Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
ROM-Control Pty Ltd has invested in a new state-of-the-art automated testing system designed to enable more complex electronic systems to be analysed and diagnosed in the shortest possible amount of time.
A 10-year-old company, ROM-Control specialises in providing quick and economical repair and refurbishment services for all industrial electronic and control equipment. Committed to achieving customer satisfaction and enhancing their in-house capabilities, ROM-Control constantly invests in new processes and equipment to address the complex and computerised industrial control systems used in most manufacturing and process machinery.
ROM-Control continues to maintain their technological edge with their latest investment – the ABI Boardmaster automated testing system – providing the features and process power to enable more complex electronic systems to be analysed and diagnosed quickly, efficiently and accurately.
Key features and functionalities of the new ABI Boardmaster automated testing system include automated testing and troubleshooting; digital functional testing (in- and out-of-circuit); analogue functional testing (ICs and discrete devices); graphical test generator; live comparison; digital and analogue V-I testing (2D & 3D); analogue matrix V-I; digital IC identifier; EPROM verifier; short locator; digital oscilloscope, digital multimeter, arbitrary function generator, frequency/event counter, universal I/O; and variable power supply.
ROM-Control offers their expertise in repairing and refurbishing industrial electronic control systems to over 900 manufacturers and providers across Australia and New Zealand. As an ISO 9001 Quality Assurance Certified Provider, the company delivers high quality service with a 12-month full guarantee.
Find out more about ROM-Control at rom-control.com.au, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 1300 766 287.
| A Ferret release || July 10, 2017 |||
Despite the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, other countries, including New Zealand, remain committed to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.
In our report, we explore how New Zealand, a trailblazer for emissions trading, might drive a low-emission transformation, both at home and overseas.Turning off the tap
Emitting greenhouse gases is a lot like overflowing a bathtub. Even a slow trickle will eventually flood the room.
The Paris Agreement gives all countries a common destination: net zero emissions during the second half of the century. It is also an acknowledgement that the world has only a short time to turn the tide on emissions and limit global temperature rise to below two degrees. The sooner we turn down the tap, the more time we have for developing solutions.
Time is running out on meeting the goal of keeping global temperature rise below two degrees. from Unsplash, CC BY-ND
New Zealand’s 2030 commitment is to reduce emissions 30% below 2005 levels (11% below 1990). In 2015, our emissions (excluding forestry) were 24% above 1990 levels. The government projects a gap of 235 million tonnes between what has been pledged and what New Zealand will actually emit in the period from 2021 to 2030.
Reducing emissions rapidly enough within New Zealand to achieve our Paris commitment could be extremely expensive, and even at a cost of NZ$300 per tonne, the target could not be met through domestic action alone.
International emission reductions help bridge the gap. New Zealand could turn off its own greenhouse gas tap while supporting other countries to do the same.Joining forces across borders
In the past, New Zealand relied heavily on the global Kyoto carbon market and purchased international emission reductions using the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Some ETS firms bought low-cost overseas Kyoto units of questionable integrity while domestic emissions continued to rise.
In 2015, New Zealand pulled out of the Kyoto carbon market and its ETS is now a domestic-only system.
Under the Paris Agreement, carbon markets have changed in three important ways:
Currently, international emission reductions can be traded only from government to government. It is no longer possible for NZ ETS participants to buy international units directly from the market.
International emission reductions sold as offsets to other countries will have to be additional to the seller’s own Paris target.
Countries have flexibility to trade international emission reductions through arrangements outside of the central UN mechanism which is at an early stage of development.
A new approach to reducing emissions
What does this mean for New Zealand? First, we cannot and must not rely on international markets to set our future domestic emission price.
Second, as both taxpayers and responsible global citizens, we need to decide where to fund emission reductions. Most mitigation opportunities are in developing countries. The benefits of investing in lower-cost reductions overseas need to be weighed against the costs of deferring strategic investment in New Zealand’s own low-emission transformation.
Third, we need an effective mechanism to direct New Zealand’s contribution to mitigation overseas.
In collaboration with others, Motu researchers are prototyping a new approach: a results-based agreement between buyer and seller governments within a climate team.
For example, New Zealand could partner with other buyers – such as Australia, South Korea or Norway – to pool funding at a scale that provides incentives for a country with a developing or emerging economy – such as Colombia or Chile – to invest in low-emission transformation beyond its Paris target. These countries could then create a more favourable environment for low-emission investment – including by New Zealand companies.
Despite the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, other countries, including New Zealand, remain committed to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.
In our report, we explore how New Zealand, a trailblazer for emissions trading, might drive a low-emission transformation, both at home and overseas.Turning off the tap
Emitting greenhouse gases is a lot like overflowing a bathtub. Even a slow trickle will eventually flood the room.
The Paris Agreement gives all countries a common destination: net zero emissions during the second half of the century. It is also an acknowledgement that the world has only a short time to turn the tide on emissions and limit global temperature rise to below two degrees. The sooner we turn down the tap, the more time we have for developing solutions.Time is running out on meeting the goal of keeping global temperature rise below two degrees. from Unsplash, CC BY-ND
New Zealand’s 2030 commitment is to reduce emissions 30% below 2005 levels (11% below 1990). In 2015, our emissions (excluding forestry) were 24% above 1990 levels. The government projects a gap of 235 million tonnes between what has been pledged and what New Zealand will actually emit in the period from 2021 to 2030.
Reducing emissions rapidly enough within New Zealand to achieve our Paris commitment could be extremely expensive, and even at a cost of NZ$300 per tonne, the target could not be met through domestic action alone.
International emission reductions help bridge the gap. New Zealand could turn off its own greenhouse gas tap while supporting other countries to do the same.Joining forces across borders
In the past, New Zealand relied heavily on the global Kyoto carbon market and purchased international emission reductions using the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Some ETS firms bought low-cost overseas Kyoto units of questionable integrity while domestic emissions continued to rise.
In 2015, New Zealand pulled out of the Kyoto carbon market and its ETS is now a domestic-only system.
Under the Paris Agreement, carbon markets have changed in three important ways:
Currently, international emission reductions can be traded only from government to government. It is no longer possible for NZ ETS participants to buy international units directly from the market.
International emission reductions sold as offsets to other countries will have to be additional to the seller’s own Paris target.
Countries have flexibility to trade international emission reductions through arrangements outside of the central UN mechanism which is at an early stage of development.
A new approach to reducing emissions
What does this mean for New Zealand? First, we cannot and must not rely on international markets to set our future domestic emission price.
Second, as both taxpayers and responsible global citizens, we need to decide where to fund emission reductions. Most mitigation opportunities are in developing countries. The benefits of investing in lower-cost reductions overseas need to be weighed against the costs of deferring strategic investment in New Zealand’s own low-emission transformation.
Third, we need an effective mechanism to direct New Zealand’s contribution to mitigation overseas.
In collaboration with others, Motu researchers are prototyping a new approach: a results-based agreement between buyer and seller governments within a climate team.
For example, New Zealand could partner with other buyers – such as Australia, South Korea or Norway – to pool funding at a scale that provides incentives for a country with a developing or emerging economy – such as Colombia or Chile – to invest in low-emission transformation beyond its Paris target. These countries could then create a more favourable environment for low-emission investment – including by New Zealand companies.
| A TheConversation release || July 7, 2017
Volvo Cars has announced that every Volvo it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor, marking a historic shift from cars with only internal combustion engines (ICE) and placing electrification at the core of its future business.
The announcement represents a significant move to embrace electrification and highlights an emerging chapter in automotive history.
“This is about the customer,” said Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo president and CEO. “People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs. You can now pick and choose whichever electrified Volvo you wish.”
Volvo will introduce a portfolio of electrified cars across its model range, embracing fully electric cars, plug in hybrid cars and mild hybrid cars.
The company will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvo models and two of which will be electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo’s performance car arm. Full details of these models will be announced at a later date.
The decision follows this month’s announcement that Volvo Cars will turn Polestar into a new separately-branded electrified global high performance car company.
Volvo has also stated that it will offer a range of petrol and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt options on all models. Although this means Volvo hasn’t committed to going fully electric, it does indicate that pure ICE cars will be gradually phased out and replaced by ICE cars with electrified options.
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” said Samuelsson. “Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1m electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.”
For more information, visit the Volvo website.
| An engineering.com release || July 5, 2017 |||
BOBST – one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services to packaging and label manufacturers, and Radex – a startup company owned by multiple stakeholders with a long track record in the field of DOD inkjet digital printing, today announced the launch of Mouvent, a joint venture that will become the digital printing competence center and solutions provider of BOBST. Mouvent, which is comprised of 80 employees in Switzerland, will focus on inventing and delivering the future of digital printing.
Central to the digital innovation at Mouvent is an ingenious digital printing technology developed by Radex, which is based on a highly integrated cluster and represents a quantum leap for the industry. Thanks to its intelligent and compact design, it will be the centerpiece of revolutionary new machines developed by Mouvent for a wide variety of markets such as textile, labels, corrugated board, flexible packaging, folding carton and more.
“We truly believe this is a watershed moment for the future of digital printing independent of the industry or market,” said Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO of Bobst Group SA. “Current industry trends – including high demand for digitalization, short runs, fast availability, promotion and versioning, personalized and seasonal products, and increasing sensitivity towards cost and environment – are driving demand for high quality and affordable digital printing machines. Through Mouvent we aim to initiate a quantum leap in this area, ultimately providing the market with what it needs most; highly reliable industrial digital printing on different substrates at a competitive cost.”
As well as the digital printing presses, Mouvent offers a fully integrated, complete solution – it develops, engineers, tests, and industrializes digital printers based on the MouventTM Cluster, it writes the software around the printers, develops inks and coatings for various substrates, as well as providing a full servicing offering. The company is promising a new standard in inkjet label production cost and quality, in ink pricing, head durability, quality and machine performance. Its first machine that has been launched is an innovative, highly productive digital printer for textiles, which prints with up to 8 colors, and there is a full product pipeline to follow.
The innovative cluster design is the base building block for all systems, current and in development. “Our radical new approach is to use a base cluster which is arranged in a modular, scalable matrix instead of having different print bars for different applications and different print width” explains Piero Pierantozzi, Co-Founder of Mouvent. “The Mouvent Cluster is the key technology behind the Mouvent machines, resulting in high optical resolution for a crisp, colorful, very high printing quality, as well as a never-seen-before flexibility and possibilities in terms of machine development. Simplicity is our engineering philosophy.”
Mouvent printers are the smallest digital printers in their category – closer to desktop printing than to traditional analogic printers like flexo – making them very compact, light-weighted and easily accessible. The modular, compact system allows easier settings and start-up with less fine adjustments required resulting in a productivity boost. The compact design has many other benefits, including smaller footprint, faster change-over, simple implementation and low cost.
“We are very excited to start rolling out the pipeline in the months ahead,” said Simon Rothen, CEO of Mouvent. “Today is the announcement of an exciting journey of bringing large-scale digital printing to various industries. The digital printing solutions offered by Mouvent will present new opportunities for all sorts of companies, bringing more flexibility, unmatched productivity, shorter time to market and infinite variation, all with a very compact and energy efficient design. This will revolutionize the digital printing world.”
The Mouvent Team welcomes you to visit their stand A60 Hall 3 during Labelexpo 2017 for the launch of the new digital printing presses for the label industry.
| A Bobst Group release || July 6, 2017 |||
New Zealand’s top food innovation network is helping fast rising clean-tech company Hydroxsys with its amazing water extraction technologies aimed at mining, dairy and other industries that need water extraction or remediation. New Zealand Food Innovation Network chief executive Alexandra Allan says new membrane technology created by Hydroxsys will increase productivity throughout many industries in New Zealand such as dairying, to produce high value-added products, such as whey protein, more efficiently. This new membrane technology created by Hydroxsys will increase productivity throughout many New Zealand industries, including the dairy industry, to produce high value-added products like whey protein more efficiently. They are also able to help the wider agriculture sector, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, textiles and industrial wastewater. “Hydroxsys came to us 18 months ago to utilise equipment we have that is integral to the processing technology they are developing,” Allan says. “Hydroxsys was aware of our FoodBowl set up and we are now renting our membrane plant to Hydroxsys so they may carry out trials at their Auckland premises to validate their new technology before commercialising at the end of the year. “The FoodBowl has a wide range of food processing technology available to allow companies to produce new products and try new processing methods, either by coming to The FoodBowl near Auckland Airport, or through renting the technology to use at their own premises. “This is a cool flexible arrangement which means companies are able to innovate at their own premises or The FoodBowl, depending on what suits them best for their application. “The FoodBowl and wider New Zealand Food Innovation Network is dialling up innovation and entrepreneurship in the New Zealand food and beverage industry through enabling companies to commercialise new products on local and global markets. “We will be helping industry this year to develop capability on the latest new technologies such as high-pressure processing and areas of global market growth such as bioactives which is an area New Zealand has many special advantages because of our native flora and fauna,” Allan says. Hydroxsys has raise about $3 million in investment funding from people and organisations such as the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, Sparkbox and K1W1 (Sir Stephen Tindall’s investment fund). Hydroxsys has developed a platform technology approach for the membrane market and has sound technology so it can be a leader in markets such as China, the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Where organisations and businesses must treat waste streams before discharge, Hydroxsys can be relevant. The New Zealand Food Innovation Network is an accessible, national network of science and technology resources created to support the growth and development of New Zealand food and beverage business of all sizes or providing facilities and the expertise needed to develop new products and process from idea to commercial success. Its network is working closely with science, technology and export partners to grow capability.
| A Make Lemonade rrelease || July 6, 2017 |||
British bike manufacturer Orro have released the all new Terra C model road bike this month. Featuring sigmaIF – a combination of Innegra™ and Sigmatex carbon fibres, to produce a completely redesigned frame.
Orro’s mission is to create the best and most stylish bikes for serious riders. Their headquarters in Ditchling at the foot of the Sussex Downs, provides an area of outstanding natural beauty; an inspiration and a perfect testing ground for their bikes.
The Terra C is one of several bikes in the Orro range that feature Sigmatex carbon technology. The Terra C has a lightweight frame, tyre clearance and geometry aimed at the emerging adventure riding scene, while retaining the speed and handling of a road bike. Offering the same light weight performance as more traditional carbon fibre reinforcements, sigmaIF offers improved impact resistance and damping properties – absorbing energy and reducing vibrations, which makes for a smoother ride.
“sigmaIF is so versatile and we have been able to completely customise the fibres to improve the strength in critical areas to ward off rock strikes and other such impacts.” – Orro.
In addition to cycling, sigmaIF has been the chosen solution for a diverse range of sporting applications including paddle boards, ice hockey sticks and surfboards. sigmaIF has a greater damage tolerance which reduces failure in such applications where impact resistance is essential.
| A Sigmatex release || July 5, 2017 |||
WaterSaver is a New Zealand designed and manufactured device and was the brainchild of Nelson based Jon Taylor. In this article he talks to the NZ Entrepreneur magazine on the WaterSaver's path to market [. . .]
Scion is to investigate the feasibility of remediating treated timber with government funding of $163,000, Associate Environment Minister Scott Simpson announced today.
Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) is a preservative for timber that has been commonly used in New Zealand since the 1950s. However, CCA-treated timber becomes a hazardous waste material when sent to landfill, that can leach arsenic into the ground.
“To date, there have been no practical remediation options available to this problem, so I am delighted that Scion believes they may have one and that I am able to support them in testing its feasibility,” Mr Simpson says.
“This study could provide New Zealand with an opportunity to divert CCA-treated timber from landfills and offer an environmentally friendly solution reusing both the wood fibre and the extracted metals.”
A 2013 report suggested that currently between 12,000 and 42,000 tonnes of treated timber could be sent to landfills nationally per annum, not including the significant estimated nationwide contribution of rural waste.
The grant, provided through the Waste Minimisation Fund, will fund a two year project, based in Rotorua.
The Waste Minimisation Fund provides financial support to projects that reduce environmental harm and provide social, economic and cultural benefits. It is funded from a levy introduced by the National-led Government in 2009, which is charged on waste disposed of at landfills to discourage waste and to fund recycling initiatives. Over $80 million has been awarded to more than 130 projects to date.
| A beehive release || July 3, 2017 |||
Tradestaff is celebrating the success of the Canterbury Trade Pilot Initiative Programme. Twenty-one graduates were recently awarded the certificate in New Zealand Level 4 Carpentry.
As part of a PACER Plus initiative Tradestaff partnered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on the pilot scheme. PACER Plus is a trade and economic integration agreement between New Zealand and Pacific Island Governments that aims to create jobs, raise standards of living and encourage sustainable economic growth in the Pacific region.
The pilot project was designed to provide an opportunity for up to 24 skilled carpenters from the Pacific Islands to fill job shortages in the Christchurch rebuild.
Kevin Eder, Managing Director of Tradestaff, says the pilot project was a great success.
"This programme has been a win-win for all stakeholders. Tradestaff was able to ensure our Pasifika pilot workers remained in consistent work throughout the programme. Many of them were personally requested by our clients as they have become recognised as hard workers with great skills.
"Pacific nations are at regular risk of severe cyclones that cause widespread damage. With the support of their governments, we expect the graduates to return home with greater experience and skills from their time with us. We were able to expose them to a wide variety of work environments, providing learning experiences across construction techniques they would not otherwise had the chance to encounter."
Tradestaff ensured the recruits were taken through a specifically tailored induction programme. This covered everything from health and safety practices and expectations, site safe training, kiwi building jargon, and familiarisation with what to expect on a large commercial construction site. With support from ARA Institute of Canterbury the recruits were provided with onsite training and skills assessment throughout the pilot programme, culminating in them being awarded the certificate in New Zealand Level 4 Carpentry.
"We are confident the outcomes that we have achieved are in line with the spirit of the PACER Plus agreement and will raise the standard of living for those involved and encourage sustainable economic development for the Pacific nations included," Eder says.
Tradestaff was recently recognised for their work with the Pasifika migrant workers. It received the Award for Excellence in Candidate Care at the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) New Zealand Industry Awards.
Labour mobility schemes
The 2007-10 Gibson & McKenzie report on Vanuatu and Tonga found the following for countries involved in a labour mobility scheme:
The following applies to the receiving countries:
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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