Diverseco, Australia's leading integrated measurement, packaging and product inspection solutions provider, is delighted to announce the acquisition of Robot Technologies/Systems Australia (RTA).

RTA is Australia’s foremost integrator of robotic automation, with over thirty years of experience and expertise in industrial robotics, manufacturing automation, process automation and factory automation.

The company supplies and services robotics equipment for businesses within a broad range of industries across Australia and New Zealand. These include manufacturing, mining, commodity handling, defence and pharmaceutical.

The company’s suppliers include leading brands Kawasaki, Staubli, Kyokutoh, Servo-Robot, Nitta and Pro-face, with RTA currently providing applications for material handling, sorting, machine unloading, fluid application, painting and welding, among others.

Established in 1986, the company’s operations were initially based on supply of robotics to the automotive industry and with RTA being the sole supplier of robots and associated services to Mitsubishi and Toyota.

Brenton Cunningham, Diverseco CEO said, “RTA is a valuable addition to our group, and will complement and enhance our group’s current capabilities, especially our supply of solutions to the manufacturing, packaging equipment and freight sector.”

Trinton Smith, RTA General Manager is confident that the purchase heralds a new era for the company, at a time when the manufacturing industry is undergoing a technological renaissance that is transforming operations.

“With Diverseco’s financial backing, corporate support and vision, we are excited about future opportunities and realising RTA’s full potential - as the go-to company for any business seeking sophisticated robotic automation solutions,” Trinton said.

“The fact is, far too many Australian companies remain unaware of how automation technologies can enable them to realise their productive potential by optimising their operations,” he added.

“Today, most industrial tasks can be automated with a diverse range of robots, far more than most people realise. In some respects, it’s matter of imagination that requires business leaders to envision what ‘can be’ rather than ‘what is.’ Once a company discovers the benefits provided by robotic integration in one part of their business, they are always keen to apply it to another.” Brenton said.

The robotics automation industry remains in a growth phase. For example, the Association for Advancing Automation in the U.S. reports that over fourteen thousand robots, valued at approximately $817 million, were ordered from North American companies in the first half of 2016. This is a new record.

Brenton said, “Manufacturing companies cannot afford to ignore the economic and competitive benefits provided by robotics advances. By embracing them now, they will improve productivity, forge ahead of their rivals and gain an edge with customers who are seeking their own gains in the supply chain..”

Brenton said, “Many of RTA’s core competencies reside in its people, many of whom are recognised experts in their fields, which includes mechatronics engineering. Consequently, we are delighted to have retained their experienced staff and contractors.”

RTA founder, industry legend Doug Smith will remain at the company and will be responsible for managing some key areas for the foreseeable future.

RTA will be closely aligned with another Diverseco company, Scaco Pty Ltd, due to similarities in their automation operations. Consequently, Group General Manager Tim Francis is tasked with overseeing both of these operations.

“The RTA team are second to none in their ability to optimise manufacturing processes across a multitude of industries by incorporating automation and robotics into company operations,” Tim said.

‘They are a great group of people! I’m certain that will embrace the Diverseco’s core values, contribute to our company culture and will continue to provide RTA customers world-class robotics solutions,’ he added.

To celebrate the acquisition, Brenton Cunningham and Doug Smith were recently invited to visit Kawasaki Robots Head Office in Akashi, Japan, where they were entertained by the senior management, provided a tour of facilities, and briefed of Kawasaki’s latest innovations. They are pictured shaking hands with Shin-ichi Hada, Senior Manager at Kawasaki Robotics.

A new development for the New Zealand building and construction industry, Fletcher Aluminium and NALCO have combined to form a joint venture that leverages their scale, market coverage, product innovation and reliability - the new company will now be known as Altus.

Their position will also make them a more attractive supplier in many of the industrial sectors they service. So boat builders, engineers or any business that requires aluminum solutions can look to Altus to have the expertise and capacity to meet all requirements.

Bigger, better, more innovative and more consistent - the word Altus has deep rooted origins and stands for depth and height. Altus with its team of experienced and visionary leaders and highly-skilled staff aim to be at the height of technical excellence and customer service.

'Together we aim to provide our customers with greater levels of service, consistent lead times, improved logistics, and ultimately a wider range of products,' says Altus managing director Ron Holden. 'Combining manufacturing facilities and capabilities will offer accelerated growth in productivity, quality improvement and innovation. Altus aims to lead positive change and make a real difference to our customers' world.'

In the past financial year, both Fletcher Aluminium and NALCO have experienced record manufacturing and sales demand, in part to New Zealand's booming building industry and to their approach on how to best capitalise new opportunities.

'Altus now has the size and scale capable of achieving market-leading outcomes in innovation design, manufacturing, marketing and sales and to be the number one supplier and employer of choice,' says Ron Holden. 'It's about being strong, reliable, customer driven and providing the very best service nationwide.'

'In the immediate future our customers won't notice the change; it will be business as usual while the two businesses continue to integrate with a focus on looking after customers first and foremost. As from today, 28 November, NALCO and Fletcher Aluminium will cease to exist. This change is just the first of many exciting changes for New Zealand's aluminium industry. Watch this space!'

A Fletchers release

Kennards Hire finds itself quite at home in New Zealand. So much so that they continue to build the family-owned business with the acquisition of Tauranga Hire - its 17th branch in New Zealand.

Kennards Hire is an equipment and tool hire company with almost 170 branches across New Zealand and Australia. Following their recent branch opening in Hamilton in August this year, the Tauranga branch opened as Kennards Hire on Monday, 31 October and characterises Kennards Hire’s aim to offer New Zealanders the best of the hire and rental industry.

Tom Kimber, General Manager of Kennards Hire New Zealand said, “Being the largest city in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga is an exciting step for our network of hire equipment branches. By extending our footprint into Hamilton’s neighbouring region, we are well-situated to help make our customers job easy.

“Infrastructure projects, housing and commercial construction are all projected to see strong growth over the next few years. This is a great opportunity for us to invest in and grow our brand and equipment hire service offering in one of the fastest growing population areas in New Zealand,” said Tom.

In true Kennards Hire form, the current team will be joining the family. Tauranga Hire customers will be pleased to know that the friendly and knowledgeable Kris Wright and the team will still be behind the counter. The name above the door may have changed but the faces and excellent customer service remains strong.

The team at the Tauranga branch will continue to give their customers, both current and new, great customer service and a wide range of well-maintained, modern and reliable equipment designed to make every job easy.

Kennards Hire customers in New Zealand can also take advantage of their industry-leading online hire website. Hire online day or night and pick up your equipment at your local branch or have it delivered direct to your door.

Matthew Weake is a valuable member of CADPRO System's Autodesk training and support team.  In regular conatct with operators he is in the unique position of being able to identify those procedures that require a little more attention - creating drawings in Autodesk Fabrication ESTmep and CAMduct is one of them. 

Here is an article that has been prepared by Matthew and can be accessed in full on the CADPRO Systems website

Creating drawings in Autodesk Fabrication ESTmep and CAMduct is not the most intuitive or CAD-like experience so I thought I would share a few tips here to get you started.

Setup Report Printer

When designing your reports, you may find you use up lots of paper only to find the report is not quite right.

A useful tip here is to add a pdf printer as your report printer until you have the Report looking like you want. This will save paper and many trips to the printer.

Most printers can be made to print black and white as default and the options can be found in the printer setup dialog box. Try the awesome Bluebeam Revu CAD – it does a lot more than just creating great pdf’s. Bluebeam Revu

Add Layouts

To create drawings in Autodesk Fabrication ESTmep of a selection of items you should add a layout with those items in it.

Most of us have seen the Global Tab at the bottom of the page but paid no notice to it. It is, in fact, the second tip here. You should add your own Layout Tab and give it a short meaningful name. My example uses really good names – test and test2!

Continue on to full article

Workers in elementary occupations such as cleaners, rubbish collectors, and labourers had the highest rate of injury in 2015, Statistics NZ said today, as the rate for agriculture and fishery workers moved down from the top spot for the first time in eight years.

Elementary occupation workers, which also includes jobs such as pest controllers, hotel porters, and courier drivers, had 238 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees in 2015, which was the same rate as the year before.

However, the injury rate for agriculture and fishery group workers, which includes forestry workers, fell from 242 per 1,000 workers, to 233 in 2015.

The provisional figures are based on work-related injury claims accepted by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). They also show workers in elementary occupations had the highest rate of claims for more serious injuries, with 40 entitlement claims for every 1,000 full time workers. These claims could include death benefits, weekly compensation, lump sums, and rehabilitation payments.

Injury Statistics – Work-related Claims: 2015 – for more data and analysis

Continue to full article

The future of manufacturing has always been a topic of much discussion and debate. In a rapidly changing economic and technological environment, this future may be more volatile and hard to predict, but bring with it greater opportunities for those who adapt and lead.

Despite recent improvements in confidence and sentiment in the manufacturing sector, many of our members are quite uncertain about future orders, both in the short and long term. Is this part of a current crisis or part of a new and developing economic reality for manufacturers in New Zealand?

Globalisation comes with many benefits; allowing our manufacturers to get over the problems of distance and a small domestic market. On the downside, volatility has increased through greater exposure to conditions and competition in overseas markets, global commodity cycles, and even larger currency fluctuations; due to financial liberalisation and larger monetary flows, particularly with the large global stimulus (a.k.a. printing of money) following the Global Financial Crisis.

This increasing exposure to global markets, paired with ever improving communication technology, means changes in markets can quickly affect demand and prices for our exporters, and allow purchasers to easily find a more competitive supplier if we can’t keep up. These changing dynamics could explain some of the increased volatility manufacturers have continued to experience – trends that are likely to continue and potentially accelerate, particularly around the use of new manufacturing technologies, and represent significant challenges as well as opportunities for our manufacturers in the future.

Looking forward, the coming wave of technology-led disruption has been referred to as “Industry 4.0”. Industry 4.0 is described in a recent report on manufacturing by McKinsey & Company, saying "we define Industry 4.0 as the next phase in the digitisation of the manufacturing sector, driven by four disruptions: the astonishing rise in data volumes, computational power, and connectivity, especially new low-power wide-area networks; the emergence of analytics and business-intelligence capabilities; new forms of human-machine interaction such as touch interfaces and augmented-reality systems; and improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as advanced robotics and 3-D printing.”

These advancements will affect different sub-sectors of manufacturing in different ways. For many manufacturers, this may mean increased use of more advanced and adaptive robots, and increased use of real-time data to analyse production systems and more complex supply chains across different firms. This could lead to huge increases in productivity and potentially make production processes more adaptive and customisable for making multiple products. Given that being highly responsive in terms of volumes and delivery times has become a big part of the value proposition for a lot of our manufacturers, does the increased flexibility awarded by new manufacturing technologies pose a big threat to our manufacturers? It could do – but it should also equip New Zealand manufacturers with the tools to get much better at something they excel at already.

It is impossible to predict how exactly all these changing technologies will effect manufacturing businesses and global markets - whether it will be a revolution in how manufacturing is done, or just a continuation of current trends. But we do know many of these technologies are being used in some manufacturing operations already, and will become more widely used in the next five to ten years. We will all need to prepare for this, first and foremost by being aware of the potential changes that will affect your business, and starting to plan and invest in them early. Investing will be essential both in the technology and systems required, but more importantly in your staff through training and recruitment, as a new and changing mix of skills will be needed.

As well as individual manufacturers preparing for these changes, government also has a big role to play. Firstly through education, ensuring modern skill requirements are focused on throughout our education system, and providing opportunities for people to retrain and develop new skills. A longer term view of education will be needed, as new skills take time to work through the system. Secondly, there may be areas in which the government can invest to encourage the uptake of new technologies, particularly where up-front cost is large, as well as incentivisingbusinesses to conduct R&D to stay ahead.

Technology change in manufacturing will have ramifications for jobs and workers. It is true some lower level jobs may be replaced by advanced robots. But these new technologies will also create new jobs that are more highly paid and require a new, more adaptive skill set. These jobs require a mix of production knowledge and IT skills to make full use of even more automated systems.

This continual adaption and development of technology may well mean that market volatility is indeed the new normal for businesses operating on the world stage. Continued volatility coupled with technological disruptions may mean many manufacturers need to revisit and adapt their business models as time goes on. But in the mean time, the most important thing is trying to be aware of the potential changes to your businesses, prepare, and invest early.

WorkSafe has developed a new online tool to help businesses get started with managing their workplace health and safety risks. The ‘Around the Block’ tool is animated and interactive, taking users on a journey through a typical city block.

Thirteen businesses often seen on a city block have been included so far – from cafes and hair salons, to medical centres and petrol stations. Clickable hotspots within each of the interiors identify some of the health and safety risks in that business and provide some information on how to manage them.

Over time, more business types will be added to the block, particularly targeting small and medium sized businesses that make up some 97% of the in New Zealand business landscape.

“Businesses have told us they want to better understand health and safety in their particular business context, so we worked with representative businesses to develop and test the tool. It’s designed to support them with training and involving workers in identifying and managing some of their key health and safety risks,” said Katherine Low, Manager Education and Engagement Strategy at WorkSafe.

The tool, www.worksafe.govt.nz/atb, was built by WorkSafe in collaboration with ACC to help businesses better understand their obligations under the new Health and Safety at Work Act from a risk management perspective.

| WOOD DALE, Illinois, November 17, 2016 | – AAR (NYSE: AIR), a global leader in the aviation aftermarket, has entered into a long-term contract with Air New Zealand to provide nose-to-tail, cost-per-flight-hour rotable inventory support covering 740 parts and 15 of the airline’s B777 aircraft. Under reciprocal terms of the agreement, Air New Zealand will become AAR’s exclusive component repair provider for selected parts in the Asia-Pacific region and preferred supplier for selected parts worldwide.

This significant contract establishes a component inventory and repair partnership for AAR in the growing Asia-Pacific region with an AAA-rated carrier. It also marks AAR’s first PBH agreement solely focused on the B777 aircraft, the flagship carrier and international workhorse connecting New Zealand to the rest of the world.

“This partnership complements AAR’s in-house component repair facilities in the U.S. and Europe and extends our reach in the fast-growing Australasia region,” said Deepak Sharma, President, AAR International Supply Chain. “We’re proud to team up with an industry-leading long-distance carrier like Air New Zealand to help them create efficiencies with an integrated supply chain solution for their B777 fleet. This is the beginning of a win-winpartnership that we hope will extend to other projects in the region and beyond.”

Air New Zealand Chief Operations Officer Bruce Parton says the deal follows extensive market evaluation and is significant for the airline’s Components business. “We are looking forward to working with a fast-growing partner in AAR that will help to drive a high volume of work and further the commercial success of Air New Zealand’s components business.”

Nov. 17, 2016 / PRZen / SAN JOSE, Calif. -- RaceAmerica Corporation, world leaders in solutions for Track Safety lighting, Race Timing, LED Scoreboards and Race Management Software, celebrates 25 years of providing customers around the world with state of the art technology by announcing a strategic partnership with ALM Sales Pty Ltd of Melbourne Australia.

ALM Sales Pty Ltd will partner with RaceAmerica to provide representation and engineering expertise in the Australian and New Zealand region.

The team at ALM Sales Pty Ltd, headed by well-known and respected racing identity and "Mr Dunlop" of Karting, Les May, brings over 35 years' experience in motorsport, not only as a highly credited driver but also one of Australia's largest distribution networks and a strong engineering design and manufacturing ability.

Through this partnership, ALM Sales Pty Ltd will provide the important local link between Australian and New Zealand customers and RaceAmerica.

"ALM Sales is a well-established company with a strong reputation in the Australia and New Zealand racing industry. The support and assistance provided to Karting Australia demonstrate their in-depth knowledge of technology, and high levels of customer service and support. This makes ALM Sales an ideal partner as we grow in this market. With ALM Sales providing a local presence, customers will receive a higher level of support with RaceAmerica products," said Dennis Laczny, President of RaceAmerica.

Les May explains, "We see ourselves as the feet on the ground in this region where we can react quickly and effectively to customers' questions, inquiries and requirements, provide assistance and engineering expertise with installation and, of course, back up the RaceAmerica products with local service and technical support."

As is the case with all the products distributed or supported by ALM Sales, product quality and support, along with customer service, are of paramount importance.

Les May reiterated, "We do not enter into partnerships or distribution arrangements with just anybody, or take on products that are not backed by honest, reputable and well established manufacturers. We have been in business for over 35 years and have grown one of the strongest platforms in motorsport by providing our customers the absolute best products and aftersales service, second to none. RaceAmerica's state of the art technology and 25 years of experience in the motorsports industry is a perfect fit for us with expansion of our business that now includes clubs, associations, circuits and track owners."

ALM Sales and RaceAmerica now offer a strong, viable, well supported future proof solution for Track Safety lighting, Race Timing, LED Scoreboards and Race Management Software in Australia and New Zealand.

| IPENZ - 18 Nov 16 |  Engineers are finding unusual effects from the Kaikoura earthquake in that low rise buildings suffered minimal damage while medium rise buildings suffered significant damage.

New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) President Peter Smith says there was an extraordinarily large release of energy much closer to Wellington than initially realised.

The shaking lasted 90 seconds, compared to 20 seconds for the February 2011 Christchurch event.

Mr Smith says how buildings respond in an earthquake depends on their height, stiffness and the nature of the ground they are on.

“At this stage in Wellington, it looks like buildings between eight and 15 storeys have been worst hit. This quake has generated intense accelerations in buildings in this height range, especially those on softer soils.

“In contrast, short, stiff structures have experienced relatively low accelerations in this earthquake. This is the main reason why Wellington’s older buildings, which tend to be shorter, generally didn’t suffer any damage, even though some are categorised as earthquake prone. This effect is similar to that which occurred in the June 2013 Seddon earthquake. It’s important to realise that these buildings may still perform poorly in an event centred closer to Wellington.

Structural Engineering Society (SESOC) President Paul Campbell says engineers are continuing to assess buildings.

“Buildings might be undamaged or damaged in a way that doesn’t reduce their capacity to deal with future shaking. This means they may be just as safe as they were before the earthquake.

“Broken partition walls, ceiling and disrupted contents can look bad and be inconvenient but do not represent a significant threat to your safety. Conversely, some buildings may have damage that is hidden from view but there will generally be clues to this that an experienced and knowledgeable engineer will detect.

“If an engineer assesses a building as suffering damage that is likely to reduce its capacity to deal with future shaking, this means more detailed assessment is needed. Carrying out a detailed assessment can take weeks, not hours”.

Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Chief Executive Susan Freeman-Greene says many of the lessons learned from the Canterbury earthquakes are now incorporated into the Building Code though have been included in few buildings to date.

“These include new guidelines for rapid assessment of buildings and training of engineers in how to do these assessments.

“Everyone is feeling uncertain about the weeks and maybe months ahead, given the potential aftershock sequence. Building owners seeking peace of mind may want to get an engineer familiar with the building’s construction type to give it a full assessment.

“If anyone has concerns about damage that their building has suffered and the affect this may have on future performance they are urged to seek engineering advice.”