Date: Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Time: 10am – 2pm (AEDT)
Venue: First Building, 215 Badgerys Creek Rd, Bradfield NSW 2556

Join Composites Australia and the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility (AMRF) for a half day Tech and Networking event, including a guided tour of the brand new $60m+ advanced manufacturing facility. The session will explore the application of automation in composites production, the digitalisation of manufacturing workflows and design for scalable manufacturing – de-risking the scale-up of production processes for manufacturers.

Register to see advanced composites and additive manufacturing equipment in action, including compression moulding systems, robotic filament winding, automated ply cutting, kitting, and laser ply projection for accurate layup. Demonstrations will also feature the adjacent capabilities within the AMRF of metal printing (laser powder bed fusion) as well as large format polymer 3D printing, and a range of surface scanning, metrology, microscopy and other testing capabilities.

Presentations

Luke Preston – Chief Technology Officer, ACM: Introduction and brief discussion on the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre.
Luke is an advanced manufacturing specialist with extensive experience at Tesla, Ford, and Australian composites leaders Carbon Revolution and Quickstep. His career centres on designing and implementing large-scale manufacturing systems that dramatically increase production capacity. Luke combines cutting-edge automation where it delivers the greatest value with proven technologies that manage risk, achieving scalable, reliable, and efficient manufacturing outcomes.

Kerryn Caulfield – Executive Director, Composites Australia: Industry update
Kerryn is a senior executive specialising in Australian manufacturing. She has led Composites Australia for over 20 years and brings more than five decades of experience across diverse industries. A prolific publisher, she promotes the capabilities of Australian manufacturers and works nationally and internationally to advance the composites sector through education, standards, policy and collaboration. She has held senior leadership roles, received Ministerial appointments and chairs national and international committees.

Nathan Howell – Lead Engineer, AMRF: Facility overview and capability
Nathan is a mechatronics engineer with extensive aerospace and defence manufacturing experience. He has commissioned robotic assembly processes for carbon composite wing flaps on military cargo aircraft and led teams machining composite skins for the F-35 program. Passionate about Western Sydney, Nathan is focused on embedding emerging composite manufacturing technologies into mass production.

Gareth Jones – Managing Director, Marley Flow: AMRF First Project Automating composite blade manufacturing
Marley Flow Control is an Australian-owned engineering company specialising in cooling tower manufacture and maintenance, flow control systems, large-scale fan manufacturing, laser alignment and facilities maintenance. Established in 2004, Marley operates from Emu Plains with offices in Melbourne, Queensland and New Zealand. Gareth will discuss the composite blade project and collaboration with AMRF on scaling production.

Ben Leavold – Composites Engineer, AMRF: Digital design aspects of parts made from large format printed tooling.
Ben is an aerospace engineer with composites industry experience, particularly in automotive applications. He brings expertise in hand layup and composite part manufacturing to the AMRF. His presentation will cover the design of 3D-printed tooling and the manufacture of parts using AMRF’s capabilities, including large-format 3D printing, machining, ply cutting, ply projection and layup technologies.

Dr Nisa Salim – Director, Swinburne-CSIRO Testlab: Scalable manufacturing in compression moulding
Dr Salim is internationally recognised for innovation in multifunctional composites. She directs the Swinburne–CSIRO National Testlab for Composite Additive Manufacturing and leads Swinburne’s Smart Materials Research Team. With 100+ publications, fellowships, keynote addresses and editorial roles, she also holds leadership positions with the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

Followed by light refreshments/networking lunch

12:30-2 pm: Facility Tours

Tickets: This event offers two ticket types:

    • Member ticket — Free (registration required)
    • Non-member ticket — $50.00 incl. GST

Venue & Access

    • Address: First Building, 215 Badgerys Creek Rd, Bradfield NSW 2556.
    • Parking: Free on-site parking is available around the venue.
    • Accessibility: Step-free access and accessible facilities are available. Please advise of any requirements at checkout.