Page 18 - Australian Defence Mag Jul-Aug 2020
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     18 DEFENCE BUSINESS SME WIN
JULY/AUGUST 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
 HORIZON COMPANIES WIN INNOVATION GRANTS
Two Australian small to medium enterprises, founding entities of the Horizon Defence Systems group, have recently won Defence Innovation Hub grants totalling almost $600,000.
NIGEL PITTAWAY | MELBOURNE
   ON March 13, Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price announced that SORD Australia has been awarded a $308,000 grant to develop its innovative CRCX-H (Concus- sion Reductions in Multiple Helmet). Five weeks later, on April 24, she further announced that Geelong-based Imag- ine Intelligent Materials (Imagine IM) had won $271,000 to continue development of its Intelligent Armour (IAX-1) project. Both of these companies are part of the Horizon Defence Systems (HDS) framework.
Launched at the Land Forces exposition in Adelaide in September 2018, HDS uses a “corporate-
based collaboration model” to assist local
SMEs to win Defence contracts.
SORD CRCX-H
Victorian SME SORD (Special Opera- tions Research & Development) Australia is developing its Concussion Reductions in Multiples Helmet (CRCX-H) to address the effects of blast impact accumulation on the human brain and reduce the incidence of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MtBI) in ADF personnel.
The CRCX-H project is the first of an
initial ten projects being developed within the HDS collab- orative structure to be awarded innovation hub funding and in addition to the subsequent IAX-1 intelligent armour, the company says several others are under “active consideration” for funding support.
The $308,000 Defence Innovation Hub grant to SORD Australia forms the initial phase of the CRCX-H develop- ment process and will support initial work to investigate the impact of blast overpressure on the human brain. The work is being performed with assistance from Albion Sports Technology, XTEK Ltd, GLIA Diagnostics and the Univer- sity of Melbourne.
“The current helmet designs don’t take blast overpressure into account. We wanted to understand more and so we be- gan working with the University of Melbourne and also with US company BlackBox Biometrics (B3 Inc.), who do blast wave pressure monitoring for the US military,” HDS chief operating officer Jarrod Smith explained to ADM.
“The helmet will be modular and scalable, with a number of ballistic caps forming the inner protective layer. Each of
those ballistic caps will have all the attachments that can be added or removed, depending on what the role of the wearer is. The modular design will allow the helmet to be reconfig- ured rapidly. It is one helmet, but also a thousand helmets.”
The CRCX-H design also incorporates sensors, which will provide data to both allow ongoing validation and verifica- tion of the helmet’s benefits and allow for long-term health monitoring of the wearer by ADF medical staff. GLIA Di- agnostics is developing a new means of testing whether the helmet wearer has suffered concussion in the first instance
 and, if so, the degree of concussion. Over time, this data will build to provide a re- cord of the blast effects experienced by in- dividual ADF members.
The CRCX-H is being designed to offer the at least the same level of ballistic pro- tection as the current ADF helmet, but with the added blast protection features and designed to be both functional and com- fortable to wear. Smith says the goal is to develop the new helmet for use across the ADF, but also to be exportable to ‘Five-Eyes’ partners and beyond.
The Defence Innovation Hub process has four stages, with the final stage including a demonstration of
the capability to the ADF.
“We are aiming to produce a fully-tested prototype in two
years and if successful it could be manufactured and rolled out to the ADF two years after that,” he said.
IMAGINE IM IAX-1
The second Defence Innovation Hub grant to an HDS member was a $271,000 award in support of initial work to investigate the application of advanced graphene-based materials and sen- sors to the personal body armour worn by ADF personnel.
Imagine IM specialises in technologies which use thin graphene coatings to sense changes in pressure, movement and heat. The company is the first in Australia to build a commercial scale graphene manufacturing capability and outside the IAX-1 proposal for Defence its technology is tar- geting a range of industries including the building, medical and mining sectors.
“The skills the company has comes from a wide range of industries and we don’t consider ourselves a tech company.
  “LAUNCHED AT THE LAND FORCES EXPOSITION IN ADELAIDE IN SEPTEMBER 2018, HDS USES A “CORPORATE- BASED COLLABORATION MODEL” TO ASSIST LOCAL SMES TO WIN DEFENCE CONTRACTS.”
  





































































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