15+ Years of Manufacturing with Hexagon

Some of the best examples of Australian manufacturing aren’t necessarily about creating the original idea. They’re about partnering with innovative companies and developing the manufacturing capability required to turn that idea into a reliable product, year after year.

For more than 15 years, Coiltek Electronics has worked as a contract manufacturing partner supporting the technology now within Hexagon’s mining portfolio, manufacturing specialised transmitter and receiver assemblies used within blast movement monitoring applications.

It’s a relationship that demonstrates what can happen when innovative technology and specialist Australian manufacturing capability work together. Blast Movement Technology was developed to address an important challenge in open-pit mining. During blasting, the location of valuable ore can move significantly. Hexagon’s Blast Movement Monitoring technology uses sensors that move with the blasted material, helping mines better understand where the ore is located after the blast and establish more accurate dig boundaries.

The result is improved ore recovery and reduced dilution – helping prevent valuable ore being sent to waste and unnecessary waste material being processed through the mill. For mining operations, even relatively small improvements in ore recovery can translate into significant operational value.

But behind innovative technology there also needs to be reliable manufacturing.

That’s where Coiltek comes in.

Over the years, our role has been to provide a dependable Australian manufacturing capability for the specialised transmitter and receiver assemblies associated with this technology. What began as relatively small production quantities has developed into a dedicated manufacturing process capable of producing volumes in the vicinity of several thousand components within a production cycle

That scale is important because it demonstrates another side of Coiltek’s capability. We are well suited to specialised low and medium-volume manufacturing, but that doesn’t mean we are limited to small production runs. For the right product, where we can establish dedicated processes, tooling, trained people and efficient workflows, we can scale production considerably.

Our Hexagon production has its own dedicated manufacturing area and established processes within our Adelaide facility. This helps us maintain the repeatability, productivity and quality required while also allowing us to respond as customer demand changes.

And over 15+ years, demand certainly doesn’t remain constant.

A strong contract manufacturing partnership needs to be flexible. We’ve needed to increase production when demand rises and scale it back when requirements change, while continuing to manage labour, materials, productivity and manufacturing costs.

Maintaining those efficiencies is particularly important when manufacturing in Australia. Australian manufacturing doesn’t always need to compete simply by being the cheapest option. Its value can come from reliability, flexibility, quality, communication and the confidence of having manufacturing capability close to the customer. But we also have a responsibility as a manufacturer to continually improve our processes and remain productive so that local manufacturing stays commercially competitive.

For us, one of the most important parts of this relationship is the trust that develops over time. When a customer entrusts you with manufacturing a component that forms part of their technology, they need confidence that you can deliver consistently, respond when requirements change and maintain the standards expected of the product.

That’s what long-term contract manufacturing should be about.

At Coiltek Electronics, we want to build more partnerships like this with Australian mining technology companies, electronic designers and innovators.

You may have the idea, the engineering capability and the technology.

Our role is to help provide the manufacturing capability, people and processes that allow you to produce it reliably – whether that’s 50 units, 500 units or several thousand.

That’s how Australian innovation and Australian manufacturing can grow together.