b'A RE W EN AChapter 7Early technology and innovationIt was the late 90s, and engineer robot and applied a high-pressure water jet Wayne Carson had just wrapped up awith an added garnet abrasive to cut three-business venture and was ready for hisdimensional (3D) shapes into structural steel next challenge. Mike knew Wayne frombeams. It was a world first.Anticipating a six-month project, it took the latters Steltech days so, when heWayne and his team closer to 15 months to heard that Wayne was available, he haddevelop a working prototype then build a full-just the thing.size machine and install it at Dixon & Haddon.The Beamline 600 was launched in June Mike had a little project that he was 2000 to great fanfare. The aim was to design a looking for someone to step in and manage.machine that would automate and streamline Dixon & Haddon, in collaboration withthe steel fabrication process and kickstart new research partners Howick Engineering andmarkets, and thats exactly what it achieved. Kinetic Engineering, had secured a $245,000The steel beam was fed into the Beamline and government grant to develop a robotic watercame out the other end fully processed and cutter for steel beams.ready for welding and painting. Previously, Above: The cutting-edge Beamline 600 Water cutting wasnt new technologyshapes were manually marked out, cut withmachine, which was launched in 2000, it was being successfully employed by manya gas cutter then ground down to produce awas a career highlight for Wayne Carson.other industries and had been used to cut flatsmooth finish. The new computer-controlled sheets of steelbut it had never been usedmachine was considerably faster than the to cut steel in three dimensions. The teammanual operation and delivered a better-rose to the challenge.It developed a five-axisquality product. 69'