BRINGING IT HOME

DECOR BLINDS
Frank Cairns, Managing Director of Decor Blinds, confirms the company’s locally made offering includes Thermalite shutters, aluminium shutters and roller blinds.

“Thermalite shutters have been made in Australia for over 20 years with the unique Ultra Clear system (no visible control mechanism) and Duraglide Pins that ensure no tightening of the blades is required.”

“Australian made Thermalite Shutters Guarantee a 15 day delivery, and aluminium shutters 18 days. An additional benefit is that any reworks can be done in a 48 hours turnaround time. A very good reason to purchase, sell or manufacture Thermalite shutters is cash flow. It’s nothing out of the ordinary to wait up to 16 weeks for imported shutters, or to lose business due to the delays over the Christmas and Chinese New year period, both of which are in our industry’s busiest time. Businesses can extend their selling period and increase their profits by purchasing or manufacturing Thermalite Australian made shutters.”

“Decor blinds Australia have been in operation for over 34 years we employ over 40 Australian workers, using the latest machines and equipment we are very active in promoting Australian made Products, Décor blinds have many agents throughout Australia and New Zealand selling our Thermalite shutters, as well as a number of manufacturers in both Australia and New Zealand, Décor blinds is keen to expand our network of manufactures and enquires are welcome.”

HUNTER DOUGLAS
As more and more manufacturing and local jobs head offshore, the Hunter Douglas Window Covering Components division remains committed to supporting local Australian manufacturing, according to Vera Meharg, Marketing Communications Manager. In addition to evolving the fabric offering from its established local textiles facility, Hunter Douglas is actively perusing innovative opportunities across all window covering categories to help maximise benefits for Australian fabricators, she says.

“Innovation is at the core of the Hunter Douglas DNA, stemming from our rich heritage. Although a global organisation, the business is focused on developing the highest quality innovations specifically for the Australian market.”

“With a vastly wide range of components in stock and at the ready, we’re here to supply the market the best componentry for window coverings with no customer too small or too large.”

“Across every touchpoint, we’re here for the local fabricator and are continually looking at ways to evolve through quality, innovation and service.”

One such example is Quantum Light Lift, a patented chain-free spring system offering smooth and precise operation – the result of years of local innovation.

With regard to textiles, the latest interior fabric releases of Chester and Avila, as well as the recent colour additions to the timeless Canvas collection, were proudly manufactured in Australia.

“In an aggressive market with cut-price generic imports, we’ve taken steps to differentiate our offering and create products that consumers want,” Patricia Seoudi, Senior Product Manager for Fabrics explains. “Supporting Australian made is not only important for the industry, it’s important to consumers too.”

OZROLL INDUSTRIES
“We place a huge emphasis on offering Australian made products, we always have, right from the very beginning,” says National Sales & Marketing Manager Jack McDonald. “So much so that our name represents that; ‘Ozroll Industries’ is effectively a diminutive for ‘Australian Roller’ Industries. I think most people appreciate Australian made products for high quality, but for us it is more than that. It is an ethos. We provide Australian made products and operate with Australian cultural values. It’s common knowledge that it’s far more expensive to produce locally, compared to overseas, with overheads and particularly labour costs, but the fact remains that you get what you pay for. We have total control over each and every process by keeping as much of our manufacturing and fabrication in house as possible. By the same token, we try to source as much raw material from local suppliers as possible and to this day we still purchase all Australian aluminium for our extrusions on all products we offer.”

“We have been manufacturing roll formed products and assembling Roller Shutters in Adelaide for nearly two decades now. In 2010, we acquired the Shutter Concepts business in Brisbane, renowned for high quality Aluminium Louvres, which we have since grown to a point where we needed to build a brand new, purpose-built facility in 2015. Our portfolio for Australian designed and produced products grew again this year, as we finalised the acquisition of Slidetrack Blinds in August. Each of these products qualifies for use of the official Australian Made logo and we have applied this to both our Elipso Louvres and Slidetrack Blinds, to help our distributors establish trust with the end users when selling our products against imported options.”

“Something that I think we are all very proud of is the fact we directly employ over 200 people across the country and the work we generate for third parties locally means that our business helps put food on the table for a lot of families.”

BLINDS BY BORONIA
“Until recent times, as a home grown Australian company that started years ago and then just grew and grew, we took for granted the fact that we’re an Australian manufacturer,” says Michael Shaw of Blinds by Boronia Group.”

“Changes in the market and in attitude have meant that many windows that could be covered by an Australian made blind simply aren’t. Some are chasing a lower price point or they are willing to accept a more generic looking blind. Either way there is a lot of business running offshore and there is no real reason this should be the case.”

“The Australian blind making industry is actually at the forefront of blind manufacture in terms of quality and diversity. We employ some of the most advanced equipment and technology in the world, much of it actually developed here. So there is every reason to shop here in Australia and to buy, or sell blinds that are made here in Australia.”

“We’re proud that the Blinds by Boronia Group continues that level of locally based manufacture, as we have for the last 30 years.”

The recent addition of ESR Blinds to the group was a key development. “As we started to integrate it became apparent that the Australian Made logo that ESR was licensed to attach to each blind was really quite important to most of the customers, as a point of pride. We might be proud of our 30 odd year tradition, but that logo carries some clout. There is no doubt in the mind of a retail customer, as a Custom Cedar Blind is hung, and that Australian Made logo is displayed, that they have a locally manufactured, quality blind on their window.”

Shaw adds that the group has been working with Australian Made Corporation Limited to achieve accreditation across six more product segments.

“Now as well as on our Cedar Blinds we proudly display the Australian Made logo on Roller Blinds, Vertical Blinds, Panel Blinds and also on our Realwood and Timber Alternative Venetian Blinds.”

“Blinds by Boronia Group is also Australian owned, so I guess we stand on particularly proud ground. We have just under 40 people in our production area and for me, with their families, that means we are responsible for over 100 people in their lives. That’s the human aspect to all this. We’re proud of our very professional teams and they are proud of the blinds that they make. Making quality blinds is their profession. Being Australian made means that mostly, the bills we pay are our payroll or for fabrics and parts from other Australian companies. We’re not sending big cheques straight offshore. In that respect I feel that we are just like our customers.”

ULTRACUT INDUSTRIES
“It’s 15 years since the first Ultracut customer was equipped with the revolutionary ULT01 single axis ultrasonic cutting table,” says Sales Manager Simon Meens. “Today on a daily basis more than 150 customers across Australia and New Zealand alone utilise a range of Ultracut window blind machinery.”

All design, engineering, build, installation and support services are founded at Ultracut’s premises in Melbourne’s south eastern corridor. Meanwhile all Ultracut components are supplied from quality Australian suppliers, whether sourced locally or overseas.

“Over those 15 years Ultracut has seen a shift in demand of certain types of fabric blinds, both internal and external. Years ago it was apparently commonplace for most roller blinds and awnings to have a traditional ‘fancy finish’; i.e. scallops, lath pockets and suchlike. This is either achieved using a manual template or with a plotter cutter such as Autometrix or Aeronaut. Today however ‘fancy finishes’ are almost non-existent, with a straight cut now most prevalent.”

“Ultracut’s first and second generation ULT01 and Combo machines certainly answer this need for straight line cutting. Yet at 80-100 skins per shift these semi-auto machines don’t quite reach the high output demands for volume manufacturers. In addition there was recognised need across the industry for simple automation, ease of use, rapid cycle changes and low maintenance, labour availability and skill being a paramount concern. There is also a desire among existing plotter cutter users to move away from vacuum pumps, plastic film, desktop software and fancy finish template files.”

This brought about the advent of Ultracut’s VectroCut Sono, which is fast becoming a market leader for fully automated cutting of roller blinds and, according to Meens, very soon awnings. He claims the output volumes double from their semi-auto single axis Combo to their fullyauto dual axis VectroCut Sono. “Listening and responding to the market’s changing needs has enabled Ultracut to design, engineer, build and support yet another key Ultracut solution.”

“Ultracut’s offer of Australian designed and built automation goes far beyond its semi and fully automated cutting tables. Our goal is to answer our customers’ needs for complete turn-key manufacturing. From automated order entry through to point of dispatch, we have integrated machinery and tracking systems to ensure seamless processing. This includes our “BR01” assembly jig, EzyStop digital saw backstop and “SupaHoist” digital blind hoist.”

“Ultracut’s fabric and tube cutting systems produce automatically generated printed labels that enable barcode reader tracking operation by operation.”

AERONAUT
Aeronaut has been the leading manufacturer of automated cutting equipment for the Australian blind industry for 20 years, confirms owner John Clark. “Aeronaut pioneered many cutting and software technologies a decade or more ago which other manufacturers are either copying or only just introducing. Industry firsts such as XY ultrasonic and crush cutting, automated data entry from factory management software and machine vision systems for pattern matching are considered to be mature technologies.”

“Aeronaut would not be where it is today if it was not for the input and demands of Australian blind makers. Everything we manufacture is either targeted towards solving a particular production need or made at the request of a customer, whether it is the automated order processing and software controlled cut and crease pressures developed for Hunter Douglas or the XY ultrasonic cutters developed for Spanish blind makers.”

“The Aeronaut range is unique in the range of cutting technologies on offer, from laser and ultrasonic through to crush cutting, rotary and reciprocating blade cutting. Aeronaut’s cutting tables come in the widest range of sizes from less than a metre square to machines over five metres wide by 30 metres in length. The modular construction system allows tables to be flat-packed so machinery can be installed in difficult locations, extended in length if required and easily relocated inside the work area or to another factory.”

“Aeronaut’s cutters are the most productive machines on the market and the vacuum hold down system is not only the fastest but also the least wasteful. With Aeronaut’s fully flexible nesting system, expensive blind fabric is saved while all sacrificial materials can be recycled. Larger manufacturers claim fabric savings each year of more than three times the cost of the cutter.”

“Many current Aeronaut cutters incorporate inkjet print heads for printing markings and order information on blinds. The inkjet is so much faster than previous marking methods that all the order information you want can be printed in a second or two.”

Clark confirms much of Aeronaut’s R&D focus over the last two years has been in extending the automation advantage to incorporate more fully automated work flows. Examples of this include fabric conveying systems automated from carousel, to picking the patterns, to technology where machine vision cameras develop and cut complete orders based on a machine-scanned QR code.

“Fashions and fabrics change over time in the window furnishings and blinds industry. The heavy blackouts of 20 years ago have made way for screen and sheer fabrics which can be cut in more efficient ways than with blade, crush or ultrasonic tools, such as new improved laser heads.”

“Aeronaut has been manufacturing laser cutters for technical textiles for over a decade. Almost all of these cutters have been exported to factories cutting military parachutes, paragliders, sailcloth and ultralight aircraft. In the last 12 months, laser cutters have been sent to customers in the USA, Germany, France, South Africa and Sri Lanka.”

“Most recently, Aeronaut exported an innovative laser cutter to one of the Hunter Douglas group of companies in the USA. This business already owns three Aeronaut blade cutters and wanted a machine dedicated to cutting sheer fabric.”

Laser cutters don’t work well with PVC materials but with the increasing use of polyester, especially in sheer fabrics, laser is an obvious choice. The advantages of laser cutters are: no contact between the cutter and the fabric, cutting can be done quickly and accurately with no hold down problems.” “The laser edge-seals the fabric as cleanly as an ultrasonic cutter but without the significant running costs associated with sonotrodes or crush cut discs. The big difficulty in the past when laser cutting window furnishings has been edge discolouration at the cut zone. This is where Aeronaut did a lot of development work on the cutting and fume extraction systems on the new laser and it was great news when the install team reported that all fabrics had been qualified for cutting on the new laser.

Recently, Aeronaut was contracted to design a cutter for a large US machine maker. While this cutter was working away at a trade show in Vegas, the company’s CEO asked, ‘How come you can deliver a machine in three months which we can’t design in three years?’ It’s because Aeronaut has a great in-house team with an unsurpassed history of making innovative and productive cutting machinery and responding rapidly to the changing requirements of the Australian blind industry.”

“One of our most important selling tools is letting our customers know they’re buying an Australian made product,” says Clark. “All our machines are made right here in Terrey Hills NSW by our hard working and dedicated production team. Whenever we have a demonstration at Aeronaut, we make sure to introduce customers to our software and support engineers as well as showing the assembly area complete with the mechanised carousel, which contains spares for almost every machine we have ever made.”

“We have everything under one roof, from design, manufacture, admin, sales, support and software programming. Employing people in Australia may not be cheap, but they are reliable and it’s important to keep our highly skilled staff happy. Almost half our workforce have been with us for over 15 years!”

FLYING PIG PROJECTS
With a remit to support local companies promotional, marketing and manufacturing activities, Robert Paton, Director of Flying Pig Projects, says the company’s commitment to locally made product is “about more than just manufacturing in Australia; it’s about supporting an industry, being there for clients across Australia, big, small and everything in between, being a part of the window furnishing industries culture.”

“When you speak with any company in our industry, each individual, they are proud of a culture to improve upon quality of life. I am not just talking about manufacturing blinds and blind products, but their staff and their communities. We try to be on the end of the phone for every call, because when customers need to have a chat about their requirements, we believe it’s critical to offer support.”

Paton has worked within the industry for over 20 years. From a business perspective, Flying Pig is so far beyond just sample books and folders. Many years ago, the specialisation was in a few areas in our industry, but with digital technologies now available, our samples go beyond the physical. We encompass e-solutions for those same swatching programs, through to e-marketing services, online shopping sites and much more, to further develop the complete package of solutions for new product releases.”

“In terms of why we have been successful, a few clients have their theories, but we like to think it is because we understand what our industry needs, and that means working locally with client as a team. After each successful project, word travels, referrals happen, and more clients experience Flying Pig’s business commitment, and its involvement in our local industry.”