Services

Research & Development

FMG Engineering (formerly Koukourou Engineers), has a long history (from 1982) of carrying out research and development both independently and in collaboration with the institutional sector (including University of SA and CSIRO) and the construction industry (including Jennings Homes and James Hardie), and has a track record of successfully commercialising or developing for industry use (through adoption in Australian Standards) the results of its R&D eg:

• Waffle Pod footing system (researched, developed and commercialised assisted by University of South Australia) – now adopted in Australian Standards and used for approximately 90% of residential construction in Australia’s eastern states and introduced in South Africa, India and China
• Engineering Design Software CORD (Code Orientated Raft Design) used by footings design engineers throughout Australia and has attracted international interest.
• Development and commercialisation of the patented Vibrodynamic Compaction (VDC) process for in-situ compaction of filled sites.
• Development of laboratory test methods associated with the Footings Code and now adopted in Australian Standard AS1289 as Method 2.2.1, Soil Moisture Content Tests – Determination of total suction of a soils and Method 7.1.2, Soil Reactivity Tests – Determination of the shrinkage index of a soil – Loaded shrinkage index.
• Concrete Institute of Australia, Practice Note “Slab Edge Dampness” and Housing Industry Association Fact Sheet “Slab Edge Dampness Prevention”.
• Commercialising Innovation: Housing supply chain model. In 2011 RMIT University conducted research for a project funded by FMG Engineering to investigate the development of generic principles that can be applied to support the commercialisation of innovative housing systems. RMIT identified the barriers and enablers for a specific innovative housing product system as a basis for developing the generic Housing Pathways Methodology (A model for industry organisations to follow in establishing innovative product system solutions).  The outcomes were peer reviewed academic publications as well as on industry research report.
• Presently (2012 to present) carrying out R&D and commercialisation scale trials with industry partners applying an established technology, Counter Current Diffusion Extraction (CCE) to extract copper-chromium-arsenic from waste CCA treated timber to recover the copper, chrome and arsenic and allow the waste timber waste to be reused.
• In 2012 RMIT, supported by FMG Engineering and others, secured a competitive grant through Sustainability Victoria for a project on Integrated Supply Chains for Waste Management.
• FMG have partnered with RMIT, Metricon Homes, Australand Holdings and Master Builders Association Victoria to successfully obtain ARC Linkage Funding for the project “Efficient Construction: Analysis of integrated supply chains for innovative off site house manufacturing” (Project ID: LP140100106) commencing in 2014.
• Development  (2012 to present) of a large scale three dimensional interpretive model for analysing environmental soil test data including algorithms for estimating concentration variations and determining additional test requirements based upon data uncertainty.  (Used successfully on a trial basis for the New Royal Adelaide Hospital Project)