The Collins Class Submarine story
How BAC became a defence approved supplier.
4 of 6 Incredible Australian Collins Class Submarines
BAC Technologies Pty Ltd, formerly known as Buchanan Advanced Composites, are experts in the design, engineering and production of composite fibre solutions (GFRP & FRP Composites).
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Since the late 80’s, when composites were only just coming of age, BAC Technologies has been at the very forefront of emerging developments in advanced fibre composites - engineering and manufacturing.
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These innovations were pivotal in contributing more and more to advances in Australian sovereign defence capabilities.
The tip of the spear is our very own Collins Class Submarines who must do the heavy lifting for decades into the future. These incredibly capable submarines have punched well above their weight in peacetime and wargames, and by providing sophisticated surveillance capabilities and border protection overwatch.
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Many of the hull casings that give the Collins its stealthy edge, were developed and manufactured by BAC Technologies.
Today, with the hard-earned and coveted ‘defence recognised supplier' status and ongoing contracts to Australian Defence Forces, BAC continues its mission to deliver sovereign defence aspirations to operational readiness.
BAC Technologies is amongst Australia’s oldest and most respected full-service composite engineering and production facilities and retains a team of composite fibre design engineers and peerless manufacturing technicians to develop winning solutions across all industry sectors.
But providence always comes from hard work and preparedness, and exciting new opportunities happen every day now. Not least of these are the emerging re locations to Toowoomba of global players in the aerospace and defence industries.
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With Toowoomba now becoming home to such exciting defence and space innovations, BAC with all those decades of experience in advanced fibre composites, poises to leap into the future!
Particularly so because it has retained an incredible depth of hand craft technicians who long ago mastered the art and the science of hand laid fibre composite workflows… processes such as vacuum resin infusion and the even more demanding plug and mould hand method.
The synergy between in BACs in-house engineers and factory technicians is best exhibited in the operation of CNC routers. These sophisticated shaping machines would achieve little without the vigilant eye of engineers and technicians alike. This is where skill now faces off with opportunity, and with very impressive results across so many innovations.
To leverage this incredible skill resource into that future, each emerging new crop of apprentices are mentored by BAC’s ‘old hands’, and through strategic alliances with tertiary learning institutions.
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From apprenticeships to post graduate studies, BAC continues to honour its destiny, it builds daily on its heritage, and it celebrates its wide tapestry of relationships, and all to grow the vision and propel its people into a very exciting future… a future that can only ever now be limited by their own imagination!
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And here is another great story that warms our hearts.