Episode 48 -- Kheang Khauv from 1Millikelvin

@AuManufacturing Conversations

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hear from Kheang Khauv, Managing Director at 1Millikelvin.
This conversation took place at the Avalon 2023 Australian International Airshow, shortly after Khauv's company won both the National and the SME Innovation Awards at the show's Innovation Awards.
Khauv tells us about his quest to bring a clever Australian invention, which visualises stress in metal as it occurs, to a global audience.
Episode guide

0:24 – An introduction to Khauv and 1Millikelvin.

1:55 – A little bit of history about the development of stress imaging in Australia, beginning with the F/A-18 Hornet fleet.

3:55 – Wanting to bring the technology out via Flir Systems, but not getting the blessing of the overseas head office. Then trying after he left Flir.

5:01 – How it works in layman’s terms, with a Where’s Wally analogy.

7:15 – Bringing a commercially-ready product to market. “..I quickly realised when I started the journey that I don’t have the skills. We had the ideas, we had the direction, we had some really smart people helping us at defence. But we needed the implementation.”

7:55 – Engaging Outerspace Design and what each part of the team learned from the other. Developing “product two” – a compact, ruggedised version – through an Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre-backed project.

10:05 – Current users in the research community and growing an audience beyond that, and why the aerospace industry is a natural place to look.

12:30 – Needing big OEMs overseas means a lot of travel and going to airshows.

13:50 – Winning the award and what it’s the culmination of.

14:20 – A team of two people, but not really.

15:20 – Advanced manufacturing gets talked about a lot, but we need to see more of it actually going on.

16:08 – A shout-out to defence scientist Dr Nik Rajic.
Relevant links
1Millikelvin's website
https://www.1millikelvin.com/
STRESS IMAGING STARTUP WINS AT AVALON AWARDS
STRESS-MONITORING INVENTION GETS COMMERCIALISATION BOOST THROUGH AMGC GRANT