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At the SAMPE 2019 conference and exhibition, produced by the North America Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE, Diamond Bar, Calif., U.S.), the Australian Government’s Global Innovation Linkages Program announced funding for a joint project with Plataine (Waltham, Ma., U.S.), led by Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia), to research techniques for manufacturing high volume, lightweight composites. Plataine is one of four international partners collaborating with Swinburne on the project, which will use a world-first process for 3D printing of industrial scale composites in Swinburne’s Industry 4.0 Testlab. Additional partners include FILL (Ried im Innkreis, Austria), Quickstep (Bankstown Airport, Australia) and  (Stuttgart, Germany)​​​​​.

The research project, led by Swinburne’s Professor Bronwyn Fox, will reportedly develop products for the Aerospace and Automotive sectors, where there is a growing requirement for high volume composites with digital ID. 

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Swinburne has established a global partnership network for Industry 4.0 research including Australian, German, Israeli and Austrian companies. The university plans to use the support from Global Innovation Linkages to expand the program’s scope, using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies to push the boundaries of automated carbon fiber parts production.

Plataine was chosen for its experience in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI-based optimization solutions for advanced manufacturing and its good track record with deployments in the aerospace, automotive and composites sectors. Plataine’s Digital manufacturing solutions are said to improve production facilities by integrating with local systems and collecting real-time data from factory sensors, analyzed by AI-based Digital Assistants, to offer predictive alerts, actionable insights and optimized real-time recommendations to factory floor staff. 

“The [Global Innovation Linkages] grant recognizes our leadership in Industry 4.0 transformation of the advanced manufacturing sector,” says Professor Aleksandar Subic, Swinburne deputy vice-chancellor of Research and Development. “Our international network of partners will enable us to create new business opportunities for Australian advanced manufacturers.” 

Avner Ben-Bassat, president and CEO of Plataine, adds, “The advanced composites manufacturing industry is fast moving, and the pressures to get production rates up and costs down are always increasing. For manufacturers to keep up, they need the latest technologies. Swinburne’s research into 3D printing processes for industrial scale composites is incredibly exciting, and Plataine is thrilled to be a part of it.”