Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre
The Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre is a novel model where the government of Victoria, CSIRO and industry to share risk in innovation to make Victorian manufacturing more globally competitive, productive and green.
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7 July 2011 | Updated 12 October 2012
Overview
Victorian Government support for Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre
The Victorian Government's Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development (DIIRD) is providing support via a A$3 million grant under the Victoria's Science Agenda (VSA) Investment Fund for the Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre.
This A$41 million Fund supports market driven collaborative projects that develop science and technology-based solutions.
What is direct manufacturing?
Direct manufacturing is a revolutionary concept where components are manufactured directly from powder, ribbon or wire in a layered manner, by-passing conventional processes as casting, forging, rolling, cutting, machining, welding, or drilling.
It offers dramatic savings in labour, time, materials, energy and other costs, and significant reductions in adverse environmental impacts.
Direct manufacturing technologies have the potential to deliver a ‘quantum leap' in the manufacturing process and enable manufacturers in developed countries like Australia to compete with countries where labour costs are low.
They also offer the opportunity to progress faster from concept to product and to produce parts from difficult-to-fabricate materials such as titanium, tantalum, nickel, cobalt and mixtures of these for advanced applications in aerospace, defence, mining, petroleum, biomedical and automotive industries.
Direct Manufacturing Centre participants at CSIRO's Cold Spray facility.
The consortium
The Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre consortium includes three research agencies:
- CSIRO as the lead research agency
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Deakin University.
Industry partners include nine Victorian manufacturing companies:
International technology providers (linking the consortium with other global developments in direct manufacturing) are:
- Cold Gas Technology GmbH
- Linde Gas.
Both financial and in-kind contributions from the participants represent a significant investment by government, industry and research providers to help revitalise the manufacturing sector and deliver economic and environmental benefits to Victoria.
What the Victorian Direct Manufacturing centre will do?
Nine initial projects will be established in the Centre, all of these will be led by CSIRO and several are based on applications of Cold Spray technology.
CSIRO's work on these projects will be led by Dr Mahnaz Jahedi, who established CSIRO's Cold Spray research capability and pioneered the introduction of Cold Spray technology to Australian industry. Dr Jahedi is also the Director of the Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre.
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