Circuit board maker wins award

Lonsdale-based electronics company Redarc Electronics has won the Environmental Sustainability Award for minimising its environmental footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future.

Some of the measures taken to make it environmentally friendly include reducing water use per product by 20%, automation of its circuit board assembly process using surface mount technology for loading and soldering, reducing manufacture time of a battery product from 86 to two hours and semi-automated riveting.

Staff are also encouraged to recycle 100% of paper, plastics, cardboard and metals throughout the premises.

The award was presented by the Electronics and ICT Association at the annual presentation dinner for more than 300 guests, in South Australia.

The Support of Education Award was given to BAE Systems in recognition of its commitment to supporting activities that inspire students to embark on an electronics or IT career path.

Over the past four years, BAE has sponsored an Engineering Final Year Project at the University of South Australia. This year, the project aims to design and build an autonomous airship (blimp) that can be used to carry a surveillance payload and navigate autonomously using GPS.

BAE has provided mentoring systems engineers for about six hours a week over eight months to assist with this project.

Each year, BAE is also involved in the Science at the Lakes exhibition and runs a number of activities such as a robot obstacle course, laser optics, GPS orienteering, flying under pressure and rocket demonstrations to inspire the community.

Other programs include SA Great’s Speakers in Schools program and the Electronics and ICT Association career-related events and projects.

The Electronics Graduate of the Year Award was awarded to Seng Yeow, who is currently serving a three-year internship. As part of that, Seng has worked at Redarc Electronics, Clipsal and Hendon Semiconductors.

While at Hendon, a key activity for Seng involved working with application circuits for hair straighteners. A major part of that role involved 'characterisation', which entailed testing at various control temperatures from -40 to +125 °C to determine consistency.

A further aspect of the project was the development of a dual-voltage device to enable the straighteners to be used in both European and US markets.

He achieved implementation of this and all other features. Being technically proficient is one thing but being a team player and fitting in with co-workers can be difficult for a graduate. However, Seng has been able to quickly adapt during his short six-month stay with each company and has initiated after-hours sporting groups such as a Monday night badminton group.

The winner of the $10,000 Engineering Excellence Award was Minelab Electronics for its technology used in its latest consumer metal detector, the GPX-4500. This uses technology known at Minelab as SETA that automatically sets a precise alignment for each timing option.

What this means is that noises caused by magnetic interference are minimised and signals from highly magnetic rocks are reduced. This enables users to detect precious metals more accurately.

EICTA CEO Steve Adcock said the standard of award applicants was outstanding across all categories. “Individuals and companies who applied for awards demonstrate that the electronics and ICT industries are burgeoning with talented individuals and companies that have the market savvy to succeed in national and tough overseas markets.

"The electronics and ICT industry employs more than 30,000 people and includes more than 1600 companies.

"The electronics industry is growing faster than any other industry in the South Australia and a recent SACES Export and Workforce Survey indicated that export revenue was $1.3 billion. The impact of this forecast is amplified if you consider that exports for the electronics and ICT industry are projected to increase to $7 billion by 2015,” he said.

Sponsors of the event were: Codan, Minelab, Legend, Hostworks, Custom Agency Services, BAE Systems, Braemac, Madderns and National Australia Bank.