Venue: Opal Specialty Packaging, 100 Carroll Road, Oakleigh South
Opal Specialty Packaging
CSG members enjoyed a terrific site visit to the Opal facility in South Oakleigh. We had great weather, a fascinating venue and a wonderful tour guide in Chris Coon, Operations Manager for Opal. Chris has been with the company for 10 years and he loves his job. Not only does he have the opportunity to travel the world in search of new ideas and technologies, but he also revels in the creative possibilities that these new technologies offer.
He enthusiastically demonstrated some of the machinery in the facility; laser cutters and digital printers are spread out in the huge manufacturing area, which is full of light and displays some of the amazing and colourful products that these machines can produce. There are even artworks on the wall made by staff (including Chris) using the digital printers.
Chris took us into a cardboard house that was built for a trade show - everything in it, except the lighting, is made of cardboard and it is structurally sound! Inside is a wide range of products that they produce for clients.
Another project made for an expo was the cardboard bar that you can see in this photo. Again, everything is made of cardboard, including the “brass” rails. The counter felt very solid.
CSG Committee Member Gavin Kenny was on hand with other members of the safety team to answer questions about hazards and control measures. While the new machines include innovations to reduce manual handling, that is still the primary hazard in other parts of the processing. The team is working towards an Opal standard across their various sites in Australia & New Zealand to manage this and other risks.
It was a real eye-opening experience as well as a great opportunity to catch up with other CSG members in person.
Thank you, Gavin, for organising the visit, and thank you, Chris for being such a marvellous guide.
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