Plastic mirrors a shining example of innovation Thursday, 16 June 2016

Those suggesting the death knell for Australia’s automotive industries have overlooked the success of Australia’s automotive parts industry. Supplying into global markets, there is immense opportunity for companies to develop and deliver high tech components into the next generation of motor vehicles.

This is the message by Professor Peter Murphy (pictured above) from the University of South Australia who has won the 2016 Clunies Ross Award, in the innovation category. His award honours his research leadership and the work of his team in translating innovative thinfilm technology into the world’s first lightweight plastic automotive mirror. Highly reflective, distortion-free, shatterproof, resistant to abrasion, vibration and extremes of temperature variation, it is a robust alternative to glass-based external car mirrors.

“Our plastic mirror is just one shining example of how successful industry/research collaboration can achieve outstanding commercial success, driving innovation and economic growth for Australia,” said Professor Murphy, whose leadership throughout the project transcended barriers that often exist between research and industry.

The mirror resulted from a collaborative partnership with the University of South Australia and SMR Automotive, and was supported by the Automotive Australia 2020 CRC and has resulted in export sales and markets for South Australia.

Since 2012, more than 1.5 million plastic mirror units have been manufactured at SMR’s South Australian facility and exported to Ford USA. SMR supplies approximately 20% of world’s external rear view mirrors, with a total export sales value to date at around US$162 million.

Another ATSE Clunies Ross Award winner is Dr Elaine Saunders, from Blamey Saunders hears, in the Entrepreneur of the Year Category, for her work over the past 20 years to successfully disrupt hearing service provision in Australia, through challenging current business and pricing models.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) is an independent body of 800 eminent Australian scientists and engineers. The ATSE Awards have been running since 1991.

Don't forget to register for the Australian Engineering Conference 2016 in Brisbane on November 23-25.