Swinburne’s Professor Chris Berndt has been nominated Vice President of a prestigious international professional body.

ASM International, a US-based society established in 1913 represents 36,000 members in the materials science field worldwide.

Berndt will take on the role of Vice President of the organisation for twelve months in October this year when his appointment is ratified at the 2010 Annual General Meeting.

He will then go on to become President of ASM International in 2011-2012.

Berndt is the Director of the Industrial Research Institute Swinburne (IRIS) and was an ASM trustee from 2005-2008.

“This nomination is a great honour for Professor Berndt,” said Professor John Beynon, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences at Swinburne. “This is only the second time in the history of ASM International that a non US-based member has been nominated for the position of Vice-President.”

According to ASM International’s constitution, after a one year term, the Vice President automatically becomes President of the organisation.

Berndt has more than 30 years experience in the materials engineering field, specialising in the area of thermal spray coatings.

“This honour is a shared one because of the strong support of many colleagues around the globe and especially that of Swinburne University,” he said.

Berndt has undertaken several fellowships in the USA, including a two year stint at NASA-Lewis Research Centre, and was appointed professor at Stony Brook University in New York in 1995, where he remains an Adjunct Professor.

In early 2005, he returned to Australia as the founding Professor of Surface and Interface Engineering at James Cook University in Queensland. He was appointed the founding Professor of Surface Science and Interface Engineering at Swinburne University of Technology in late 2007 and became Director of IRIS in March 2008.

Berndt is a member of 13 professional societies in the materials, mechanical, manufacturing and biomedical fields. He was inducted into the Thermal Spray Hall of Fame in 2007.

The Defence Materials Technology Centre extends sincere congratulations to Prof. Berndt, who was instrumental in the inception of the Defence Materials Technology Centre and formerly the Program Manager of DMTC’s Maritime Program. The Swinburne University of Technology is a Core Participant of DMTC.

ASM International is a society dedicated to serving the materials science and engineering profession. Through its worldwide network, ASM provides authoritative information and knowledge on materials and processes, from the structural to the nanoscale.

DMTC congratulates the CAST Cooperative Research Centre (CAST CRC) on winning two prestigious awards for innovation and technology transfer at the CRC Association Awards for Excellence in Innovation Gala Dinner held in Alice Springs on Friday evening.

The awards recognised CAST’s work in the metals manufacturing sector and were bestowed at the Cooperative Research Centres Association’s Pathfinders 2010 Challenge and Change Conference.

For technologies to make better aluminium, CAST was presented with an Award for Excellence in Innovation by The Hon Warren Snowdon MP, Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery and Member for Lingiari.  The award recognises outstanding success in innovative research being implemented by end users to the benefit of Australia.

CAST’s work building capacity in Australia in titanium machining to help local companies win aerospace and defence contracts was also honoured with the CRC Star Award.  The award, also presented by Minister Snowdon, is from the federal government’s CRC Program and acknowledges high level achievement in engaging with and helping to build success in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) through the transfer of CRC innovation.

On receiving the awards CAST CEO George Collins said, “these awards recognise the productive relationships that we have built up over many years between research providers and industry.  These relationships are at the heart of cooperative research.”

“These fantastic achievements are due to the exceptional people who work with CAST, our researchers, who are willing to spend time in industry to gain a real understanding of industry needs and our industry partners, who are willing to sacrifice production time to trial new technologies.”

CAST’s Excellence in Innovation award was for technologies producing high quality aluminium more cheaply, efficiently and safely.  The work was achieved thanks to CSIRO researchers, such as project leader, Dr Vu Nguyen, working closely with end-users in the aluminium industry.  CAST technologies are being implemented in four of Australia’s six aluminium smelters including Boyne Smelter Limited (BSL)’s aluminium smelter cast house in central Queensland.

According to Joe Rea, metals production manager at BSL, “We’ve seen an improvement in quality and also an improvement in throughput.  A lot of innovations that come along either give us one or the other.  The great thing about this is that we’ve got both.”

As an added benefit to the Australian economy, CAST’s technologies are all manufactured, under license, by a family-owned Victorian equipment manufacturer, o.d.t. Engineering, helping them win significant export deals.

Kurt Oswald, Managing Director, o.d.t. Engineering, describes working with CAST as, “like Einstein meets Bob The Builder – and it equates to fantastic research results.”

The Star Award recognises CAST’s ongoing work with Queensland SME Ferra Engineering on developing techniques for titanium machining to manufacture components for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), a new air force jet that is being developed by the USA, Australia and eight other partner nations. CAST’s work with Ferra demonstrates that it is possible for Australian industry to engage in the global JSF supply chain.

Mark Scherrer, CEO of Ferra said, “Light metals technology developed with CAST helped Ferra to recently secure seven out of the 21 contracts let in Australia for Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Project.”

“CAST’s processing technology knowledge and research skills are both high quality and relevant to our business.”

The CAST CRC conducts industry-driven research in metal technology.  CAST is one of 48 Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) established and supported under the Australian government’s CRC Program.

Bruck Textiles, the Defence Materials Technology Centre, CSIRO and RMIT University have joined forces to establish the Australian Textile Technologies and Innovation Centre (ATTIC).

ATTIC is a centre of excellence in textiles research, development and innovation, utilising the collective facilities, capabilities and expertise of the above founding members.

The founding members are strongly committed to the Centre, confident that it is the first step in ensuring that Australia is positioned as a leading edge global player for high performance textile products. It is expected that ATTIC will have a strong focus on personal protection, environmental, health care, and military applications.

Bruck Textiles has taken leadership in establishing ATTIC and has provided a level of seed funding to ensure the necessary R&D for a sustainable textiles industry in Australia is undertaken.

ATTIC activities will initially be managed by a Board comprising Bill Humphries (CSIRO), Keith Cowlishaw (RMIT), Viktor Verijenko (DMTC) and Patrick McDuling (Bruck). Peter Kreitals, who oversaw the successful outcomes of the former Australian TCF Technology Network, has been appointed as an independent Chairman of ATTIC.

In announcing the initiative, Bruck’s CEO, Alan Williamson, stated: “Establishing ATTIC is a natural evolution stemming from our recent acquisition of Melbatex, and it is one we have embarked upon with confidence once we recognised the obvious and shared commitment from our research partners. A prime motivation for Bruck is our goal to continue along the path of being not just the domestic, but a world leader in innovation and manufacture of high value, high performance products for a diverse variety of protective, military, industrial, household ,automotive and apparel applications.

“We view collaborative research under ATTIC vital to this plan, not only for Bruck but for the Australian industry generally. The quality of partners we have been able to engage simply convinces me we are on the right track”.

Viktor Verijenko, Operations and Education Manager at DMTC, commented: “Through participation in ATTIC, DMTC will be able to add even more value to its participants and continue to provide development of cutting-edge capability to the Australian defence industry. This will be achieved by expanding collaboration and developing new networks, attracting and leveraging the best available resources, facilities and practices.”

Bill Humphries, Theme Leader at CSIRO, added: “This initiative fits exactly with CSIRO’s strategy of working in industry-led clusters to develop globally competitive products. The ATTIC partners bring together manufacturing, research and application skills to create new innovative products and processes, and this will provide further impetus in CSIRO’s interaction with innovative Australian textile companies to ensure Australia retains a world class textile manufacturing capacity.”

Keith Cowlishaw, Head of School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University concluded:” ATTIC is an initiative which will bring researchers and industry together to facilitate innovation in the Textile, Clothing and Fashion industry. RMIT University, through its School of Fashion and Textiles, welcomes the opportunity to be part of this collaboration which will allow Australian industry to renew and develop competitive advantage through research and innovation.”

DMTC congratulates one of its participants, Ryan Middleton of Vipac Engineers & Scientists, for winning the Best Paper award at the Australian Joint Strike Fighter Advanced Technology and Innovation Conference.

Held from 3 to 5 May 2010 in Melbourne, the conference brought together more than 200 of Australia’s leading academic, technical and industry innovators to explore opportunities for involvement in the F-35 JSF Program.

Ryan collaborated on the paper, entitled “Advanced Process Monitoring for Optimised Titanium Machining”, with Elizabeth Pham and Matthew Moyle (DMTC/BAE Systems Australia), Suresh Palanisamy and Matt Dargusch (DMTC/CAST CRC).

DMTC participants presented around 16 papers at the conference and provided three session Chairs – Professor John Norrish, Professor Milan Brandt and Dr Mark Hodge.

Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, today opened the fourth Australian JSF Technology & Innovation Conference in Melbourne.

“The conference will allow over 200 of Australia’s leading academic, technical and industry innovators to explore opportunities to be involved in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program, now and into the future,” said Mr Combet.

“The JSF Program offers immense opportunities for Australian industry potentially creating several thousand long-term jobs, whether it is through the development of new markets or the chance to enter into global supply chains.”

“For Australia to be successful in this future environment we must drive innovation in defence technology by pooling the expertise and resources of government, industry and R&D organisations,” Mr Combet said.

“Today’s conference is one small step in that process.  The connections made here today between research organisations, industry and government may well lead to new capabilities in the JSF in 10 years time.”

Mr Combet highlighted the establishment of the Defence Materials Technology Centre as a successful Government initiative, noting that the Centre had expanded the relationship between DSTO, universities and industry. 

“I’m glad to see there are representatives from the DMTC here today,” he said.

The potential for Australia to become a global supplier of titanium and titanium components for the aerospace sector is one area being considered by the conference.

“Opportunities for Australian Small to Medium Enterprises to win work in global supply chains of large primes and their second and third tier suppliers are also being explored.

“These opportunities do often present challenges for local industry as the upfront investment is significant to improve capability and increase capacity.

 ”To help overcome these challenges the Government is working with the JSF prime contractors to develop long-term agreements with Australian companies so that the industry has the confidence to make the necessary investments to win this work.”

Mr Combet announced that $8.5 million of funding had been approved by the Government to help industry overcome early investment challenges.

“This support will be targeted at technological developments that will enhance Australian involvement in the program, investments that will increase the opportunities for small Australian companies to become involved and also encourage innovation by Australian industry which has applications for JSF follow-on development.

“This targeted support, along with support from other government programs – is particularly important as the focus shifts to greater engagement in JSF production, sustainment and follow-on development.”

Mr Combet also congratulated the 28 Australian companies that have already won work in the face of stiff international competition on the JSF Program.