By Barbara Rinderer, Consulting in Partnership Pty. Ltd.
After a short hiatus, the 7th Australasian Aluminium Extrusion Conference (AAEC 2025) is to be held in Brisbane, Australia, on July 14–17, 2025. With its strong industry focus, this conference series has enjoyed the support of industry giants throughout its history, including retired chairman Ivan Grasis; the late Ryszard (Richard) Michael, a staunch supporter from Capral Aluminium; John Lynch from Independent Extrusions (INEX); and the late Chris Jowett, who contributed extensively to the workshop program.
Richard Axe from Capral has led the resurgence for this extrusion industry gathering in 2025, with the aim of honoring the event’s long history. Following the successful format of previous iterations, AAEC 2025 will include a workshop training session prior to the two-day conference and exhibition, with site tours to follow. Based on the previous conference, held in 2018, around 150 delegates are expected to attend the meeting.
Conference Program
The conference theme for 2025 is competitive innovation, automation, and sustainability. As Warren Davison, conference chairman, notes, “Over the last seven years we have seen new plants added and continuing interest in adding efficient capacity.”
The conference program includes panel discussions on key topics of sustainability and automation, which have attracted many speakers from Australasia along with international presenters. A presentation from the Australian Aluminium Council will establish the current state of the industry and will discuss leveraging bauxite reserves, alumina, and aluminum production in a global context.
Sustainability is a global priority, and Australian producers are investing in products and processes that require less energy for a lower carbon dioxide footprint. The abstract review committee commented on a presentation proposed on the topic of green innovative heating solutions as “relevant to the industry and in line with sustainability initiatives.”
The Australasian industry is dominated by extrusion of 6000 series alloys serving a diverse range of industries, including residential and commercial construction, industrial applications, transport, marine, and renewable energy. The conference technical sessions follow billet alloy development, performance extrusion dies, automation innovation throughout the production of extruded profiles, and extrusion productivity optimization. The presentations range from automation case studies (such as the one from Paul Wong of Applied Robotics) to various equipment innovations, including presenters from both the industry and universities. For example, Angela Schaffer from Capral will be presenting “Extruding Aluminium with Recycled Content – Opportunities and Considerations,” and Mark Easton from RMIT is presenting “Hybrid Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacture of H13 Tooling for Aluminium Extrusion Tools.”
Site Tours
The site tours are a key feature of the meeting and will allow delegates the opportunity to visit two extrusion production sites in the Brisbane area, including Capral Aluminium’s Bremer Park plant and G James Aluminium Products’s Eagle Farm plant. These sites demonstrate the high levels of automation introduced due to rising costs and limited availability of labor with additions of automated equipment when retrofitting an existing plant or constructing a new plant.
Capral was established in 1936 and is now the largest aluminum extrusion company in Australia. The company has operations in Penrith and Smithfield, New South Wales; Campbellfield, Victoria; Angaston, South Australia; Canning Vale, Western Australia; and Bremer Park, Queensland. The Bremer Park operation is more than 130,000 sq m with three operating extrusion presses (two 8-inch and one 7-inch press) incorporating advanced manufacturing and automation. The retrofitting of automation is a key feature of Capral plants. This includes robotic hot billet loaders to reduce cycle times and open up the press area with improved safety (Figure 1). The operation produces architectural and semi-structural products, with alloys ranging from 6060 to 6005A. Automated handling loads profiles into vertical aging ovens for energy efficiency, after which the profiles are stored in a fully automated “blue forest” warehouse of mill finish extrusions. Additionally, the Bremer Park site has equipment for machining and finishing solutions, including anodizing, powder coating, and vertical painting lines.
G James Aluminium Products commenced operation in 1981 and have consolidated their aluminum operations with new extrusion presses adjacent to the company’s other operations in Brisbane. The new plant at Eagle Farm may be the most advanced plant in the Southern Hemisphere (Figure 2). The plant consists of a fully automated two press operation, including a 10-inch press (described in an article published in an April 2019 issue of LMA) and more recently an 8-inch press. The plant also has a die shop with automated die manufacture, storage, transfer, and heating of dies, as well as automated log storage and heating. All the production processes are automated through a process recipe and data management suite, minimizing manual interaction. In 2023, the warehousing and shipping was updated with automated packing, storage, and retrieval systems, as well as automated load preparation, ensuring the safety of personnel, quality of the final products, and energy efficiency at the new plant. This manufacturing site extrudes architectural and structural alloys from 6060 to 6351 and 6082.
Representing Extrusion
Sponsors of AAEC 2025 include major industry players, including billet suppliers Rio Tinto, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), and Hydro; extruder Capral Aluminium; and equipment and software suppliers Presezzi Extrusion, AIMS, and Foy Inc. In addition, the event will host an exhibition with a diverse range of companies, including AIMS, Albarrie, Castool Tooling Systems, Emmebi, Extrutec, Motion Werkz, RGB Metallurgical, and Sistem Makina.
The array of support from both sponsors and exhibitors demonstrates the importance of the meeting to the international extrusion industry. The event is expected to attract representatives from all of the extrusion operators in the Australasian region, including Capral, G James, INEX, Vulcan Ullrich Aluminium, Almax Aluminium, Alushapes, Extrusions Australia, and National Aluminium.
As chairman Davison stated, “This is a must attend event for the industry.” As an added bonus, the conference will be held in Queensland, where the state motto is “beautiful one day, perfect the next.”
Editor’s Note: For more information about AAEC and its speakers, presentation abstracts, and technical program, visit the conference website: www.aaec.com.au.
This article first appeared in the April 2025 issue of Light Metal Age. To receive the current issue, please subscribe.