Jul 15 2004
At a ceremony attended by over 200 invited guests from Australian industry and academia, the Hon John Brumby MP, The Victorian Minister for State and Regional Development and Minister for Innovation officially opened the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing www.vcamm.com.au .
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| Geelong Technology Precinct |
Located within the state of the art Geelong Technology Precinct, some 80kms from the centre of Melbourne, VCAMM offers a one stop shop interface for Victorian, Australian and global businesses to maximise the potential for materials related knowledge transfer from and to the Victorian materials research community.
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| Visitors at the VCAMM launch |
VCAMM is currently focused on materials technologies which include, forming and process technologies for light metals, improvements in metal forming processes, mechanical property characterisation, out of autoclave cured composites, process simulation and quality control using X-ray techniques.
Mr. Brad Dunstan, the VCAMM CEO, outlined how VCAMM was founded in 2002 following a A$5 (US$3.5) million Science Technology and Innovation grant from the Victorian government. VCAMM now has over $17 (US$12) Million of projects under management.
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| Mr. Brad Dunstan (centre) VCAMM CEO |
Mr. Dunstan a technologist recruited from leading Australian automotive manufacturer Holden Special Vehicles , stated that VCAMM researchers were “industry focused” with regards to timescales and deliverables and emphasised that, “VCAMM speaks industry’s language”.
Perhaps the most telling indication of VCAMM’s industry focused approach to materials research and problem solving was Mr. Dunstan’s view of technology, “technology is like a fish, the longer it sits on the shelf the less desirable it becomes”.
This approach was further emphasised by Professor Peter Hodgson of Deakin University, one of the main research partners in VCAMM. Professor Hodgson set out how VCAMM represents the front door to materials research within the Universities of Deakin, Monash, Woolongong, Latrobe and the Australian National University together wi
th CSIRO Manufacturing & Infrastructure Technology and the Cooperative Research Centre for Cast Metal Manufacturing.
The effectiveness of VCAMM in already generating positive industrial outcomes was described by Mr. Neil Graham, the inventor of the Quickstep™ Process, a novel process for composite production which employs fluid filled bladders to cure composites and in the process slashes production times.
Quickstep who are now working with VCAMM, announced at the launch the high level of interest in the Quickstep™ process currently being shown by NASA for the next generation of space vehicles.
The “aerospace” interest being accompanied by the current application of the Quickstep™ Process for automotive applications such as bonnet hoods.
For further information on VCAMM, please visit www.vcamm.com.au