Mainfreight has just opened a new air and ocean branch in Milan (Italy). The new facility is a continuation of the company's steady expansion across Europe, allowing Mainfreight to offer high levels of customer service and quality by controlling the supply chain end to end.

From the new Milan office, the local team provides a full spectrum of air and ocean services, including customs clearance.

Mainfreight, located in New Zealand, is a 3PL+ logistics service provider backed by a powerful global network for customer-specific and preferably integrated warehousing, transport and distribution solutions.

In Europe, the company operates from offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Poland, Ukraine and the UK. (mw)

| A Mainfreight release  ||   September 11,  2017   |||

Building inspection pass rates are improving, but the substitution of inferior building products is still blighting the construction industry writes Alexia Russell for Newsroom

Cheap, inferior alternatives being used in housing projects as substitutes for code-compliant products are the number one bugbear of Auckland Council's inspectors. The inspectors say they are picking up most of the problems, but the work required to remedy such situations is holding up the city's much needed home-building programme. Tradesmen, on the other hand, believe a lot is being missed and they're sick of seeing products that have potentially disastrous repercussions further down the line, entering the country.

A highly successful recruiting drive in Canada by the council will help the situation. There are now has 12 new, fully-trained building inspectors on the job after a trip on which Auckland Council Building Control General-Manager Ian McCormick sheepishly admits selling the country as a package by showing them lots of pretty pictures.

The current building boom means the council's facing a situation where it invests heavily in staff training, only to see those people lost to desperately-needed project managing jobs in the industry.

McCormick says without a doubt the biggest problem for him at the moment is site supervision - having competent people guide and support increasingly complex builds, and engage and manage a host of subcontractors and specialists. "We are finding in the industry that too often project managers are having to run many jobs concurrently, racing from job to job," he says. "Project managers are going into jobs more complex than in the past, and in some cases are struggling."

Continue to read the full article here on Newsroom ||  11 September 2017   |||

Fonterra’s Maungaturoto manufacturing site in Northland, New Zealand has recently become home to a rare Australasian Bittern.

The Australasian Bittern, or Matuku as they are known, is a large, heron sized bird. They are rarely sighted because of their secretive behaviour and camouflage technique and are usually most active at dawn, dusk and through the night.

Long serving utilities operator at the site Gary Sosich said he had seen the rare bird while doing routine checks on the site’s stormwater diversion system. He then realised that there was two of them, indicating that there may be a breeding pair living in the wetland. Maungaturoto Environmental Manager Steve Gale says, “It’s positive to see our stormwater treatment wetland is supporting biodiversity. It’s a credit to the stormwater management system we have in place.”

“The bittern population in New Zealand used to be abundant, but there is now thought to be less than 1,000 left due to habitat loss. It’s encouraging to see that our constructed wetland is a comfortable home for them and somewhere that they feel safe.” The bird is an indicator of wetland health, due to their dependence on the presence of high quality and ecologically diverse habitats with a rich food supply

|  A Fonterra release  ||  September 9,  2017   |||

RocketLab  are looking for summer interns to join their New Zealand team from November 2017 - February 2018!

Exciting opportunities are available in the following teams:

Analysis  -   Guidance & Navigation  -   Production & Manufacturing  -   Avionics  -   Software  -   Propulsion and the Launch Range.

If you are a third or fourth year engineering student who is innovative, intelligent and completely enthusiastic about aerospace, then this is your chance to spend the summer learning from the best and contributing towards making space accessible to all.

View Positions Here . . .  Please note the positions shown are published on the RocketLab webside and may not necessarily be intership related

| An MSCNewsWire release  ||  September 8,  2017   |||

Compac has announced the development of new technology to overcome the traditional issues associated with grading and sorting cherries.

End View is the new cherry grading technology that utilizes learnings from Compac’s Spectrim platform to improve outcomes for cherry-specific produce lines. End View will be available as a modular upgrade for existing customers, and as part of Compac’s cherry inspection solution InVision 7-View.

Due to their size and shape, cherries can be difficult to properly grade using existing cameras and technology. However, End View utilizes new cameras and software to detect and grade nose and stem defects such as rain cracks and mildew, while keeping current production speeds.

Embracing innovative technology has become more important for cherry growers as newly planted trees continue to come into production, pressuring existing plant capacities. With changing weather patterns growers are also trying to reduce the impact of unseasonal rain events, which are the main contributor to previously undetectable nose cracks.

Compac CEO Mike Riley said the importance of sorting cherries accurately is imperative in protecting batches from spoilage and providing high-quality exportable products for international consumers.

“One bad cherry can ruin a box. Our customers rely on our technology to maintain the quality of their product and protect their reputation and brand.

“We’re always striving to be on the cutting edge of grading and sorting technology development. As the fresh produce and agriculture sector continues to evolve, keeping up with demand and expectation will be key.”

The new End View solution also utilizes Compac’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities. SmartMapTM and SmartSkinTM AI provides improved defect detection and categorization, and ease of use.

Recently, Compac partnered with Pure Pac in New Zealand’s South Island to outfit the operation with the most advanced, gentle and food safe best-of-breed sorting solution including the End View technology. As the company plans to begin exporting its premium product internationally in 2017/2018, accurate sizing and grading, including detection of stem and nose defects were important parts of Compac’s proposal.

The End View prototype was tested in New Zealand, America and Canada. Director of Panmure Orchards in New Zealand saw immediate benefits from the technology. “In terms of End Views which include improved optics and software, the machine can now see the whole fruit allowing additional classification of fruit surface which improves the quality of pack. A secondary benefit is the increase in packhouse throughput on nose cracked batches whilst still maintaining the quality of the pack.”

Riley says Compac is dedicated to continual investment into cherries, directly improving performance and adding capabilities to advance yields and boost the quality of produce globally.

“We were receiving such strong global demand for a next generation cherry grading solution that we decided to accelerate our Inspection Systems roadmap to focus on this. We’re absolutely thrilled with the result and feedback from our development customers has been superb. We can’t wait to see this product in packhouses across the world.”

End View will officially be launched later this year at PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans, with roll out to begin in 2018 across the globe.

| A Compac release  ||  September 2017   |||

Have you ever had a great idea and wished you could figure out how to get it to market, but you weren’t really willing to “bet the farm” on it? As someone who has been in that position on several occasions, I can share a few insights.

First, I’ve never been tempted to contact one of those firms that markets heavily about how they help novice inventors develop ideas and provide lots of support at every step of the way. I’ve generally assumed, perhaps unfairly, that they’re much more interested in the fees they’ll collect than in really helping me succeed.  This article was written by  Douglas Hoon back in March 2016 for Machine Design

Second, I’ve never sought out angel investors or venture capitalists as a way to fund the process. They provide much more mainstream approaches, but such investors will rightly expect that you will be totally focused on achieving certain agreed-upon milestones on schedule. And they will be quick to walk away if they see the opportunity fading. It’s a high-risk, high-reward, time-critical approach that makes sense if you’re already financially independent or young enough and without major family obligations that you can weather a spectacular failure and move on with your life. Or you really like to gamble.

My approach has always been to do my inventing “nights and weekends” as a complement to a regular job that pays the bills, investing my own funds on a schedule I can afford and putting in a few hours a week slowly pushing the idea. Not every idea is a success, but with this strategy it’s possible to eventually succeed financially if only one in 10 ideas sees some level of commercial success.

Like many in the Machine Design audience, I have a small basement shop and some design tools that let me tinker and pursue ideas while avoiding the expense of real-estate rental, hiring employees, and bank loans or other debt. Thus, when some of my efforts proved to be “ahead of their time,” I’ve been able to weather the long haul until the market catches up. During that time, I am able to keep the idea alive while maintaining full ownership of the IP, persisting in overcoming the obstacles that will intrude, learning more about the markets involved, and laying a solid foundation for success. That old adage that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is true, and you need to give yourself the opportunity to actually invest that 99% without worrying about investor demands or running out of money.

In the process of acquiring 10 patents and writing over a dozen additional provisional and non-provisional patents, I’ve gained a lot of insights that you may find useful.

• If you work for a company, especially one involved in design, manufacturing, or consulting, there is a strong possibility you were required to sign an agreement that assigns the rights to any invention you conceive to your employer. Sometimes this provision extends for patent filings that occur 90 days or more from the date you leave the company. So before you do anything, talk to your boss or someone in your HR department to find out if you can carve out some type of exception to that policy. Companies are often willing to let you individually patent ideas that lie outside their competitive area of interest. If you can’t do that, and you’re unwilling to launch your own business, there is little reason to pursue this strategy.

• Your only protection as the inventor of a product is a patent. And the only circumstance under which most potential customers/acquirers/licensees of your idea will even talk to you is if you have at least applied for a patent. They don’t want to be embroiled in any charges that they’ve stolen your idea. A patent application, with its definitive time stamp, sets clear boundaries on who owns what.

• Patent lawyers are really expensive. Until you’re sure you have something likely to provide a return on what could be a substantial investment, figure out how to use the many tools available on U.S. Patent Office’s website www.USPTO.gov. It’s especially important that you learn how to use their advanced search tools for patents and published applications.

• Our patent system is based on the “first to file” principle. Fortunately, you can file a provisional patent application on your own, without help other than reading the guidelines on the USPTO website, as soon as the idea crystalizes in your mind. The cost for a first-time inventor filing under “micro entity” status is only $65. If you don’t qualify for that rate, the fee for a “small entity” is $130.

Provisional patent applications are good for one year. That time window lets you explore an idea more fully with reduced risk that it will be stolen. This exploration should include your own efforts to determine whether the idea is truly novel or so close to someone else’s patent that it is not worth pursuing. It should also include reaching out to potential customers/acquirers to determine whether there is any significant level of interest, i.e., do you have a product idea people will actually pay for? And finally, this one-year window gives you an opportunity to create a prototype, even a crude representation, to determine whether the idea will actually work. For this latter goal, I’ve found the 3D printer on my home desktop to be priceless.

• Submitting a provisional patent requires that you be able to adequately document/describe your idea in both words and figures. If you’re not a good writer, get help from friends or family. And think carefully about all the different ways your idea’s general functional characteristics might be realized. Your provisional patent not only registers the priority date for your idea claims, it also limits what you can later claim (without losing your priority date) in a subsequent non-provisional patent application.

The drawing portion of the application can be made much easier if you can create a range of drawing views from one of the available drawing software packages–preferably a solids modeling program. If you know how to use one of these programs, great. And if your employer will let you use company software for a personal project like this, it can be a big cost saver. However, should you need to acquire your own design software, there are several alternatives worth looking at. SolidWorks is a superb choice for small inventors, but it costs about $5,000 for the initial license and has substantial annual subscription fees. Other, more recent 3D solids programs, are less expensive. AutoDesk’s Fusion 360 and OnShape are two that come to mind. There is actually a version of OnShape you can get for free with the only limitation that your cloud-based file storage cannot exceed 5 GB. Patent drawings at the provisional level don’t necessarily need to conform to any particular format, but the USPTO publishes a definitive drawing format guide you should get in the habit of using.

• After you decide your idea is worth pursuing beyond the provisional patent level, legal protection starts to become more expensive. If there is a chance your idea will have broad appeal, especially on an international level, the investment in a patent attorney is certainly warranted. If, however, you determine there is a small market, but one worth pursuing for a small business, maybe something you could do almost at a hobby level for the enjoyment and small additional income it could afford, then you might think about prosecuting the non-provisional patent yourself. The USPTO lets individual inventors file pro se. I’ve done it once under just this set of financial considerations. The process is still underway, so I have limited experience to describe the plusses and minuses.

• One strategy I’ve used on several occasions is to solicit help in the patenting process from a larger firm interested in licensing the rights to the invention. Under these terms, they typically fund the out-of-pocket expenses for all legal fees. Inventors are generally expected to contribute their time to support development of the required patent specification and drawings with no compensation other than for direct expenses.

A natural extension of this strategy is to also solicit help from the licensing firm to defend the patent once it issues. This is potentially a huge factor in your overall business strategy because the value of a patent is only as good as your ability to defend it against potential infringers. As an individual pitted against a multinational corporation, you would have almost no chance of enforcing your rights. With the help of a larger firm, the odds go up substantially. Most agreement language around this type of provision will give the licensing firm “the right, but not the obligation” to defend the idea. Typically any damages won in a patent trial go to whoever funded the suit, and in the case it would be the licensing firm and not to you. That’s okay because your interest is in protecting the royalty stream from the license and if that continues, you win too.

I find the whole process of invention, design, and marketing of ideas to be fun and a great sideline to my normal work life. As hobbies go, it’s one of the few with the potential to actually supplement your income rather than be a steady economic drain. Like every hobby, it gets easier as you develop skills and more experience. It’s also a great way to keep my mind active and something I hope to do well into what would otherwise be a quiet retirement.

|  A Machine Design release  ||  March 3,  2016   |||

Please note that requirements around the patent system referred to in this article are based on US requirements.  For requirements in New Zealand you should visit the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand.

Massey University industrial design graduate Nicole Austin’s re-modelled lamb docking or tailing iron has won the top prize in the New Zealand section of the James Dyson Award.

In the 17 years the award has been run in New Zealand it is the first time a woman has won the award.

“It’s pretty exciting. Now that women are becoming more engaged in industrial design, it’s nice to be able to represent that,” Ms Austin says.

The global product design competition celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers.

Ms Austin’s design, called Moray, helps eliminate repetitive strain injury for farmers when using traditional tools during the seasonal process of removing lambs’ tails – known as docking. The body of the device, which updates equipment unchanged in design for more than 40 years, is made from reinforced nylon and ergonomically designed with a specialized handle to make the docking process easier on the farmers hands. Effective docking significantly reduces lamb mortality and improves the health and productivity of the animals too, she says.

“I’ve refined the tool to be 35 per cent lighter and to use 60 per cent less hand span than the docking iron currently used by New Zealand farmers,” she says.

Her design was first exhibited last November at the annual end of year design exhibition Exposure run by Massey’s College of Creative Arts and has led to her securing a full-time job as part of Fisher & Paykel Appliances industrial design team in Auckland.

She has also made the device more reliable by using piezoelectric igniting and a specialized double-chamber dampening shaft for reliable weather-proofing and consistent blade temperatures for clean cauterization. Effective docking significantly reduces lamb mortality and improves the health and productivity of the animals too.

Ms Austin, who is originally from Timaru, was also pleased to devise a design for the sheep farming sector which in recent years had operated in the shadow of the dairy industry.

“Little has been done to develop common tools in the sheep farming industry and I saw it as a huge opportunity to channel my expertise as an industrial designer toward something that benefits the agricultural sector.”

James Dyson Award New Zealand head judge and president of the Designers Institute, Mike Jensen, says the judging panel was impressed by Ms Austin’s deep exploration into how the product may provide significant improvements for animal welfare and user comfort.

“Nicole visited a series of farms to interview farmers, ran surveys and undertook rigorous design workshops during the research phase. She also spent time docking to truly understand the process and the current challenges faced by farmers during the highly labour-intensive docking season.

“The result is a prototype design that will save time and definitely effort and is a major advancement on what is currently being used by farmers,” Mr Jensen says.

“It’s exciting to see a functional and rugged design that has been well researched and that holds much commercial potential for domestic and international markets.

Ms Austin’s award earned her $3500 in prize money.

Other finalists included fellow Massey industrial designers who studied at the College of Creative Arts; Glenn Catchpole who made an ecologically designed chair that produced zero waste; Abby Farrow who designed a hand-held device that makes intravenous vein finding easier for medical practitioners and less stressful for patients; and an electronic, tunable and portable log drum for modern musicians designed by Rachel Hall.

Auckland University of Technology industrial designer Haydn Jack was also a finalist with his design of a live streaming system specifically designed for amateur sports broadcasters.

The New Zealand finalists now progress through to the international final where a prize worth about NZ$50,000 will be awarded to the winner to be announced on October 26. The tertiary institution they represent will also be awarded a prize of NZ$8000.

| A Massey University release   ||  September 6,  2017   |||

A business initiative that safely disposes of hazardous unwanted refrigerants has had its accreditation as a ‘product stewardship scheme’ extended by the Government, Associate Environment Minister Scott Simpson announced today.

Mr Simpson met with representatives of the Trust for the Destruction of Synthetic Refrigerants to congratulate them on the success their initiative, Refrigerant Recovery, has achieved in safely disposing of hazardous unwanted refrigerants.

Refrigerant Recovery collects unwanted man-made refrigerants from New Zealand’s refrigeration and air conditioning industries. Refrigerants from around the country are shipped to Australia where they are safely destroyed at high temperatures through a process of plasma conversion. The process is highly efficient and produces virtually no emissions.

“Refrigerant Recovery helps to reduce the risk of hazardous compounds such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) entering the environment. If these chemicals get into the environment they damage the earth’s protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming. HFCs are potent greenhouse gases that may be tens of thousands of times more harmful than carbon dioxide,” Mr Simpson says.

“By safely and sustainably disposing of hazardous chemicals, Refrigerant Recovery is helping to mitigate climate change and restore the ozone layer.”

Refrigerant Recovery is also helping New Zealand to meet its international obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Under the Climate Change Response Act 1996, New Zealand has been phasing out the import of CFCs and HCFCs into the country. HFCs will be next on the agenda, and the Ministry for the Environment recently closed a consultation round on how to phase down HFCs in a response to the recently agreed Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

In 2010, the Government accredited Refrigerant Recovery for seven years as a product stewardship scheme under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008. Refrigerant Recovery’s reaccreditation for the next seven years means that the Minister has recognised the scheme’s important contribution to reducing the environmental harms associated with disposing of man-made refrigerants.

Product stewardship describes the process by which producers and suppliers take responsibility for their products throughout their entire lifecycle, such as by reusing and recycling products.

| A Beehive release  ||  September 6,  2017   |||

TOKYO -- Low-fat, high-protein beef from grass-fed New Zealand cattle is becoming increasingly popular in health-conscious Japan.

 In a country known for gastronomic indulgence, not least its love of fatty, marbled wagyu beef, it may come as a bit of a surprise to see the burgeoning popularity of lean New Zealand meat.

But as demand for lean cuts rises from an increasingly health-conscious public, more and more grass-fed New Zealand beef has appeared on Japan's supermarket shelves.

In June, Co-opdeli Consumers' Co-operative Union switched from grain-fed Australian beef to meat from pasture-grazed New Zealand cattle for its home delivery service.

Livestock tends to be raised in a more environmentally sound manner in New Zealand than major beef-producing countries.

While the weather can be a bit dreary in the land of the long white cloud, abundant rainfall does make for rich and plentiful pastures. There are even farmers who specialize in grass for livestock feed, growing fiber-rich ryegrass and clover for its minerals.

Continue to read the full article here in the Nikkei Asian Review  ||  September 6,  2017   |||

GERMANY: |  An alliance of German manufacturing technology firms is setting out to establish a global platform for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), with the launch of ADAptive Manufacturing Open Solutions (ADAMOS).

The group want to establish ADAMOS as a global standard for industry and to attract other machine builders to the initiative. The companies involved are machine tool builder DMG Mori, degreasing/cleaning specialist Dürr, metrology specialist Carl Zeiss, software expert Software AG and IT specialist ASM PT.

The open IIoT platform ADAMOS is non-proprietary and brings together the most up-to-date IT technology and industry knowledge. “It enables engineering companies to offer tried-and-tested solutions for digitally networked production to their customers with little effort. Machine tool builders, as well as their suppliers and customers will benefit from this as ADAMOS is a platform service that offers data autonomy and access to leading software solutions,” the official release says.

Says Christian Thönes, chief executive officer of DMG Mori AG: “Regarding digitisation the machine and plant building industry has to set its own standards and drive development. This can only work with strong partners. That is why we are offering an open network with ADAMOS together with leading machine building, production and software/IT know-how – from machine builders for machine builders, their suppliers and customers.”

Dürr AG’s CEO, Ralf W. Dieter adds: “As a machine builder, we know our customers’ requirements and know what is important. In the ADAMOS App Factory, we bring industry knowledge for intuitively operated applications together with the design of digital marketplaces. The ADAMOS App Factory is a cooperation between machine builders and software companies that is closely linked with the partners.”

Speaking for Software AG, Karl-Heinz Streibich, EO states: “Software AG’s technology leadership and digital expertise is based on a total investment of more than one billion euros. Our industry neutrality and global presence combined with the know-how of leading machine and plant builders worldwide form the foundation of ADAMOS.”

Thomas Spitzenpfeil, member of the executive board (CFO/CIO) of Carl Zeiss AG, offers: “With ADAMOS, strong partners are working together equally on pushing digital connectivity. Together we are developing technologies for the factory of the future. Companies that use the IIoT applications from ADAMOS, will be making use of innovative services and thus increase the efficiency, transparency, reliability and availability of their systems significantly.”

Günter Lauber, CEO of the SMT Solutions Segment of ASM PT, concudes: “The growing interconnectivity of production means that not only our customers, but also we ourselves have to change our thinking. We create the conditions for this at ASM PT with innovative solutions for various line and factory workflows for electronic manufacturing – whilst complying with the highest IT security standards. Through ADAMOS we are combining this knowledge with leading machine building, production and software know-how.”

ADAMOS GmbH and ADAMOS App Factory will launch world-wide on 1 October 2017.

Features of ADAMOS include:ADAMOS focuses on close cooperation and the exchange of know-how and reduces effort and cost by making centrally developed solutions and services available to all participants. As a driver of innovation, ADAMOS will constantly be developing new IIoT applications. There is no dependency on external software providers with ADAMOS. Machine building customers obtain machines and IIoT / software solutions from the same source and have sovereignty over their data. This secures the leading position of machine building companies in the digital era. ADAMOS offers a digital portfolio with applications specific to machine building as well as domain- and industry-specific applications. ADAMOS can be deployed internationally, can be quickly implemented and is available as a cloud or “on premise” solution via stationary servers. ADAMOS uses standard solutions and interfaces and is therefore operationally reliable. As a “white label” solution ADAMOS allows participating machine builders to have their own individual IIoT presence. This means that the partners use the central ADAMOS platform but the front-end the customer sees can be designed with the partners’ own ‘look & feel’.

The ADAMOS App Factory concentrates the technological know-how and the industry knowledge of the partners for fast and joint development of apps. More comprehensive applications for planning, predictive maintenance, machine cockpit/dashboarding and maintaining assistance will be made available in the cloud from the beginning of 2018.

ADAMOS GmbH is registered in Darmstadt and the launch companies are all equal partners. In addition, other machine and plant builders can take advantage of ADAMOS’s range of services as partners. Each partner markets the ADAMOS range independently. ADAMOS GmbH operates as a platform service and thus makes leading IIoT tools and functions available to all the platform users. Marketing of individual IIoT solutions is carried out by the participating partners.

| An MA Business Machinery release  ||  SEptember 5,  2017   |||