Aeronaut Automation is an Australian company specialising in the manufacture of wide span flatbed plotter cutters. Our factory is situated in Terrey Hills, in a small industrial area in this otherwise residential suburb on Sydney’s northern peninsular. The factory is about 25 minutes from Sydney’s CBD and 7 minutes from the beach.
Unlike other companies manufacturing plotter cutters, Aeronaut began as plotter users. This makes our focus quite different. We build the plotters we would like to own. As a result, the machines we make are high performance plotter cutters and heavier duty than almost all of our competitor’s machines. This has given our machines a reputation for long life and reliability. In fact, every machine we have ever made is still running and our plotters regularly replace worn out or inaccurate machines made by other manufacturers.
Current News.
New equipment, new possibilities.
Aeronaut has just taken delivery of a new DMG Alpha 500 CNC machining centre to replace our old CTX 320. The new machine is similar to the old one… an X/Y/Z/C axis turning centre with 12 driven tools. Apart from newer software, the Alpha 500 has a larger bar capacity than the CTX which means we can produce our larger machine components with less waste. Load up a metre or so of 65mm diameter material, press the go button and the machine will spit out parts until the bar stock runs out.
Being able to call on machines like this allows us the freedom to conceive, design and manufacture complex parts to the very high level of accuracy required. A good example of this would be a Cam-lock tool holder.
The entire tool holder body is produced in one operation using all the capabilities of this machine including drilling, tapping, reaming and milling on all axes. The result is a tool which is perfectly accurate and square in all planes.
Prime Ministerial Approval.
We were delighted to see that Total Window Concepts of Melbourne had been visited last year by Julia Gillard… now Australia's new prime minister and the first woman to have that role. It's difficult to restrain the comment that Julia Gillard must have approved of the Aeronaut cutters or Aeroblinds software which was shown to her on her visit to the TWC factory but she looks approving!
Workers at the company’s hoppers Crossing factory were given the opportunity to complete their Certificate III or IV certification in competitive manufacturing. For many of the workers at TWC, it was the first opportunity they’d had to undertake any sort of formal qualifications. A bold decision by the TWC, which had at one stage considered moving production offshore.
To mark the completion of study, TWC held a graduation ceremony, with a special appearance from the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who took the chance to praise both TWC and the company’s employees for their commitment to the training and manufacturing in Australian.
We can be a bit blasé about this sort of thing in Australia… A factory visit from a senior government member would be a huge event in most other countries and they'd dine out on it for years. Aeronaut congratulates TWC for this initiative! We share their commitment to manufacturing in Australia.
Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.
Aeronaut automated cutters are not the cheapest cutters on the market. Although the advantages to most businesses of owning one of our cutters can usually be easily proved in dollars and cents… increased productivity, reduced labour costs, reduced waste and mistakes and so on, it's usually the larger companies who are the most open to this argument and sometimes smaller businesses can look for cheaper machines, which frequently don't offer the full advantages of automation.
When Markk Cucek from FA Blinds went looking for a cutting machine, they took the bold step of going straight from hand cutting to an Aeronaut machine. As Markk says "Most small companies move from hand cutting to a simple single-side blind cutter and although this may improve quality and accuracy, it does little for productivity or waste.” “Our Aeronaut cutter has made an incredible difference to our production. The machine will cut a normal day’s work by tea break.”
Output has more than doubled. From the 50-60 blinds per day which were cut by two people, the aeronaut cutter can produce over twice this many with just the one operator. Waste is also down to four percent.
“When you can nest and cut more than one pattern on a length of fabric on the table, it’s a lot easier to get the best fabric use. Now, the amount of waste from a day’s production could easily fit into a small plastic shopping bag, which represents a huge saving in expensive fabric.”
