An advanced manufacturing sector is emerging in the Hunter region, building on its strong foundations in traditional industries. While closely tied to defence, aerospace, and mining, the sector is expanding to include chemical processing, construction, and energy generation.

Advanced manufacturing in the Hunter comprises about 2000 regional businesses employing about 20,000 people and contributing $2 billion to the NSW economy. The sector’s priorities include improving engagement with international markets, accessing global supply chains, and increasing the engagement between research and industry.

The current ecosystem suggests the Hunter is well placed to build leading capability. Hunter Manufacturing Awards (HMA) recognises the importance of sharing the stories of the region’s advanced manufacturers on a national stage.

 HMA chair Jacqui Daley said it enhances “Brand Hunter”.

Assisting advanced manufacturing businesses reach the stage where they have a story to tell is The Melt, founded in 2017 as a spinoff from Australia’s most successful corporate accelerator, Slingshot.

Brett Thomas is Director and Chief Operating Officer of The Melt’s Muswellbrook facility, which provides technical specialists, and investment funding via Melt Ventures, to help emerging businesses prove, prototype, pilot, and produce physical devices.

“We help start-ups and scale-ups,” said Brett.

“In particular, businesses creating new devices and products that are clean tech, climate tech, or advanced-manufacturing related. Most of those products have embedded IoT (internet of things) and software elements but the core of the products is a physical device.”

Brett said the risk of failure for the founders, start-ups, and scaling businesses making physical products is much higher than it is for other start-ups. There are several reasons including technical, compliance, and adoption risk, expensive prototype development, and a lack of available investment funding. It is also difficult to access affordable, skilled technical resources adept in designing and developing new innovative products.

“It is tough starting a company with nothing more than a good idea for a product,” Brett said.

“It may take a few years without any money from product sales to get through the hurdles posed by regulatory environment, governance, and compliance. Without proper support, many emerging businesses die between having a great idea and getting a product to customers.”

A company to benefit from The Melt is SafeGauge. The Melt provided support in its pre-commercialisation stage and assisted with seed funding and a facility from which it could work. SafeGauge’s innovative focus centred on developing new technology designed to remove technicians from the “line of fire” when live testing large mobile plant machinery in heavy industries such as mining, defence, construction, agriculture, and oil and gas.

“Our goal is to eliminate live work and thereby minimise the chances of crush and fluid injection injuries that can occur while conducting necessary pneumatic and hydraulic maintenance duties,” Luke Dawson, founder and Managing Director of SafeGauge said.

Luke routinely worked on heavy machinery during his time as a plant mechanic on multiple Australian mine sites. Concerned by the level of risk exposure, he began developing a range of wireless testing solutions to help eliminate live work on site. SafeGauge has developed a range of specialist wireless testing solutions that allow workers to maintain heavy machinery from a safe distance – up to 100 metres.

Back in 2019, The Melt introduced Luke to co-investors, Sydney Angels. This investment group mentored SafeGauge through its first capital raise that closed the seed round at $1.6 million, twice the amount Luke was aiming for.

Hunter Manufacturing Awards recognised SafeGauge with a “Highly Commended – Start-up of the Year” gong in 2020. This helped the company gain further traction and credibility.

In 2022, HMA named SafeGauge its “Excellence in Product Design” winner.

“This was great recognition from HMA,” Luke said. “It gave our business, and especially the engineering team, confidence to push the limits to solve even larger challenges for our customers.”

SafeGauge moved into its own facility in Beresfield, doubling its floor space to expand its manufacturing capabilities. WesTrac CAT and Hastings Deering, the two largest Caterpillar dealers in Australia, then partnered with SafeGauge to roll out and on-sell its products. SafeGauge also partnered with fellow local advanced manufacturer Robotic Systems to produce high-quality products.

“With success in the Australian market, we also received interest from mining and manufacturing markets overseas,” Luke said.

“The ongoing support from the Caterpillar dealerships put us in a great position to partner with Caterpillar USA, offering our product globally to their customers.

“We are also doing something similar with the second-largest original equipment manufacturer, Komatsu, in the US. SafeGauge has now expanded operations to the US, with an office in Phoenix, Arizona, to serve North and South America. But I am proud to keep all R&D and manufacturing based in the Hunter.”

The Melt modern manufacturing centre in Muswellbrook provides access to facilities and technical specialists at an affordable price. It has new mechatronics, robotics, and automation equipment – the tools that can really assist start-up founders. They provide the capability for start-ups to cheaply and in a more streamlined way, get through many phases of their growth in a much shorter time. The Melt also provides help for existing businesses, SMEs and even large corporates. It can enable them to look for opportunities to bring new products to market, especially when the business-as-usual headwinds get in the way.

“Businesses must start thinking now about creating parallel streams of revenue,” Brett said.

“The Melt can help prioritise some of that new product IP and bring the R&D to the surface to help make decisions with fresh eyes. We can provide support and guidance and access to the latest-generation facilities.”

Luke says when he started SafeGauge in 2019, he originally sought an experienced engineer to develop his new concept for a safety product for the mining industry.

“I quickly noticed the amount of engineering and manufacturing talent that exists in the Hunter,” he said.

He “found” Steve Chick, an experienced design engineer who developed the first SafeGauge prototype and is still the senior engineer leading the R&D team.

“Without the engineering and manufacturing talent that exists in the Hunter, the supportive customers, access to mentorship and capital, SafeGauge wouldn’t be where it is today,” Luke said.

 “I am very proud to have completed my mechanical trade in mining in the Hunter and I’m helping trade workers stay safe around the world.”

Jacqui said, in showcasing the outstanding achievements of its winners and finalists to a broader audience, HMA’s initiatives reinforce the region’s reputation for excellence.

IMAGE | The Melt Modern Manufacturing centre in Muswellbrook.