Manufacturing Excellence Taskforce Australia (META), a collaborative network of high potential manufacturing businesses and researchers, has partnered with the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (VCAMM) to establish the Carbon Fibre Hub (CFH), which will aim to facilitate industry collaboration by nurturing new technologies, encouraging foreign direct investment, expanding export opportunities and enabling the sharing of knowledge to allow manufacturers to diversify into new sectors.
Carbon fibre composites have revolutionised the way many products are designed and manufactured, and the CFH will focus on improving the adoption of carbon fibre composite technology into other sectors that are cost sensitive and curing cycle time dependent.
The new CFH – initiated and supported by META – will enable its members to share expertise and knowledge to help grow and increase the efficiency and competitiveness of Australia’s manufacturing industry globally.
“The new Carbon Fibre Hub will make Australia’s carbon fibre composite industry world-class by bringing together Australia’s leading companies working in carbon fibre composites. The engagement of our members with those of VCAMM will encourage cross industry engagement leading to new commercial partnerships which will enable them to compete on the global stage,” said Zoran Angelkovski, Managing Director, META .
“We are excited to join forces with META in the development of the Carbon Fibre Hub because it will afford META members, the knowledge and learning needed to improve their capabilities and global competitiveness in this new century of manufacturing,” said Brad Dunstan, CEO, VCAMM Limited.
According to the media release by META, the HUB will be operated by VCAMM and will feature a core team of META members, each representing a major area of the carbon fibre value chain. Start-up members include representatives from organisations including DowAksa, Deakin University, CST Composites, Bruck Textiles, Furnace Engineering and Quickstep Technologies.
In addition, VCAMM and Deakin University have established in Geelong the globally unique carbon fibre research and development facility known as Carbon Nexus. Supported by the Victorian and the Federal Governments, Carbon Nexus will play a key role in establishing Australia as a research leader in carbon fibre development, attracting major transportation, mining and other industrial companies to the region.
