The Federal Minister for Industry, Ian Macfarlane, announced a $60 million boost to manufacturing at the official launch of Seeley International's $1.5 million product testing laboratory in South Australia.
The $60 million Next Generation Manufacturing Investment Program is part of the government's $155 million Growth Fund which is designed to support businesses in Victoria and South Australia affected by the closure of Australia's car manufacturing operations. Under the program businesses can apply for grants worth up to $5 million.
"This funding will help Australian business transition from its traditional base to new higher-value added manufacturing," Macfarlane said. He used the launch of Seeley International's state-of-the-art facility, which has NATA-accreditation, as an example of an Australian company using innovation, technical expertise and high standards of production to succeed.
Seeley International founder and executive chairman, Frank Seeley, said the laboratory will be working non-stop to ensure products perform at the highest industry standards. As well as testing Seeley products, he said the lab will be used to measure and validate the product performance claims of competitors.
"This laboratory is a game changer for our industry and is the culmination of more than two yeears of extensive planning," Seeley said.
"It's a milestone in our continued investment in innovation. We have honed innovation into an art form, its part of our corporate DNA."
Just the day before Seeley International launched its new generation of Climate Wizard products including the CW-80 dew-point cooler and the CW-H15 Mk 2 which will be available in 2015.
Seeley said the Meridian Test Laboratory enables a wide range of cooling and heating products to be tested including direct and indirect evaporative coolers, refrigerated air conditioners and heat pumps.
"We don't have to wait until ambient tempreature and humidity conditions are ideal, because the flexibility of this laboratory means we are able to create our own weather conditions, to accurately replicate weather anywhere in the world, at any time of year," he said.
The laboratory has two test chambers with independent control of dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures, and three nozzle boxes that allow accurate measurement over a large range of airflows. To enable testing of large evaporative coolers the laboratory also has two desiccant dehumidifiers to extract unwanted moisture from the test chambers, and is fully PLC controlled with electronic measurement and storage of all test parameters.
Appliance performance is calculated by measuring air conditions into and out of the appliance, airflow and power consumption. Also in attendance at the launch was the South Australian Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Susan Close, and Liberal Senator for South Australia, David Fawcett.