Advanced Manufacturing and Fabrication

Advanced manufacturing and fabrication is driving the next wave of manufacturing excellence in Australia through the transformation of specialised materials into high performing products.

Our vision

Ivan Cole, Director, RMIT Advanced Manufacturing and Fabrication ECP

"We will partner with industry to drive the next wave of manufacturing excellence in Australia."

Our priority is to work on the manufacturing shift towards customisation, digitisation, international supply chains, and making manufacturing supply chains and components truly multifunctional.

We aim to get small and medium-sized enterprises up to scale to do customised products. We will help link up manufacturing across different scales, such as, the nano-scale, micro-scale and component scale, so we can make a drug, for example, and add a nano-scale anti-inflammatory coating.

We want to improve Internet of Things sensing devices, so that they can more accurately monitor the environment and produce intelligent agriculture. We are also working to improve Industry 4.0 — the digitisation of the manufacturing process.

The research skills and competencies within this ECP can be applied to any sector or organisation, regardless of size or stage of development. The primary areas where our expertise will be directed are indicated below.

Key application areas

Defence and security innovation

Food production and agribusiness

Medical technologies

Sustainability and environment

Research and innovation priorities

Manufacturing across scale and function

RMIT will add value to:

designing and manufacturing products and components at the nano, micro, millimetre, object and systems scale, and
manufacturing components and systems that integrate features across these scales

Advanced automation and sensor networks

We will enable industry to:

automate and integrate systems
apply advanced sensor network technologies, and
improve the productivity, quality control and flexibility of manufacturing processes

We will add to and improve sensing devices available on the Internet of Things.

Developing Industry 4.0 in the Australian context

We will focus on:

digitising products and services offered by Australian manufacturers, and
perfecting the interfaces between digital instructions and physical objects

RMIT Insight series

RMIT announces its insight series

RMIT’s insight series aims to provide deep and accurate information on social and scientific challenges facing Australia in 2020. We will be focussing on issues when the application of science and technology can make a profound different on how we live our lives or undertake our business.

The insight series is produced by RMIT's Enabling Capability Program and will consist of up to 6 papers that will be launched progressively in 2020.

Current papers

PRINT-Cell – Type1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes, which destroys insulin producing islet beta cells, affects over 120,000 Australians. Being able to create insulin-producing cells, rather than relying on human donors, is the ‘holy grail’ of diabetes research. Partnering with other health research organisations, RMIT brings together experts across multiple research disciplines to focus on finding a solution.

Managing biosolids

Finding better ways to manage and repurpose polluting biosolids, sewage sludge from wastewater, is a pressing issue for the water industry. Current management processes are labour intensive, take up large amounts of land and risk polluting adjacent land and water tables. RMIT is partnering with two water authorities to tackle this problem.

Upcoming events

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