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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, we hear from Neil Goodman, a 45-year veteran of the steel industry who helped pioneer Hi-smelt technology globally.

Neil explains how this direct smelting process works, its environmental advantages over traditional methods, and why it might be the perfect solution for Whyalla steelworks.

Episode guide

00:00 Introduction

2:06 What is Hi-smelt technology?

4:55 Environmental advantages

7:47 Limitations and challenges

8:58 Implementation costs and timeframe

10:14 Comparison with other green steel technologies

11:41 Specific challenges for Whyalla

12:28 Commercial opportunities

13:12 Energy costs in manufacturing

Further reading

Goodman's bio at HILT CRC

Bringing HIsmelt back

The HIsmelt Iron-Making Process

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

• Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, we speak to Dr Chris Jeffery, the founder and CEO of Convergence Medical, maker of the world's first arthroscopic surgical robot. He tells us about some of the things he's learned from founding three technology companies, the brisk pace his current company has moved at since getting started in 2022, and more.

Episode guide

1:20 - What Convergence does.

2:09 – Career path, beginning with an electronic and computer engineering degree.

3:10 – RAEME Corp. Deployment in 2008 and 2009 in Iraq and Afghanistan as an adjutant.

4:30 – Falling in love with medicine and starting study for the GAMSAT while overseas.

5:30 – Returning to study through a medical leadership program.

7:10 – A formative chapter while on rotation at an ENT surgery at Ipswich. How a simple “beep test” led Jeffery to start his first technology business, Audera.

10:57 – The reasons behind starting a second company, Field Orthopaedics, which Jeffery led for seven years.

12:10 – Field’s acquisition and a chance to step back and decide on something new.

13:10 – A sabbatical and a chance to stop chasing a bright, shiny ball for a little while.

15:08 – A fascination with problems and how it relates to starting Convergence. And what’s the problem?

16:30 – The three main markets within orthopaedic surgery that were considered, and why arthroscopy was the one.

18:16 – Developing a robot and what influenced how it was designed. What the surgeons’ problems are in all of this, “the world’s first arthroscopic surgical robot”.

19:30 – The moving parts of the VO1 robot.

21:35 – Supply chain issues and the reason for a high level of vertical integration. “Starting at motor level and building up” has helped keep costs down.

23:28 – The $US 5 million funding round this year, how it supports the company’s “go to market” plan, and what that involves.

24:15 – Third-generation robot scheduled for delivery in late-April for a simulated clinical demonstration.

27:10 – How to move fast and with purpose in this kind of company (or others.)

29:34 – So what makes up the right culture, and how do you try and select the right people to contribute to this?

32:10 – How to respond to inauthentic or incomplete responses from potential team members.

33:30 – Not every company needs to demonstrate product innovation, but competence and expertise are.

34:01 – How do you create the conditions that can produce innovation? What are the ingredients?

34:46 – What makes a company innovative: structure, process, reason.

35:34 – Wanting to hold back as late as possible before deciding on a solution.

35:50 – Risk and reward as it applies to Jeffery’s work.

37:38 – The world is changing incredibly quickly and it’s sort of impossible to keep up with it. Plus a few examples of where production has chan

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

• Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, we sat down with Ayrton Sue from Element Engineering to chat about everything from beach buggies to high-tech manufacturing. Starting as a teenager sweeping workshop floors, he's now helping transform Australia's manufacturing landscape.

Episode guide

1:00 -- Introduction

2:23 -- Early days in manufacturing

5:05 -- Formula Student World Championship

9:15 -- The ShockWiz journey

13:30 -- Innovation philosophy

17:45 -- Future of Australian manufacturing

Send us a text

Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

• Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

In episode 109 of @AuManufacturing Conversations, Dr Farzaneh Ahmadi, founder and CEO of bionic voice company Laronix tells us about commercialising her life’s work, how the company’s technology works, and more. The episode is available to stream below and download elsewhere.

Episode guide

1:30 – What do artificial larynxes do and why are they needed?

2:45 – Career path, and an “obsession” with remedying voicelessness going back to university.

4:35 – The three components of a larynx, and why properly emulating what it does has been hard.

5:34 – The pneumatic artificial larynx and coming across an inspirational paper pointing to a new solution.

7:31 – The importance of resilience.

8:17 – The frustrations of academia and the reason Ahmadi left. “Over a 40-second phone call, I was essentially terminated.”

11:03 – Why losing a job at a university was a relief.

12:26 – An explanation of how Ava, the company’s first product, works.

13:58 – Larynx’s second product, Mira, and what it does that Ava doesn’t.

14:55 – Adapting based on user feedback and what this has involved.

16:10 – Current manufacturing capacity at Queensland, and plans to scale up.

16:57 – Clinical partners and how they’ve helped.

18:15 – How we can help medical technology innovators.

19:40 – It’s not just about funding. Sometimes advice is just as valuable to startups.

20:45 – The role of risk and reward in the company’s story.

22:10 – Some criteria around innovative companies.

23:03 – There could be more support for companies nearing the commercial stage.

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

• Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

In this episode we speak to Vahid Montazeri, Director at Innomerix, which was formed after parent company CNC Design decided to concentrate on plastics for the large-scale additive manufacturing it was using in-house. He tells us about recent investments in a compounding line and testing lab, giving the company the ability to develop new products that Montazeri says is unique in the country.

Episode guide

1:15 – Graduated from university in Tehran, began a career in the polymer industry, moved to Australia in 2015, then joined CNC Design in 2017.

2:43 – How the company moved into plastics for large-scale printing, then other applications, and formed a new subsidiary.

4:29 – Benefits of recycled plastics for AM.

6:25 – Sourcing plastic to reuse, both in customers’ products and in their own.

6:59 – Their new compounding line and testing lab.

8:28 – Starting “completely from scratch” and tailoring recipes to specific needs.

9:25 – Risk and reward and the “leap of faith” in innovation – which you sometimes have no choice but to take.

10:27 – What makes an innovative company.

11:30 – It can be hard for SMEs to get access to new and useful technology. They are also suffering from energy costs and a shortage of skilled local workers.

Send us a text

Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

• Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

In this episode we speak to Professor Mark Kendall, CEO and founder at WearOptimo, who became “an accidental biomedical engineer” 27 years ago and is now onto what he calls the third chapter of his career as a researcher/inventor/entrepreneur. He tells us about his company, which aims to reshape the healthcare industry by interpreting biosignals from the skin using microelectrodes.

Episode guide

1:13 – A 27-year career, from rockets to vaccine delivery to micro-wearables for personalised medicine. “My guiding purpose in all of this is using my skillsets… for making a difference in global healthcare.”

2:33 – Introducing WearOptimo and what it does.

3:40 – Leaving needle-free vaccine delivery company Vaxxas and heading to Harvard for a sabbatical, working alongside Moderna co-founder Bob Langer and others. Saw the opportunities in wearables “gaining access to signals” and providing better info than light-based approaches in smartwatches.

4:50 – A few differences between founding Vaxxas versus founding WearOptimo.

6:30 – “Instead of thousands of projections coated in vaccines it’s just a handful of much smaller micro-electrodes going even shallower into the skin that are just gently applied to the skin instead of at high speed.”

7:03 – Not being “a one-trick pony” as an inventor.

8:13 – Healthtech is “a much higher-tempo game” than biotech. Why starting WearOptimo as a university spinout would be too slow.

10:10 – How skin works, how the micro-wearables work, and why hydration monitoring was the right first application.

11:55 “The only wearable on the planet that genuinely monitors hydration… The unmet need is massive.” Plus some examples of where this is expected to come from.

13:49 – Nano-imprint lithography is the centrepiece production technology - a technique used in TV screens and optics at the company – as well as an example of the company’s “field-hopping”. Kendall considers this a leap forward in the field of microneedles.

16:50 – Why Brisbane is the right place to produce micro-wearables, and why the company changed their mind about offshore contractors.

19:30 – How they selected their first market – “we need to walk before we can run” – and why it’s elite sport.

21:45 – No need for regulatory approval for initial markets. Regulated markets will follow later.

23:30 – Some characteristics that define a truly innovative company, according to Kendall. These include novelty and non-incremental impact.

24:45 – Developing high-tech businesses: “It’s not a game for the faint-hearted.”

26:08 – An issue that isn’t getting enough attention: genuine advanced manufacturing positioned on the world stage. Plus why “me-too” manufacturing is to be avoided.

28:38 – WearOptimo’s approach to finding talent.

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

In this episode we speak to John Smith, owner of Smith's BBQs, about the company's investments in automation, what he thinks it would take to go global, what exactly makeas a good BBQ, and more

Episode guide

1:22 – career story, beginning as a TV and video repair then designing and making stoves sold by Bosch and others.

5:27 – what makes a good BBQ?

6:58 – Some areas where Smith’s has chosen to innovate, responding to perceived shortcomings among competitors’ BBQs.

8:45 – How the company has fared under difficult economic conditions.

10:10 – Production technology investments.

11:28 – A fibre laser welder has been “magic in a box” for the company.

13:08 – Funding is a constraint when it comes to growing the business.

14:31 – Solid potential in the US and Europe, but it would need investment in stock, staff and machinery. An equity partner is one possible solution.

16:02 – What makes a company innovative?

Send us a text

Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

In this episode, we are joined by Jonathon Wolfe, founder/CEO at Optera, and Don Wright, Executive Director, Enterprise at Western Sydney University. Wolfe tells us about the benefits of neuromorphic engineering and where they might be commercially useful, why the way dragonflies catch mosquitoes is so impressive, and why it’s his duty to wash bottles.

Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here. It’s completely free to enter, and we’ll be celebrating the announcement of the 50 Most Innovative list and the award winners at a special breakfast event on May 7 at Crown Melbourne, during Australian Manufacturing Week.

Episode guide

1:12 – An introduction to Wolfe and his company, Optera, which was spun out of Western Sydney University’s International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems.

3:25 – introduction to Wright and his work as WSU’s Executive Director, Enterprise.

5:48 – A career migrating technology from university to the commercial world. “I’m on my seventh spinout from five different universities.”

6:48 – Spatial hearing for hearing aids, Wolfe’s first spinout. Then efforts including cow pregnancy detection and fault-finding in solar panel production.

10:20 – What Optera does and the issues it is addressing: increasingly congested and contested environments in space, a growing and high-value market.

12:02 – The upcoming Factory of the Future at WSU’s Bankstown campus – opening in February – and its focus.

15:22 – Manufacturing businesses in Bankstown. “It’s a really broad range.”

16:42 – Neuromorphic sensors operate much more like an eye than a camera. Here’s how, and how they could be applied in a showcase at the FotF.

19:43 – Further explanation on how a neuromorphic retina works.

24:00 – The “scary amount” of power being consumed by data centres for processing and storage and why this is relevant for neuromorphic-style computing.

24:50 – At SMEs, historically in a lot of companies innovation is driven by one leader. This needs to change, and it is beginning to.

27:30 – Founders should display both resilience and curiosity.

28:47 – “Don’t tell me why it’s so good. Tell me five reasons why it won’t work.”

30:00 – Flexibility also needs to come with tenacity for startup founders and their teams.

31:30 – Why a startup founder also needs to be a bottlewasher if it’s needed.

32:15 – Why it can get difficult for established SMEs in adapting with the times, for example to incorporate digital twinning and/or evolve their business model.

34:55 – The semiconductor value chain in Australia and the lack of understanding and linkages when it comes to this.

35:55 – The difficulties attached to relying on using overseas chip fabrication and packaging if you’re an Australian startup.

37:20 – The recent cancellation of the JP9102 contract and the sovereign risk implications.