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We feature a hand-picked selection of some of the great projects that won awards at this year's
Nov 24, 2017 - Fanuc America has demonstrated a new automotive spot welding robot at the recent Fabtech event. The new seven-axis R-1000iA/120F-7B’s design is based on the R-1000iA robot series. It has a payload of 120 kg and a maximum reach of 2,230 mm. The additional axis allows the robot’s J2 arm to fold into itself, making it shorter and able to operate in very tight workspaces, says Fanuc.
At the FabTech event, the R-1000iA/120F-7B was equipped with integrated Fanuc Servo Gun Control, the Fanuc primary wrist and Solution Arm for spot welding dress out, and a servo weld gun, which performs a spot welding operation on an automotive body side.
The robot highlights Fanuc’s 4D graphics, and uses Dual Check Safety Speed and Position Check software to limit the robot’s envelope within the compact workspace.
Also featured were Fanuc’s latest R-30iB Plus controller with an intuitive iPendant for easy setup and operation.
Tim Holcomb, product manager, Fanuc America, says: “The articulation in the J2 arm now enables the robot to be placed closer to the operating point in a welding application without losing any reach.
“Since the robot can also work overhead and from behind its back, it has an amazingly large work area despite its compact design.”
In addition to spot welding, R-1000iA/120F-7B is designed for other applications including compact palletizing, machine load/unload and other operations with space constraints.
Some of the features of R-1000iA/120F-7B include:
The latest R-30iB Plus controller features an intuitive iPendant with enhanced screen resolution and more processing capability compared to previous versions.
Fanuc says this offers a variety of intelligent functions including iRVision, Force Sensing, RoboGuide, ZDT and DCS.
| A Fanuc release || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - New Zealand structural log prices rose to the highest level in 24 years and A-grade export logs hit a record as local mills compete with the export market to secure supply for the domestic construction market amid strong demand from China.
The price for structural S1 logs increased to $130 a tonne this month, from $128 a tonne last month, marking the highest level since 1993, according to AgriHQ's monthly survey of exporters, forest owners and saw millers. Export log prices lifted between $2-to-$5 a tonne for the majority of grades, with the price for A-Grade logs touching $128 a tonne, up from $127 a tonne last month and the highest level since AgriHQ began collecting the data in 2008.
New Zealand is experiencing strong demand for its logs from China, which has clamped down on the harvesting of its own forests and reduced tariffs on imported logs to meet demand in its local market. AgriHQ said Chinese demand for softwood logs remains strong, lifting back to record levels in the latest data for September with Chinese imports of New Zealand logs currently tracking 10 percent ahead of last year.
"Those trading in the domestic log market are continuing to receiver near-record returns and there's nothing to signal that this situation will change anytime soon," said AgriHQ analyst Reece Brick. "Looking forward, all prospects will be determined by the direction the export log market takes."
Brick said wharf gate values climbed through October and early November and will likely hold high until the Chinese New Year period. Also known as the 'spring festival', the Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 16 next year, and the festival will last until March 2, about 15 days in total. As an official public holiday, Chinese people can get seven days' absence from work, from Feb. 15 to 21.
"Beyond that point, it's still a wait-and-see situation," Brick said.
He noted the latest situation and outlook report released by the Ministry of Primary Industries continues to shed a positive light on forestry's prospects over the next two years.
"They predict strong Chinese interest in logs over the short-medium term, underpinned by its ban of commercial logging of natural forests, falling Russian log supplies, and a 2 percent reduction on its imported log tax."
Brick said "the only proper negative" when it comes to the export market is shipping rates, which are rising faster than log values. However, this was being masked by a weaker New Zealand dollar, he said.
"There is still a level of uncertainty as to whether shipping rates have reached their peak or have a little more upswing to come," Brick said.
Still, he said "in terms of market fundamentals it is all still quite positive."
| Source: Sharechat || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - The OECD Digital Economy Outlook examines and documents the evolutions and emerging opportunities and challenges in the digital economy. It highlights how OECD countries and partner economies are taking advantage of ICTs and the Internet to meet their public policy objectives. You can read the full report online here http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264276284-en with a summary of New Zealand highlights here http://www.oecd.org/newzealand/sti-scoreboard-2017-new-zealand.pdf
| Source: The OECD || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - Northport Ltd is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Cargo volumes at Marsden Point have more than doubled since the port opened in 2002 to a record 3.64 million tonnes last financial year. Ship calls have increased from 93 a year to 250 a year over that period, with berth occupancy now at a record 66.4 percent, up from 52.9 percent just five years ago.
The company, a 50/50 joint venture between Marsden Maritime Holdings Ltd and Port of Tauranga, is marking these milestones by launching a public discussion about the potential future size and shape of the port.
It has published its ‘vision for growth’ online at www.vision4growth.co.nz and is inviting people to ask questions or make their views known to its management team via the website. Chief executive Jon Moore stressed that the vision was not a confirmed plan, or even a formal proposal. No decision has yet been made by Northport’s Board to grow the port.
“It’s a conversation-starter; a vision based on what we believe is possible here,” he said. “At this early stage all we’re doing is prompting a discussion among tangata whenua, other Northlanders, our neighbours, customers, port users, suppliers and other stakeholder groups with an interest in what happens here, about what role they see Northport playing in the future of our region.”
Mr Moore said that in recent years, and particularly in the run-up to the recent general election, there had been much discussion about what should happen at Northport. Although Northport Ltd had no firm growth plans at this stage, its management team wanted to make public their vision for future growth.
“Some of the most frustrating narrative we’ve listened to over recent months has been around the perception that it’s not possible to grow Northport beyond its existing size,” Mr Moore said. “Our vision for growth demonstrates clearly that this is not the case. It introduces some reality to the discussion and shows that we are, in fact, well positioned to support economic growth both in Northland and in Auckland.”
Mr Moore said Northport would need to grow if it was going to play a key role in the future growth of the upper North Island. “Importantly, we don’t need to expand northwards into the harbour. Instead, we can extend our existing linear wharf east and west,” he said.
Northport Ltd’s vision for growth at Marsden Point includes 1,390m of linear berth, more than twice its current length, and involves growing its overall footprint from 48ha to 75ha. Mr Moore said his team felt this was necessary if Northport was to play a meaningful role in developing Northland's economy and supporting Auckland's growth.
“Growing a port is an expensive and complex undertaking. To support economic growth and meet the forecast demand for shipping across the upper North Island we need to plan and build for the future, not just today.”
The vision Northport Ltd is making public today is based on many years of research, technical planning and engineering input from a raft of experts in this field. The company now has a good idea about what is physically and technically possible at Northport, and what isn’t.
It has not put any dates to its decision-making process around possible growth.
“We know full well that what we look like in the future will be shaped to some extent by our communities and our customers,” Mr Moore said. “So first we want to hear from these groups about what role they see us playing in Northland’s and the upper North Island’s growth.”
This initial discussion period will be followed by further technical and environmental studies and modelling, and if there are no surprises the company will then embark on a detailed stakeholder consultation exercise.
About NorthportNorthport, situated at Marsden Point at the mouth of Whangarei Harbour, is New Zealand’s northernmost port. It is a flexible facility catering for large, multi-purpose vessels and full cargo handling facilities are available from its 570 metre linear berth.
Logs, woodchip and processed timber for export comprise the bulk of cargo processed by the port. Other export items include kiwifruit, dairy products and manufactured goods. Imports are an important part of Northport’s business and include fertiliser, gypsum, coal and palm kernel. Northport has full container handling capability, including a mobile harbour crane. Containers are being imported and exported, as well as shipped around the coast.
A weekly coastal container service links Northport with other ports around the country.
The company has published its ‘vision for growth’ online at www.vision4growth.co.nz and is inviting people to ask questions or make their views known to its management team via the website.
The port is owned and operated by Northport Ltd, itself owned jointly and equally by Marsden Maritime Holdings Ltd and the Port of Tauranga Ltd.
| A Northport release || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - According to Gartner, blockchain will generate $176 billion in business value by 2025. HPE is setting out to capitalise on the rise of blockchain by releasing the first member of its HPE Mission Critical Blockchain family – a Blockchain-as-a-Service solution for enterprises.
HPE’s Mission Critical Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) aims to make it easy and simple for customers deploying blockchain solutions.
Mission Critical DLT is used to record transactions across a decentralised network of computers and has a wide range of potential applications.
HPE claims that enterprises evaluating blockchain solutions are finding that generic infrastructure and public cloud environments cannot support the requirements they need in terms of performance, security, scalability and resiliency.
Aiming to solve the problem, HPE says its Mission Critical DLT solution offers availability and fault protection for enterprise-grade applications, and scalability and SQL integration that cannot be realised with workloads running in a public cloud environment.
The Mission Critical DLT solution is a part of HPE’s overall strategy to bring enterprise-grade capability to blockchain workloads.
The solution is offered on HPE Integrity NonStop platforms, which HPE says is behind two out of every three credit card transactions in the world.
Developed in partnership with enterprise software firm R3, the solution integrates the company’s distributed ledger technology with HPE's mission-critical platform.
“Enterprises interested in blockchain are realizing that public cloud alone does not always meet their non-functional requirements”, comments Raphael Davison, HPE’s Worldwide Director for Blockchain.
“As they look to scale, they recognize that, for mission-critical processes, on-premise infrastructure must be part of the mix of traditional IT, private and public cloud that’s needed to meet the requirements of enterprise-grade blockchain workloads.”
HPE Mission Critical DLT is expected to be commercially available in early 2018. Customers also will be able to purchase access to this solution in a “DLT as a Service” environment for serious trials and production use later in the year.
| A ITBrief release || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - Australia has reiterated the importance of New Zealand to its foreign policy direction in its latest white paper, with particular emphasis on the role it sees New Zealand playing in its economic engagement with Pacific island countries. In the Australian government's 2017 foreign policy white paper, released this morning, the relationship with New Zealand is described as "our most comprehensive" and the authors say Australia is committed to deepening it further.
Australia sees itself as "delivering a step change in our engagement with Pacific island countries", with an aim for "more ambitious engagement, including helping to integrate Pacific countries into the Australian and New Zealand economies and our security institutions". Its long-term angle is a region-wide free-trade area that includes all major economies.
The partnership with New Zealand will be central to advancing that agenda, the white paper says.
"New Zealand will remain an essential partner in support of the economic growth, stability and security of the region. Australia and New Zealand will align our approaches to the Pacific," the paper says. "Our cooperation has wider regional and global dimensions. We have high levels of police and military interoperability and collaborate on strategic planning, capability development and intelligence. This will continue to be essential to prosecuting shared interests, including in the Pacific."
The paper discusses the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus, an agreement signed in April this year by New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. It built on existing trade deals and will come into force in mid-2019. As part of PACER Plus, both New Zealand and Australia committed to spending at least 20 percent of official development assistance as "aid for trade" in the Pacific region, to help address supply-side constraints and build Pacific island countries’ capacity to trade.
"Economic integration within the region and with Australia and New Zealand is vital to the economic prospects of the Pacific," the paper says. "Growth is constrained for most countries because of a combination of remoteness from markets, limited land and resource bases, the dispersal of people over many islands and environmental fragility.
"When in force, [PACER PLUS] will lay the ground for stronger trade and investment, increasing business confidence through transparent and enforceable rules. Australia will work to improve opportunities for growth and jobs and to strengthen the economic resilience of the region by increasing opportunities for labour mobility to satisfy unmet demand in our labour market, investing in skills, and helping countries to capture growth potential in sectors such as tourism."
The paper stresses the importance of Australia's relationships with the US and China for its interests in the Pacific, and its drive to forge closer relationships with both, even as the two super powers jostle for dominance in the Pacific region. New Zealand is still Australia's biggest tourism market, with 1.4 million Kiwis visiting the country in the latest year, but China was close behind at 1.3 million and had a growth rate of 10 percent compared to New Zealand's 2 percent.
Australia's alliance with the US is central to its approach in the region, and it will broaden and deepen its cooperation with that country, but the government is "committed to strong and constructive ties with China" and wants to strengthen its partnership there as well.
"To support a balance in the Indo–Pacific favourable to our interests and promote an open, inclusive and rules-based region, Australia will also work more closely with the region’s major democracies, bilaterally and in small groupings. In addition to the United States, our relations with Japan, Indonesia, India and the Republic of Korea are central to this agenda," it said.
| Source: Sharchat || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - If you work with machine tools such as turning centers, 5-axis CNC mills, or grinding machines, you probably have some preconceptions about the quality of different machine tool manufacturers. Who makes a more accurate machine: Germany or Japan? Across the globe, whether it’s automobiles, electronics or industrial machine tools, some nations have a reputation for quality, precision and durability. Of course, generalizations aren’t always correct. A quick look around your home or office will inevitably turn up products stamped with “MADE IN TAIWAN.” But this doesn’t mean smallwares, cheap electronics and toys are all Taiwan is capable of manufacturing. When ENGINEERING.com made a visit to several major machine tool manufacturers headquartered in Taichung, Taiwan, what we found was careful engineering and precision manufacturing of machine tools.
For example, we spoke to YCM about their process for stress-relieving their castings over the course of several months to ensure better machine accuracy. Yet for all the high-caliber machine tool manufacturing happening in Taiwan, is anyone taking notice?About Goodway Machine Corporation
Goodway Machine Corporation manufactures multiaxis vertical and horizontal turning centers as well as specialty equipment for Swiss turning, wheel turning, tapping and cylindrical grinding. The firm builds equipment in Taiwan but is expanding its manufacturing in both Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.
The company’s component assembly facility is over 200,000 sqft. of production space located in Taichung, Taiwan, which also hosts a Goodway turning center plant of 208,000 sqft.
In Wujiang, Jiang-Su Province on the mainland, Goodway operates a 720,000 sqft turning center plant and is currently building a new facility in Chiayi Taiwan that will include over million square feet of production space. All of Goodway’s production operates under ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification.
Watch the video above for an inside look at this massive manufacturing operation.
| Source: Engineering.com || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 24, 2017 - Artificial intelligence, machine learning and smart data are major themes at next year’s MobileTECH 2018. This is one of New Zealand’s largest agritech events and will see technology leaders from throughout the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors gather in Rotorua in late March. The pace of change within the primary sector is continuing to be driven by advances in new digital technologies. While New Zealand has been a world leader in traditional farming systems, it is critical for the sector to maintain and grow productivity through the smart adoption of these new innovations.
“MobileTECH 2018 will continue to be a platform for change and showcase where the industry is headed,” said Ken Wilson, MobileTECH’s programme manager.
“The 2018 programme will feature over 35 speakers covering disruptive topics like the integration of machine learning in health and safety systems, blockchain for secure agricultural transactions and key learnings from the successful rollout of the Internet of Things (IoT) to farms throughout New Zealand.”
Thundermaps uses machine learning algorithms and big data to redefine health and safety in rural locations. OSPRI now use Thundermaps to protect their contractors working on farms. The system tracks millions of data points to ensure, via a mobile app, that the contractor receives relevant real-time hazard warnings no matter how remote the location. Both companies will be presenting at MobileTECH.
Blockchain is set to become the future for payment and supply-chain systems. Australian-based company, AgriDigital, will be on-hand to discuss what this means for the primary industry. AgriDigital delivered the world’s first live settlement of a physical commodity using blockchain technology. The pilot project saw the sale and successful delivery of 23 metric tonnes of wheat to a beef farm in NSW using the blockchain system.
The Internet of Things has moved from being an exciting upcoming technology to one that is delivering real benefits to early adopters throughout the industry. A number of speakers, including network provider Spark Ventures, agritech company ReGen and King Country farmer Lachlan Chapman, will focus on the real-world application of IoTs.
“The MobileTECH 2018 programme will open with the big technology trends and discuss how we can improve investment and collaboration within the agritech community,” said Mr Wilson. “Day two gets hands-on, highlighting practical case studies on the adoption and use of these innovations by primary sector businesses up and down the country.”
MobileTECH 2018 will be running on 27-28 March 2018 in Rotorua, New Zealand. Further details can be found on the event website, www.mobiletech.events..
| A MobileTECH release || November 24, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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