Amid a spate of announcements from Australian manufacturers that they are heading offshore, a KPMG survey suggests that an increase in research and development (R&D) expenditure rather than a search for low-cost labour and manufacturing facilities may be the key to survival in a global market.

The paperless information society has been with us for years, yet anyone needing information about a plant or machinery still has to root through heaps of paper documents. A retrieval system provides archived knowledge on demand.

The Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia (MESA) is calling for nominations for the 10th annual Australian Maintenance Engineering Excellence Awards (AMEEA) as industry and government increasingly acknowledge the benefits of asset maintenance.

ISA has announced the intent to create the Automation Alliance as an umbrella organisation under which associations and societies engaged in manufacturing and process automation activities can work more effectively to fulfil their missions.

An array of mini sensors are poised to change the costly and resource-intensive process of fighting corrosion in industries such as aerospace, shipping, mining, oil and gas.

An “acoustic cameraâ€, which produces a digital image overlaid with a colour-coded noise map showing precisely where noise is being emitted, will make its Australian debut during National Manufacturing Week 2006, to be held at Sydney’s Darling Harbour from May 30 to June 2.

Australian exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) will increase nearly fourfold over the next decade under a new industry strategy to develop the upstream oil and gas sector.

Industrial automation company, Rockwell Automation, has appointed Les Cutajar as its standard drives product manager. With 14 years’ sales experience with the company, Cutajar believes his role represents an opportunity to emphasise the commitment that Rockwell Automation has made to the drives market in Australia.

Power utility executives are facing up to a technology-driven period of change over the next five years and beyond, according to a survey of the global sector.

Cleaning the inside of giant storage tanks at refineries and bulk chemical storage facilities is about to get a whole lot easier, safer and cheaper with the development of a jet cleaning device.

Matrix Process Solutions has signed an exclusive distribution agreement for Australia with French Company Manufacture Caoutchouc Duverger (MCD).

ISA has formed a new committee to focus on developing a standard to help accelerate the implementation and widespread uses of fieldbus devices throughout industry. The ISA SP104 committee will be formed to create a standard that adopts the generic language specified by IEC 61804 to describe the properties of automation system components. The specified language is capable of describing device parameters and their dependencies, device functions, graphical representations and interactions with control devices.

A one-day conference on Welding and the Engineer will be held as part of the WELDTECH exhibition, which is running during National Manufacturing Week 2006 at Sydney’s Darling Harbour, from May 30 to June 2.

A novel array of sensors is poised to change the costly and resource-intensive process of fighting corrosion in industries such as aerospace, shipping, mining, oil and gas.

GE Fanuc Embedded Systems has joined the board of directors of VITA, the trade association dedicated to fostering open systems architecture in a variety of embedded systems applications. Jim Berlin, vice president of Hardware Technology, will serve as GE Fanuc's primary representative on the VITA board.