NMW 2016: 3D printing innovations take center stage

The National Manufacturing Week (NMW) held at the Sydney Showground brought into focus the developments in Australia’s manufacturing sector. Even though the Australian manufacturing sector, as with most western counties, have been experiencing an ongoing decline since the early seventies, there is still a great deal of innovative product R&D, prototyping and design related activities going on in Australia, and it was the machines that support these activities, machines such as 3D printers, that were the most prominent at this year’s NMW exhibition.  

 

Exhibition Director Robby Clark gave some background of the event, and how this year’s exhibition compared to previous years. Mr. Clark said originally the event was known as the Australian International Engineering Exhibition, but Reed Exhibitions rebranded the show to National Manufacturing Week when it was acquired back in 2000, which brought in a number of different shows all under the one roof.  

 

When asked how this year’s event compares with previous exhibitions, Mr. Clark pointed out that exhibitions, such as NMW, are usually reflective of the industry as a whole, and there’s no denying that manufacturing in Australia has certainly had some pretty tough times recently, particularly with the phasing out of automotive manufacturing over the next two years, which means numbers are down slightly from previous years. However, with exhibitions such as NMW it’s not necessarily the number of attendees that makes an exhibition a success, but rather the amount of deals done at the show, and by all accounts, Mr. Clark said, exhibitors have been more than happy with the outcome.  “We’re expanding the show next year to incorporate other support sectors, as we did this year with a big focus on Health and Safety,” according to Mr. Clack.

 

Australia’s premier manufacturing exhibition, NMW co-located with MecklerMedia’s Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo. Inside 3D Printing is the largest professional 3D printing and additive manufacturing event worldwide, giving industry a first-hand look at how 3D printing is revolutionizing industries including manufacturing, medicine, architecture, aerospace, and more. 

 

Organized by Reed Exhibitions, National Manufacturing Week is Australia’s largest annual showcase of manufacturing innovations and information exchange.  The next edition of NMW will take place on May 9-12, 2017 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

 

EXHIBITORS FEEDBACK

 

Mackay Industrial Rubber Technologies

Tel:+61 (0)3 9555 6500

E-mail: geoff.giest@mackayrubber.com.au

Website: www.mackayrubber.com.au

 

Mackay Industrial Rubber Technologies is an Australian company that manufactures rubber components for a number of Australia’s major industries such as defence, mining, rail and heavy transport. Geoff Geist, Mackay’s Sales Manager, said Mackay is a family-owned business based in Victoria and has been in operation since 1932.  “Although the company grew supplying predominantly the automotive industry, Mackay has diversified its product range and the number of industries we service since the 1970s,” he said. 

 

Mr. Geist added that Mackay is the largest rubber component supplier to the Australian Defence industry and provides an array of products such as components for the Collins Class submarine, rubber tank track, vibration isolators, to name a few. He went on to say that “Mackay can service just about any industrial rubber component need there is, and to the highest quality.” He explained that from raw material to the finished product, all processes are done in-house. Rubbers are sourced from Malaysia, polymers from Europe, the US and Japan. “We do all our own design, mix our own compounds, and do the moulding and engineering, all in-house,” he emphasized.    

 

 

Carl Zeiss Pty Ltd

Tel: +1-300 365 470

E-mail: thomas.wegmueller@zeiss.com

Website: www.zeiss.com.au

 

Manufacturers of measuring equipment are always regular features at exhibitions where manufacturing and engineering are the focus. The need for measurement accuracy in industries such as aerospace and medical are paramount to the quality of the finished products. Carl Zeiss Pty Ltd is a well-known international brand name supplying metrology equipment to a number of Australian industries, and while at NMW, Zeiss’s Business Development Manager for Industrial Metrology Division, Thomas Wegmueller, talked about the company and what they had on offer at this year’s event.

 

Mr. Wegmueller said Zeiss has had a long history operating in Australia with head office in Sydney, and branch offices in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth; with the Australian division also servicing New Zealand. “At NMW we have a number of units on offer such as optical and tactile systems for small parts measurements, equipment for the measurement of circuit boards, and CMMs, as used by the Ford Motor Company here in Australia,” according to Mr. Wegmueller.  When asked about the company’s strategy for the future here in Australia,  he said that with the phasing out of all automotive manufacturing in Australia over the next couple of years, Zeiss is busy developing new markets and building on the industries it is already servicing, such as medical and electronics.

 

Fuji Xerox, Australia

Tel: +61 (0)2 9856 5000

E-mail: Tatjan.Ferguson@aus.fujixerox.com

Website: www.fujixerox.com.au

 

Solutions Marketing Manager for Fuji Xerox, Australia, Tatjana Ferguson, represented the company at its booth in NMW. A well-known international brand, Fuji Xerox  had on offer at this year’s NMW a broad range of machinery and equipment which responds to today’s printing trends.

 

Ms. Ferguson said that up until recently the company offered a product range of production machinery and continuous feed machinery and wide format  equipment, but recently, “we partnered with the biggest supplier of 3D printers globally, Stratasys, which has given us the capability of offering our customers the complete end-to-end solutions package including their 3D printing requirements.” 

 

She added that, “We’re here at NMW to communicate to the manufacturing sector that Fuji Xerox can now offer a wide variety of solutions for B2B applications, which include an extensive range of 3D printing equipment from an inexpensive entry level machine to the newest more expensive models that gives the user the ability to 3D print in full color and in different materials.” Fuji Xerox’s target market is B2B, offering businesses real solutions, including equipment requirements, installation, training and service/technical support. 

 

 

SUNLEC International (Australia)

Tel: +1-800 999 440

E-mail: sales@sunlec.com.au

Website: www.sunlec.com.au

 

SUNLEC is a West Australian company that serves as the sole Australian agent for Grafoplast, Italian manufacturers of wire marking machines. Michele Armstrong, Sales Manager for SUNLEC, was at NMW promoting the Grafoplast product range. 

 

Ms. Armstrong said Grafoplast offers a range of cable and wire cable identification based printing machines, which ID marks anything from small to large cables. “Grafoplast offers a number of different systems such as our manual pick system, which is our fully manual models, then we progress to our semi-automated, and fully automated printer units. Michele pointed out that all Grafoplast products are manufactured in Italy to the highest standard and are used in a large variety of different industries here in Australia such as, infrastructure and construction, mining, areas of electronics and robotics manufacturing, just to name a few,” she said. 

 

When asked about the company’s marketing strategy, Ms. Armstrong said they were very optimistic about the future growth opportunities here in Australia with Grafoplast products, and because Grafoplast operates B2B, the company considers word of mouth as the best marketing tool, and exhibition such as NMW are excellent forums to keep in touch with existing customers, and an opportunity to meet future ones.

 

 

Roland DG Australia Pty Ltd

Tel: +61 (0)2 9975 0000

E-mail: mlandrigan@rolanddg.com.au

Website: www.rolanddg.com.au

 

NMW 2016 is an appropriate venue to promote products targeting the Australia’s main sectors. Roland DG, a Japanese manufacturer of a range of equipment for B2B applications is one of the exhibitors eager to offer its product range to the Australian market.  Mathew Landrigan, Product Specialist for Roland DG Australia, explained that the company manufactures a wide range of products. “We offer our milling machines and CNC technology, small 3D resin printer for printing prototypes and complex geometry. We also have a large range of products that we sell to the sign and graphics market with large format printing for an array of display and signage manufacturing applications,” Mr. Landrigan said. 

 

Unlike some companies just entering the3D printer market, Roland DG has been developing the technology for over 15 years, and the company has had a long successful history operating in Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Landrigan said that a key to Roland DG’s success is the company’s ability to develop new markets in this ever changing business world, and at NMW 2016 , it hoped to connect more  with the prototyping and engineering sectors, and exhibitions such as this are great events to get its brand out there to some of Australia’s developing manufacturing sectors.