Growing regional research initiatives
Announced in the Budget on the 21st May was an item around the establishment of independent regional research institutes. The intent being that the Government would provide funding towards the…
Contractors appointment raises procurement rules application questions
The late September announcement that Australian company Leighton Contractors has been appointed as preferred contractor for the pre-construction phase of Christchurch Hospital’s new acute services building, has local manufacturing industry…
Our metals industry future is promising and in our hands
I have just come back from a study tour to Germany with the theme “Factory of the Future”. This gave me a fantastic insight into what is going on in…
A lesson from Scotland
Scotland has around the same population as New Zealand and like New Zealand, the metal fabrication industry has benefited from oil and gas, especially those located close to the oilfields…
First-party welding inspection to AS/NZS ISO 3834 and AS/NZS 1554.1 standards
For structural steel products to be free from serious problems in production and in service, it is necessary to provide a suitable level of quality management from the design phase,…
Non-standard products
There is an increasing dialogue out in the market place about non-standard products being sold into the building and construction industry in NZ. The alleged numbers being reported are significant…
The evolution of the NZ steel industry – innovation dinosaur or drosophila?
We have an image problem. In experimental evolution, Drosophila (the humble fruit fly) is often used to demonstrate evolutionary processes. It is used because genetic changes for the fruit fly…
Budget 2015/2016 – nothing new on the innovation front!
Budget 2015/16 hit the road on the 21st of May and I am probably the last to comment. But I don’t think the timing of this comment matters as we…
AGGAT centre of excellence
When the low enthalpy power generation research programme was launched about 4 years ago by the Industry Development division at HERA, a vision existed of how it might look like…
Growing the future
As a substantial player in the agricultural space, New Zealand lurches from issues with droughts to floods to kiwifruit vine disease, the ever present danger of importing fruit flies to…
What’s in a name?
After a major refurbishment, HERA House was officially re-opened on 20 March by the Minster of Science and Innovation Hon Steven Joyce. He is also Minister for Economic Development, Minister…
On failure investigation – never asked questions
1. Questions… Why do we ask them all the time? Because we want to know the truth. But, quite often, we prefer to be self-deceived, especially in times of crises, when…