Scientists have produced the largest flexible, plastic solar cells in Australia - 10 times the size of what they were previously able to - thanks to a new solar cell printer that has been installed at CSIRO. [ + ]

Recently, Safe Work Australia published a report, titled Work-related injuries resulting in hospitalisation (July 2006 to June 2009), which found that over the three-year period the most common specific place of occurrence for incidents that led to a work-related hospitalisation was the ‘factory and plant’. [ + ]

For anyone who grew up in Melbourne, Slades’ home-delivered soft drinks are an institution. The Tan family took over Slades in 2001, turning a business in decline into a thriving enterprise with a progressive and innovative outlook. [ + ]

The City of Geneva, Ohio, resides in Ashtabula County, east of Cleveland, along Lake Erie. Founded in 1816, this picturesque city is now home to 7000 residents. The City of Geneva Water Works Department is responsible for managing the city’s 1.3 megalitre per day drinking water operation. [ + ]

The use of advanced inline cooking systems is improving product quality and cooking efficiencies among food processors in Australia - and saving on costs. [ + ]

The cost of compressed air continues to be a very elusive subject in industrial applications. The notion that compressed air is free is a common misconception. [ + ]

Australian oil and gas operator Woodside Petroleum utilised a new Intergraph solution to rapidly capture, organise, manage and re-use unstructured information for a brownfield offshore project. [ + ]

Around half of the primary energy consumed in industrial processes is currently wasted. Even steel produced by recycling scrap metal in electric-arc furnaces, for instance, requires approximately 370 kWh per metric tonne. [ + ]

Early adopters of anaerobic technology used to convert wastewater into green energy are now reaping millions of dollars a year in benefits by replacing fossil fuel, producing less pollution as a result, and achieving much cleaner effluent water into the bargain. [ + ]

In keeping with its growth strategy, Fortescue Metals Group (Fortescue) has successfully completed an upgrade to its bulk material handling facilities at Port Hedland that will pave the way to the company’s target export capacity of 155 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). [ + ]

A large proportion of the energy we produce disappears unused into thin air via waste heat. Tiny thermoelectric generators can tap this potential, producing electricity by way of temperature differences. However, so far their production has been laborious and expensive. At the same time there is a lack of suitable materials. [ + ]

If a food manufacturer was to ask me what the greatest risk that lubricants could have on my business, my answer would be the potential for food and beverage to reach the market place containing undetected non-food-grade lubricant. While there are other negative impacts lubricant can pose on a food manufacturer this is clearly the most substantial and potentially damaging. [ + ]

As part of a multimillion-dollar project to build Victoria’s largest underground recycled water treatment plant at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Compressed Air and Power Solutions (CAPS) Australia was selected to supply aeration blowers for the facility. [ + ]

Michell Instruments enabled a natural gas storage operator to improve the hydrocarbon and water dew-point measurements at its natural gas storage site in Europe. [ + ]

As part of ongoing plant upgrades, Oil Refinery Oberrhein (MiRO) has recently introduced a new automation solution in its blending plant. [ + ]