Romar Engineering to expand metal AM capabilities with AUS$5.8M grant from Australian Government
August 2, 2021
Manufacturing company Romar Engineering, New South Wales, Australia, has been awarded a AUS$5.8 million Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) grant to grow its Australian-designed fluid and motion control solutions.
The grant is reported to be the largest of four allocated to manufacturers working in the aerospace sector under round one of the Integration and Translation streams of the MMI, a AUS$1.3 billion Federal Government initiative designed to position Australia as a globally recognised, high-quality and sustainable manufacturing nation. The four companies – Romar Engineering, EffusionTech, Titomic and Q-CTRL – will share nearly $14 million in funding.
Romar Engineering serves the aerospace, medical, mining and defence sectors with custom manufacturing solutions that include Additive Manufacturing, medical device manufacturing, elastomers, silicone, micro moulding and precision moulding. The company plans to leverage a more diverse metal AM offering in the Australian market with GE Additive and Romar’s custom sealing solutions.
Its current in-house metal AM capabilities and development focuses include computational design for Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) AM with nTopology; metal AM of IN718 and Ti 6-4 with a GE Additive M2 Series 5, SS316 and industry-specific tool steel to follow; parameter development capability for part-specific performance optimisation; design for hybrid metal AM with Siemens NX; working closely with Autodesk for more deposition flexibility/freedom, and more.
The AUS$5.8 million grant will fund eighteen new positions in the company’s advanced manufacturing department. The company is currently preparing to install a new GE Additive metal AM machine, adding to its existing DMG Mori Lasertec 65 3D 5-axis synchronous laser deposition, welding and milling machine. The Lasertec is said to be the only one of its kind in Australia and one of only three installed in commercial settings globally. Romar will also invest extensively in the most advanced design and build preparation software to enable it to extract maximum value from its investments in advanced manufacturing technology.
“These grants will help bolster Australia’s reputation in the growing global civil space industry and build on the important work being led by our Australian Space Agency,” stated Christian Porter, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. “From satellites to componentry in sensors and even rocket engines, Australian manufacturers are drawing on our existing advanced manufacturing expertise to launch into new exciting local and global markets.”
Porter concluded, “This funding is about creating more opportunities to grow our local space industry, unlocking further investment and delivering the skilled jobs we need now and for the future.”
