Two colossal sheds now command the landscape, standing tall as they overlook the pristine waters of the Indian Ocean. This is the new site of Dongara Marine, recently relocated to Geraldton.
Edencraft carries a legacy of trailer fishing boats that traces back over sixty years, beginning in Miami in the 1960s. The company has become a staple of Australian fishing folklore, with the 233 Formula Classic boasting a timeless hull design known worldwide for its endurance and performance. Image courtesy of Tom Cameron, Wicks Estate Media.
The Whiskey Project Group (TWPG) has secured a significant contract valued at US$12.5 million (approximately AU$19.4 million) with the United States Defence Innovation Unit to supply a fleet of tactical watercraft for use by the United States Marine Corps (USMC).
The commercial workboat sector is undergoing a transformative shift as operators increasingly seek out advanced materials to improve transport efficiency by reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Images by Simon Hoyle, Southlight for WEB
From its boat building hubs in Mornington and Yaringa Boat Harbour, southeast of Melbourne, Hart Marine builds mighty boats designed for the speed, agility and stability required to navigate both Australian and international waters with industrial purpose.
Bluefin 9 autonomous underwater vehicle onboard the Mine Counter Measure Support Boat at HMAS Waterhen in Sydney, New South Wales. Courtesy of Royal Australian Navy Photographer: LSIS Daniel Goodman.
Dave Biggar and his team have funnelled their comprehensive experience in composite manufacturing across the marine, aeronautical and civil construction sectors to design and manufacture must-have adventure caravans.
Cure Marine, at the forefront of ‘Marine 4.0’ composites design and manufacturing, is utilising an impressive array of in-house, state-of-the-art automated machinery.
Link Composites’ product portfolio includes lightweight sandwich panels, infused panels, fibreglass parts, extrusions and laminates.
Plastool specializes in producing high precision components, tooling, and 3D CNC machining solutions.
Achieving the status of ‘Tier 1 OEM supplier’ at the performance and premium end of the market, Carbon Revolution has climbed to the top of the global automotive supply chain pyramid in less than two decades.
Wheel evolution spans over five to six millennia, with its humble inception in the 4th millennium BC.
A structural PET foam core crafted from recycled post-consumer PET bottles.
Since the creation of the touring caravan, construction has undergone significant developments over time. In the early days, caravans were constructed with a mix of wood paneled sides and treated canvas made by Australian mills.
First published June 2012:The dictionary defines an opportunity as an “advantageous combination of circumstances”, and that’s exactly what evolved for LSM Advanced Composites when the project design and management teams for James Cameron’s submersible DEEPSEA CHALLENGER approached the Toowoomba based company to manufacture the carbon fibre internal lining of the Pilot Sphere.
First published June 2012: “I’ve always dreamed of diving to the deepest place in the oceans. For me it went from a boyhood fantasy to a real quest…” James Cameron
It’s a wrap. The Composites Australia conference held in Adelaide in early June at Morphettville was a great success. Thank you to everyone who attended, presented, sponsored and exhibited. You made the event. Australian sovereign manufacturing was palpable during our tour of the mighty RPC Pipe Systems Pty Ltd.
A Futuro house is a round, prefabricated house designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, of which fewer than 100 were built during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The shape, reminiscent of a flying saucer, and the structure’s airplane hatch entrance has made the houses sought after by collectors. Importantly, it was an early use of fibreglass technology. Photo Credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford
Operating from its factory in Moolap, just two hours south west of Melbourne, Dulhunty Poles is a manufacturer and distributor of a unique range of innovative engineered geopolymer cement poles for a raft of applications, but particularly for utility power.
Fibreglass, or glass fibre reinforcement, is possibly the ultimate reinforcement material ever developed. Now, ninety years after its invention in 1932, I doubt whether its creators would have imagined the breadth of materials and applications in which fibreglass would be used.
A prosaic and mundane necessity, access covers have played an important role in civil works projects for centuries, protecting a world of pipes, wires, conduits and drainage systems below our walkways, driveways, roads, freeways, docks, wharfs and runways, while providing convenient access for maintenance workers. As technology and community expectations and needs have grown, the humble access cover has until recently struggled to evolve.
Australia’s electricity networks extend about 918,000 km with more than seven million power poles – most of which are above ground and extend deep into the bush. These sections can be hard to access, expensive to maintain and are easily severed from the main grid by natural disasters.
If you take public transport, pound the pavement or even simply cross the street for your morning coffee, you will have noticed the distinctive tiles with raised spots and strips imbedded into the asphalt or concrete of public walkways.
Beneath New Zealand’s largest city, magic is happening: Watercare, the city’s water utility is building a 14.7km underground wastewater tunnel from Mãngere Wastewater Treatment Plant, across the Manukau Harbour to the central city. It’s the largest and most complex wastewater infrastructure project in New Zealand history
According to Dale Timms, General Manager and Director at Envirotank Pty Ltd, product and material acceptance of fibreglass composite technology for underground tanks took close to 30 years.
Technology driven and highly-regulated, vaccine manufacture is a challenging process manufacturing industry. Fibreglass reinforced plastic (FRP) tanks play an important role in process manufacturing by providing safe, non-combustible, non-corrosive storage of raw material inputs, formulated outputs, waste, and effluent.
The Kwinana Nickel Refinery located south of Perth, Western Australia (WA), is the ‘first of its kind in Australia producing premium nickel sulphate used to make electric vehicle batteries. Its industrial equipment required to process the mineral ore is performance and material intensive – built to exacting engineering specifications.
Mining equipment is expected to operate for many decades with ongoing integrity, reliability and productivity in the region’s desert climate that can drop to below zero and rise close to 50 degrees.
Fibreglass was a material to chase dreams with and gave birth to a number of auto start-ups which manufactured a range of performance muscle cars through to jolly cheap run-abouts from the early ‘60s to late ‘70s.
The Purvis Eureka is a sports car that was produced by Purvis Cars at Dandenong in Victoria from 1974 until 1991 after Allan Purvis had negotiated the rights to license building the Volkswagen Beetle-based sports kit car from its UK designer.
Marketed as ‘A little American influence with a lot of Australian ingenuity’, the ‘Perentti’ sportscar was designed and built by Revolution Fibreglass in the outer Melbourne suburb of Bayswater.
Campbell Bolwell’s pioneering work moulding fibreglass components was first forged on making replacement panels for a 1937 Ford V8 sedan he’d bought for £50, after his brother had taken it for a serious burn one afternoon.
At its peak, South Australian based Elfin Sports Cars was the world’s second largest producer of racing cars.
Considered by many as the most successful attempt to design, manufacture and market a minicar in Australia, the Goggomobil Dart was an Australian-designed fibreglass two-seater open sports car that went on sale in 1959.
The Zeta is a marque of automobile that was produced in Australia from 1963 to 1965 by South Australian manufacturing company Lightburn & Company Limited. It was a large industrial company employing over 500 people, that manufactured a raft of products from the “Lightning” brand concrete mixers, washing machines and spin driers, wheelbarrows and boats.
This 58th edition of the Connection magazine celebrates International Women’s Day on 8th March 2022 by featuring articles on women leaders in the composites sector.
In recent years, we’ve speculated about the commercial benefits in space, space travel and associated opportunities. This ripping article by Dr Nisa Salim, the Vice Chancellor’s Initiative Research Fellow at
Earlier this month, his Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and head of the Abu Dhabi
ATL Composites (ATL) was founded on the transformative use of liquid epoxy formulations for timber boats and, subsequently, for a wide range of liquid and filled systems used in multiple industries including high performance marine applications. And at the tiller of this remarkable Australian company is the remarkable Lorraine Duckworth.
In 2008, Leona made the pivotal decision to leave her secure job to take over her father’s composite fabricating business along with her brother John. Leona admits that “To have grown the business from a small family company to a national manufacturing enterprise is an achievement which has brought me significant career satisfaction.”
Genelle Coghlan is a materials geek. She loves the art of engineering purpose and performance into roll goods, tapes and braids, and pushing the limits of fibre compositions for enabling end-use applications in diverse manufacturing markets, be they composites, ballistic, filtration, industrial, hygiene, transport, infrastructure, motorsports and leisure.
Aquatic Leisure Technologies (ALT), Australia’s largest swimming pool manufacturer. At the helm of this extraordinary company is Lynley Papineau. While Lynley describes herself as “focussed and results orientated,” others call her a powerhouse.
From hand laminating, polishing plugs, grinding and trimming, there are few jobs that Krystyna hasn’t done in the company’s journey from a $50 start-up to employing over 70 people manufacturing products for the mining, transport, construction, chemical, defence, recreational and building industries.
Sharon Swan is competitive, in business as in life. She’s a champion rally co-driver and had a career in the timber industry before founding Toowoomba-based LSM Advanced Composites with her husband and co-Director, Liam Mahoney. Twenty five years later, the adventure of making lightweight high-performance carbon fibre composites clearly hasn’t waned.
Kerryn Caulfield, Executive Director of Composites Australia is one of the eight women featured in the 58 Edition of the Connection magazine whose achievements deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated.
Bolwell composite manufacturing site in Moorabbin hosted a press conference at which the Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and Bridgett Vallence, Shadow Minister for Industry, Manufacturing launched their $2.5 billion
Composites Australia congratulates Campbell Bolwell in being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to Mechanical Engineering.
Coming out of a year like no other, it wasn’t surprising that the future is not expected to be ‘business as usual.’
Founded in 2019, Hypersonix Launch Systems aims to provide sustainable satellite launch services from Australia using hypersonic scramjet technology.
The acquisition and installation of state-of-the-art filament winding technology to lightweight piping in naval ship building programs
XTEK has a single purpose, which is to protect our frontline protectors. The company was founded – and is still managed today – by former Defence Force and Homeland Security personnel to develop and deliver the lightest, thinnest and highest performing protective and surveillance products to serve and sustain our service personnel and assets.
Matrix Composites & Engineering is a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of products that are intended to work in subsea conditions or other high pressure environments and are capable of testing to sea water depths of 6,750 m or 662 bar.
Offering advanced composite fabricating, manufacturing and engineering capabilities across a broad spectrum of materials and fabricating technologies.
With the focus of future warfare planning, Australia, through the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is procuring new submarines and anti-submarine warfare frigates. Both programmes require vessels to be able to operate with high levels of stealth, part of which relies on a low acoustic signature.
WA based Innovaero is strategically focused on product development, design and manufacture for the highly regulated and multi-disciplinary Australian and offshore Aerospace industry.
Boeing’s Melbourne facility recently commenced its fifth Boeing Airpower Teaming System aircraft, as the program continues its rigorous ground and flight testing. The Airpower Teaming System team took advantage of Melbourne’s commercial manufacturing aircraft experience on Boeing 787 wings’ trailing edge.
Our recent survey to measure the pulse of the Australian composites sector revealed heartening results that counterpoint COVID-19 manufacturing conditions. When asked to rate business conditions since COVID-19 hit in
With so many different types of carbon fibre reinforcement available, it can be difficult for new unskilled recruits to understand the differences between them and how to choose the right one for a particular project. This instructional video for in-house training cogently describes how properties such as fabric weight, weave, tow-size (k-count) and fabric format affect the handling and performance of the reinforcement.
Click here for the Youtube link
The $3.4 million MoorPower™ Scaled Demonstrator Project was recently launched, with Carnegie Clean Energy, the Blue Economy CRC and composites tech-demonstrator specialists, ACS Australia with prototyping of composite components and material processes being developed.
Campbell Bolwell built his first fibreglass sports car in his parents’ garage when he was 16 years old and subsequently transformed his hobby of building special sports cars into a business. The following 60+ years is a compelling story of entrepreneurial spirit and raw Aussie initiative, innovation and adaptability.
Composites Australia is a founding member of the Global Composites Sustainability Coalition which is a forum for international collaboration in areas related to (but not limited to) cost-effective collection and reprocessing of waste to enable circularity; the development of new chemistries that will contribute to more sustainable materials; the development of standards relating to environmental footprint of composites; the development of toolsets and data for design of composites.
Over the course of 2021, as part of a broader analysis of the Australian composites sector, we’ve mapped Australian companies, enterprises and institutions across their specific capabilities with carbon fibre composites.
LinkedIn Learning is an online educational platform that hosts thousands of online courses and learning experiences which include some on composites manufacturing.
South Australian composite pipe manufacture, NOVAFAST was recently awarded close to $1.4million under the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants program.
Play equipment, urban furniture and public infrastructure are some options for reusing composite wind turbines
Built by Wellington Electric Boat Building Company (WEBBCo) for local ferry company, East By West, the New Zealand-developed vessel is the first fully electric high performance passenger ferry in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct will home research and development and advanced manufacturing within the established industrial park and export hub.
In late September, Boeing Australia revealed its new manufacturing facility for the Loyal Wingman unmanned aircraft will be built at Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba, Queensland.
For 2020/21 financial year ABS data on the volumes of fibreglass imports show an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year across the three relevant tariff codes. This equates to an additional 2,500 (20 ft) containers. It must be noted that, given shipping times, these orders are likely to have been placed at the height of the pandemic.
Carbonix, a Sydney-based start-up run by an America’s Cup veteran that manufactures fully integrated RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones for commercial use, recently closed a $6.3 million funding round as well as securing a contract to monitor Ausgrid’s power networks.
The civil construction company, ALLROADS proposed to replace a standard concrete and steel bridge design with a Wagners Composite Bridge design. The lightweight composite bridge then allowed the project team to replace the complex abutment substructure with a simplified pile and headstock substructure design.
Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic, won the men’s pairs title in the Olympic rowing event with their boat driven by carbon fibre composite Croker Oars. While keen to get back to the Croker factories on the banks of the Manning River, three and a half hours drive from Sydney; Darren Croker who travelled to Tokyo to support the rowing events had to endure two weeks of quarantine on his return.
Allnex responded by introducing POLYPLEX SURFBOARD LAMINATING RESIN, a medium reactivity, orthophthalic-based unsaturated polyester resin, designed for use in FRP Surfboard constructions.
Polyplex™ has been specially formulated to provide rapid glass fibre wetting properties, low colour and rapid cure rates following gelation.
Australian carbon fibre composites featured in the rowing and sailing categories at the recent Olympics by winning seven medals. CST Composites, or ‘Composite Spars and Tubes’ as it was originally known, supplied over 80 carbon fibre filament wound mast tops to the women’s’ and men’s’ lasers across all nations.
WEIR Minerals released a beaut video showing the results of a recently completed “massive upgrade” at the company’s Artarmon foundry. WEIR Minerals specialises in servicing the mining sector of Australia. The
Founded in 2015 by Jon Partington, Partington CC specialises in designing and making high performance carbon fibre wheels.
Carbon fibre – TECHNICAL RESOURCE . COMMENT: 12 minute tutorial for beginners & new employees Click here for Youtube link.
The Whiskey Project Group Ltd is a young Australian-owned tactical watercraft design and manufacturing company, founded by former Defence Force officers to build the boats they’d always wished for.
2020 is the year that Marky Industries made the bold move to transform its entire production system from LRTM to reusable silicone vacuum bags
Lorimer Composites (LC) is a startup that is specialising in developing innovative ideas into market-ready products and services.
Praxis Aeronautics developed the first structural solar cell encapsulation system on the market
A.C. Whalan Composites Pty Ltd, is changing its name to Poletech Pty Ltd
With safety his paramount objective, Matthew Dow, Founder of Composite Stands, set out to design and develop a robust, ergonomically and operationally safe jack stand.
‘Get real – get rural’ is the advice from Roger Veitch, founder and Managing Director of startup Veitch Boats based in Bairnsdale, southeast Victoria.
Written by Kerryn Caulfield, Executive Director, Composites Australia Inc.. Founded in 2016 by the late Paul Camilleri, Kinetic NRG is a startup with a mission to provide communities across the
Concerns over wastage of carbon fibre spurred fellow surfers – all Deakin University graduates – to combine their knowledge of composites, electrochemistry and material interfaces to develop a surf board made from recycled carbon fibre.
Carbonix is a company that specialises in high quality, fully integrated RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – commercial drones – which are manufactured from its purpose built site in Artarmon on the lower North Shore of Sydney.
Operating from a rural location outside the Victorian township of Yarram, The Fibreglass Factory (TFF) is owned and operated by husband and wife, Ben and Bek Muir along with a growing team of traditional fabrication workers.
NSW central coast commercial and recreation boat builder, Steber International is ramping up its presence in the defence market with development of the Bluebottle range of unmanned surface vessels.
E-SPHERES® work hard for a material that is effectively a chemically unreactive inert substance.
Scott Bader – committed to pioneering and harnessing the power of chemistry to make a positive difference in the world
allnex – committed to the chemistry of the materials used for making thermosets – the properties, composition, behaviour and the changes that can be enabled to make step change composite products.
“People naturally cocoon in uncertain times. They spend more time at home and invest in their homes which is usually their biggest asset,” advises Rob Kruber, Managing Director of Summertime Pools
The UltraAnalytix™, a non-destructive Pulse Echo Ultrasonic system enables inservice condition assessments on fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) assets such as tanks, pipes and other glass-reinforced polymer (GRP) structures while they are still operating.
Fear struck the nation in March this year with the realisation that our critical supply lines for healthcare products could be overwhelmed as COVID-19 spread through our communities.
Earlier this year, Composites Australia commenced a scoping study on skills in the composites sector in Western Australia. The objectives were to obtain an understanding of the value and contribution of the composites industry in Western Australia to the state’s economic base by mapping the key features of the industry, its existing labour force, skills and training provision, and future predicted needs.
Carbon fibre is strong, predictable and extremely lightweight and has a strength to weight ratio almost twice that of E Glass fibres and when used on the rails or tails can alter the flex pattern of a board.
“Australian made prepregs are increasingly a viable supply choice” says Sam. “We formulate and develop fibre reinforced custom prepreg systems that are engineered to meet specific needs and performance requirements.
An inspiring account of how the team at Advanced Composite Structures Australia has developed step-change composite joining and assembly technology that eliminates fastening and secondary bonding.
Henkel and Carbon Revolution join forces to speed OEM automotive one-piece carbon fibre wheels development
ATL Composites is celebrating 40 years of operations, supplying innovative composite products to the marine, automotive, industrial and construction industries in Australia and around the world.
Rudi’s love and respect for advanced materials can be seen throughout the house in spectacular one-off composite features. The internal stairs are made from wafer-thin prepreg carbon fibre. An overhanging window box is made from carbon fibre and bonded in place with AEC Polymer’s SAF methacrylate adhesive. The kitchen benchtop is a precision CNC machined slab of titanium, featuring a subtle radius and hand-shaped bevel which he had sand-blasted to a luminous satin surface.
To build the B600 UAV, Simbiant chose Toowoomba based BAC Technologies as its production partner. BAC’s pedigree as a recognised supplier for the Australian Department of Defence, as well as its ISO 9001 accreditation, were key factors in the decision.
For over 30 years, Vikal International has custom-designed, manufactured and supplied tenders to some of the largest and most prestigious superyachts in the world, based out of a quiet industrial estate just 20 minutes south of Perth.
Just north of the Gold Coast is Gilmour Space Technologies, a venture-funded Australian rocket company developing new capabilities for launching small satellites into space. Founded by two brothers in 2013,
The Bolwell marque is an acknowledged legend in the Australian automobile industry as much for the advanced composites used in its construction, as for its unique design features.
Critical questioning, logic, consistency & continuous improvement = more efficient production flow
By using Carbon Revolution wheels, Ferrari was able to save an additional 40% in weight on its wheels alone.
The diversion of 600 metres of the North Yarra Main sewer pipe featured filament wound composite maintenance shafts designed, engineered and made by Victorian based firm, Corrosion Technology Australia Group (CTA).
Under the flight path of Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport is precision engineering firm, Pathfinder Cutting Technology – a specialist manufacturer of CNC machinery for flexible materials.
One of Australia’s most promising start-ups is The Smart Think, which has developed a new composite forming technology to produce lighter, safer and higher-performing ballistic helmets for the global defence market.
The Pinkenba Wharf is a world first – using composite fibre technology and Wagners’ proprietary Earth Friendly Concrete® (EFC) decking system for bridges, jetties and wharfs.
From its facility in Nunawading, Victoria, DIDesign specialises in the design and development of purpose-built subsea tooling including mini ROVs that provide solutions for challenging underwater problems in deep water frontiers off the West Coast of Africa, the North Sea and Australia at depths of over 2,000 metres.
CST’s recent investment in precision “centreless grinding technology” allows the outside of its carbon fibre composite tubing to be finished within OD tolerances of +/- 50 microns.
Employing a number of composite processes, Marky Industries manufactures a diverse range of components, many for the transport sector, including an award winning fully fitted sleeper cab for client truck production lines.
N.J. Robinson Limited, the company behind the first Australian-made chopper gun, recently launched a new multi-coloured gelcoater.
The Composite Cryogenic Propellant Tank project will develop and ground demonstrate large-scale composite cryogenic propellant tanks applicable to heavy-lift launch vehicles, propellant depots, and future lander systems.
Internationally acclaimed Australian-born sculptor Ron Mueck is a purist, spending hundreds of hours perfecting the shape and form of each of his works down to the finest detail.
Good public art is said to have far-reaching cultural, social, and economic benefits by
adding meaning to our cities and uniqueness to our communities.
The highly innovative Bluebottle unmanned surface vessel project is a collaboration between Ocius Technology and Steber with the drones featuring rigid FRP opening sails and hybrid marine power technology.
In its Botany, NSW laboratory, allnex has developed a resin specifically designed for CIPP applications. Polyplex 916 has been formulated to facilitate high cross link density in the cured composite liner. This improves overall chemical and hydrolysis resistance and can result in faster cure rates and shorter curing cycles, dependent on sufficient heat input during the CIPP fabrication process.
“Corrosion damage costs Australia more than $13 billion per year. Thus, FRP reinforced concrete structures for use in infrastructure applications are an emerging technology that can play a significant role in the Australian construction and civil infrastructure.” Dr Manalo, USQ
ia signed a $1.3 billion contract with Defence to supply 1100 Hawkei vehicles and more than 1000 trailers, and is now ramping up for low-rate production. Penguin Composites, on the North Coast of Tasmania has won the defining contract to make the Hawkei bonnets.
The 46m shadow superyacht is the largest vacuum infused vessel to be built in Australia
“From my perspective, Australian manufacturing has a strong future. We can mass produce high quality, cost efficient products and back our products with excellent customer service. We just need to step up and do what we do well, better.” Frank Cristiano, General Manager Tricomposites
Few people realise the gleaming cauldron that was centre stage at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics and Paralympics was made in Murray Bridge, South Australia, not from steel, but from FRP (Fibre Reinforced Polymer).
CEO Darren Croker puts the company’s success down to the ergonomic design and quality of their oars and the company’s presence at every major rowing regatta in Australia, Europe, the USA and Asia.
The redevelopment of the Cooktown waterfront in Far North Queensland highlights the benefits of composite materials for infrastructure in corrosive environments.
In the latest of a growing number of composite pipe projects, RPC Pipe Systems in Adelaide, a wholly owned subsidiary of RPC Technologies, is manufacturing and supplying continuous filament wound glass reinforced plastic pipe (GRP) to expand vital sewerage infrastructure in Melbourne’s northern growth corridor
An eight-metre high sculpture by artist Jon Tarry unveiled by St John of God Murdoch Hospital this month. Entitled Elevación, the sculpture stands at the hospital entrance, part of a multi-million dollar redevelopment project.
NASA, has devised an enormous 10 metre wide moulded cryotank from ultra-light weight, strong and non-corrosive ‘composite’ materials as a revolutionary new hydrogen fuel tank with the potential to be used for NASA’s heavy-lift launch vehicles.
