecedented materials crisis. Right now, an estimated 35 to 40 million fibreglass boats worldwide are reaching their end of life 1 . With no scalable pathway for recycling, these vessels are becoming a significant environmental burden, dumped in mangroves, scuttled in deep water, or destined for landfills where they will persist for centuries.