A new research and development centre will give Australia's aircraft component manufacturing industry access to improved manufacturing techniques and advanced materials.
Aircraft manufacturing is set to take off in Melbourne, with the establishment of a new research centre to design and develop cutting edge aerospace technologies. Swinburne University of Technology and aerospace industry leader Boeing have teamed up to establish the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AusAMRC) in Melbourne. The centre will improve Australia's global competitiveness by developing new aerospace manufacturing technologies. This will be done in partnership with local manufacturers wanting to join the aerospace industry supply chain.
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Professor John Beynon, Dean of Swinburne's Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, believes the new centre will have a considerable impact on Melbourne's local manufacturing industry. "We will closely involve small to medium suppliers in the development of new titanium, aluminium and magnesium machining technologies, to ensure that new technologies are optimised for quick application," Beynon said.
"Our supply chain model will include companies best able to take advantage of the new technology. This means that once the technology is ready, all parties involved will know that it is coming and will be able to adapt to it much more easily," he said.
Al Bryant, General Manager of Boeing Research & Technology-Australia, said that the AusAMRC would initially focus on high speed machining, advanced tooling and incremental sheet forming. "We will also be providing specialised manufacturing training to Australian companies wanting to work with Boeing. "The AusAMRC will assist the Boeing Australia business units and worldwide partners of the Boeing Company to improve their capability to deliver lower cost and higher quality components and attract other partners," he said. Bryant said the Melbourne centre would build on Boeing's experience with a successful research centre at the University of Sheffield, which has been delivering great value to Boeing and its British partners.
"A little over a year ago, we established Boeing Research & Technology-Australia to collaborate with the tremendously skilled and innovative people here. The formation of AusAMRC is another leap forward in that process," Bryant said. Through its Boeing Research & Technology organisation, Boeing conducts its own research and development and also works with top government, private and university research centres, and companies throughout the world to find the most innovative and affordable technology solutions for aerospace applications.
The AusAMRC will be housed in Swinburne's Advanced Technology Centre, which is a $130 million dollar development currently under construction.
Boeing's Australian footprint is the company's largest outside the United States, currently employing about 3,300 people directly on 27 sites and more than 1,500 people working in its Australian supply chain.
About Swinburne University
of Technology
Established in 1908.
Main campus 10-15 minutes from Melbourne's city centre.
The best university in Melbourne for Teaching Quality and Graduate Satisfaction (Good Universities Guide 2010).
Ranked in the world's top 500 universities by the Times Higher Education.
Swinburne University of Technology has been educating students for over 100 years. We've grown into a multidisciplinary, multi-campus institution, with more than 27,000 full-time students, including 6000 international students.
Swinburne College can give you a great start to university in Australia. We have a range of degree transfer programmes in business, design, engineering and information technology. All of these are designed to prepare international students for direct entry to Swinburne University of Technology.
Find out more at www.swinburne.edu.au/college.
Source: David Samuel, Australian Trade Commission, Colombo-Sri Lanka.
e-mail: David.Samuel @austrade.gov.au |
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