Company Announcement - The steel industry is a key sector in South Africa, with many local suppliers of steel to ground-breaking local and pan-African infrastructure projects. It is therefore imperative that precision is integral to the steel-making process. Not only will this increase the steel manufacturing sector’s capacity, but it also improves industry standards, with only the best equipment used to manufacture products.
In this light, the Vernet Behringer-produced range of tooling equipment, which is distributed in South Africa by Gauteng-based Elquip Solutions, has proven to be extremely popular. Elquip Managing Director Mike Cronin says that there is a definite need for this product in the steel industry. “South Africa is known for its steel industry, which is among the best on the continent, and it is this industry which stands to benefit the most from the cutting products offered by Elquip Solutions,” Cronin states. He goes on to illustrate how these products made an impact on Brazil, which like South Africa, is a rapidly developing economy: “Steel distributor Sacchelli Ltda. based in Guarulhos in Brazil’s São Paulo State has recently commissioned two new high-performance automatic saws supplied by Vernet Behringer. Their main application is to cut to size round forged material for international customers from a wide range of diverse industries,” says Cronin. According to Cronin, the materials which Sacchelli produces are used across industrial sectors such as automotive, sugar, oil and gas, agriculture and energy.
Alongside round steel bar blanks, Sacchelli’s delivery spectrum also includes materials with flat, square, hexagonal and octagonal cross-sections, large components and whole assemblies precision-machined to measure on the basis of customer drawings. “This is very similar to the industry sectors and applications which the machines would be used for here in South Africa,” he adds.
Elquip Solutions is also able to offer a customising service with special profiles, bushes, rings, washers and axes; which produces customised straight cuts from round bar steel using two new high-performance automatic saws. In addition, Elquip offers its customers access to state-of-the-art sawing technology from sister company Behringer. “Speed cutting technology from Behringer is something of a quantum leap in cutting technology,” confirms Cronin. “It is the successful merging of innovative machine technology with newly developed tools, and is setting a whole new standard in terms of cutting speed. Even when tackling materials with difficult machining properties, the outstanding precision and cutting times of this new technology make for impressive reading in any feasibility analysis.”
By using the new high-performance bandsaw, customers will be able to slice their way through as much material in just two days as they would normally only manage over a 12-day period. “If the machines form part of an integrated system, the benefits are even more significant. For example, to make full use of the potential offered by this technology, all the components linked to the Brazil plant were integrated into the control system, ensuring that the speed cutting concept applied to more than the actual sawing process itself,” says Cronin. While South Africa continues to recover from the recession, cost-saving while having access to state-of-the-art technology is still a major advantage for local companies.
“By bringing this type of cutting machinery into the South African market, we are not only offering our customers the best machinery in the world; but we are also offering them the opportunity to consolidate and prosper, thanks to the lasting benefits of this cutting technology for their manufacturing operations,” Cronin concludes.