Division Five, a structural fabricator located in Hollywood, SC, has been a valued customer of Ocean Machinery since their 2006 installation of the Terminator 1842 Saw and Avenger Drill Line.

The Ocean Liberator CNC Beam Coper was added in 2018 to minimize layout and coping times. A recent visit to their facility reveals W16 x 40’s requiring rat holes, web and flange beveling, taking around 7-minutes and 30 seconds per-end to cope and bevel.  Previous manual processing took about one-hour after grinding and final cleanup.

We also observed a “mammoth” W40 x 199 beam being drilled on their Ocean Avenger.  The Liberator Beam Coper was used to perform a trim-cut on this “heavy-weight” prior to drilling it.

We thank the team at Division Five for employing the Ocean brand of structural machinery to supplement their fabrication efforts.

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For many of our customers, buying a CNC beamline is a daunting proposition. For most of them it is by far their most expensive capital purchase, and they have to be confident that the machine will pay for itself quickly. Not everyone believes us when we tell them that it will start to pay for itself from the first day its installed on their floor, and so we really love to share our real life customer experiences when it does just that.

The seaside town of East London on the East coast of South Africa is home to one of the premier automotive manufacturers worldwide, as well as one of our newest fabricating customers, Bennies Welding. Until recently, Bennies Welding had survived through thick and thin as a purely manual fabricating shop.  But when they landed a large project to extend the automotive manufacturing facility, the owner, Terry Davies, felt it was time to embrace CNC automation and made the decision to buy our Ocean Avenger CNC single spindle drill line, as well as our Ocean Terminator DCM 1825 high speed band saw.

Owner Terry Davies with one of the Avenger Operators, Deon Van Der Merwe, in front of their new CNC drill line, the Ocean Avenger

Owner Terry Davies and bandsaw operator Xavier White, in front of their new Ocean Terminator.

Depending on labor rates, the cost of a mag-drilled hole in a beam is typically estimated at around $1 – $2 per hole with the worldwide average being around $1.50.

Our local dealer, SKOK Machine Tool, completed the machine installation at Bennies Welding on the 19^th of September 2018, and towards the end of January 2019, almost exactly 4 months after installation, I visited their shop to see the machine working, and there on the screen was the number of holes drilled – 141,000!

The CNC screen showing the 141,000 holes already drilled on their Ocean Avenger in less than 4 months

So at Bennies Welding, the Avenger has almost paid for itself in 4 months. NOW THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL A RETURN ON INVESTMENT!

The complex and intricate support trusses that will soon being installed into the automotive plant, in the space above the existing lights, fire sprinklers and electrical lines, and under the existing roof, over the existing production line. As you can imagine, the installation is a very complex affair and has to be done after hours so that it doesn’t affect the production line. A project not for the faint of heart

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Steelforce Distribution in Brisbane, Australia has undergone dramatic updates since its first installation of the Ocean Avenger in conjunction with 4 semi-automatic bandsaws. Steelforce provides both cut to length service as well as hole drilling processing for its fabricating customers who do not have beam lines.

Two of the semi-automatic saws have been replaced with automatic Meba bandsaws and are tied together using Peddinghaus  hydraulic infeed and outfeed conveyors as well as cross transfer systems .

Additional consolets at the other saws provides faster loading and unloading before material is moved to the Avenger when holes are required.

The new system has more than doubled their capacity and we expect this to be part of an ongoing journey.

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Ever had to bevel the flanges of a column for weld prep when welding on a base plate?

Sure you have, and it’s a pain to do it manually. But our enterprising friends at A&S Steel in Auckland New Zealand have found a way to do it on their Avenger PLUS Drill Line.

Weld prep bevel of flange being done on the Ocean Avenger PLUS

They place their beams and columns on the table at the desired bevel/chamfer angle, use a standard milling tool and then quickly mill their way through the flange, providing a perfectly beveled part, ready to be welded.

Secured at the proper bevel angle and ready to go!

Well, we do call the Avenger PLUS our Multifunction Machine, and now our customers have shown us yet another operation that can be done with this amazingly versatile machine.

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A little over 6 years ago Steel Builders in Sydney, Australia came to the realization that they would be much more competitive with a CNC beam drill line.  In September 2012 Steel Builders’ new Ocean Avenger CNC Beam Line was installed, and their tonnage throughput dramatically increased – they haven’t looked back since.

Steel Builders is now producing 80 tons of light steel per day

Today they produce approximately 80 tons of light housing steel beams every day and have outgrown just using their Avenger Beam Line, they have now added both a Peddinghaus PCD-C Beam Line and an XDM to their automation.

The Avenger CNC Beam Line is being kept very busy with flat bar

Through all of their incredible growth they still keep the Avenger very busy and working hard, their Avenger is now focused 100% on flat bar. The Avenger CNC Beam Line is truly an amazing workhorse!

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Ocean customers and prospects are opening our eyes to the Avenger PLUS’ diverse processing capabilities for manufacturers using  steel and or aluminum profiles in their products.

Truck & Trailer Chassis Manufacturing:

The manual layout and hand-burning of (channel) cross-member supports  into  frame rails (wide flange beam) can take 2-3 hours per chassis.  The Avenger PLUS eliminates manual layout, improves quality & accuracy, while performing this same task in under 20 minutes –  without any grinding & cleanup!

FINISHED TRUCK FRAME:

Crane & Monorail  Track Manufacturing:

Aluminum Extrusions are more accurately drilled and milled in rapid succession with the Avenger PLUS resulting in a more  accurate fit-up and better appearance than done with traditional hand tools.

FABRICATION by HAND:

FABRICATION on AVENGER PLUS in a fraction of the time:

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The best thing about travel is that you get out of your comfort zone and you get to see how other people live and operate, and if you have your eyes and ears open, you learn a lot from those new experiences and observations.

About two years ago, Bob Hawley of Red Steel in Napier, New Zealand had started building his new fabricating facility, and purchased an Avenger PLUS from Ocean to position his shop ahead of his competition. This past trip I had the privilege of seeing Bob in his new state-of-the-art facility, and I got to see how he is positioning his business for future growth.

Red Steel – Napier, New Zealand

From the minute you arrive at the shop you can tell that Bob has tremendous pride in appearance, and the striking charcoal and red color scheme that greets you on the outside of the building, is carried through the entire facility. First impressions are important in business and Red Steel offers one of the most compelling first impressions you will ever see, and not just in the steel fabrication arena.

Red Steel’s front lobby

But it’s not just about appearances. Bob fully understands that the strength of his company is dependent on attracting and retaining the best employees and the effort and expense that he has put into the facility to cater to his employees is immediately apparent. A large, fully-appointed break room leads outside to an attractive covered barbecue area, protected from the cold winds that are common in New Zealand. And most importantly for a coffee connoisseur like myself, visitors are offered a range of gourmet espresso options and Bob has turned out to be quite the Barista!

Impact Machinery’s Robby Clark with Bob in the large break room

Covered outdoor employee break area

Bob and Ocean VP Danny Steyn enjoying some espresso at the Avenger PLUS

This level of detail is carried through to the fabricating facility, where every single fabricator is in control of his own crane, ensuring that he is fully productive. Bob tracks real time productivity with a range of software programs and I really enjoyed seeing the man-hour/ton variations across the massive range of work that Red Steel undertakes.

Every fabricator is in control of their own crane

Peddinghaus HSFDB being installed

And while I was there the Peddinghaus factory technician Rob Ganzer was installing Red Steel’s new fully loaded HSFDB plate line. All in all, a very impressive facility and one that will set itself apart for years to come. Thanks for the tour Bob!

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Yes, the Ocean Avenger is known for drilling holes in beams and columns and adding layout marks for welded attachments, but it does so much more!

We have one customer who is using their Avenger to drill holes through both walls of 1.5” pipe. Have fun trying to do that with a mag drill!

Drill and layout channel for stair stringers

Another customer used to process all their flat bar on an iron worker, it worked, but it was an inefficient and labor intensive process. Now they put a 20 ft piece of flat bar on their Avenger and drill all the holes and add layout pop marks to indicate where to shear it, saving valuable time, money and man-hours.

The extreme versatility of the Avenger allows you to process all profiles up to 40” high. The possibilities are endless!

Angle

T-sections

Base Plate

And so much more!

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In the heart of Bulawayo Zimbabwe, a young couple, Eugene and Agnes Jackson, have created an amazing company called Pump and Steel Supplies, and in a few short years have grown it into a powerhouse of productivity, and now employ more than 300 personnel. They manufacture everything from Structural Steel to roofing materials to door and window frames, and everything in between.

Roofing manufacturing lines at Pump and Steel Supplies

They currently operate from a 300,000 sqft building, previously the railways workshop building, and have started to transform this facility from an essentially manual operation into a state of the art CNC automated manufacturing facility.

Peddinghaus 210AD Ironworker from 1971

One of the older machines in their floor is their trusty Peddinghaus 210AD Ironworker built in the Peddinghaus Germany factory back in 1971, and this machine still performs as well as it did when it was built, more than 46 years ago. This machine will now reside across from their most recent installation, a line featuring a dual column Terminator Band Saw and the formidable Ocean Avenger PLUS CNC Drill Line. And just across from the drill line is their new Ocean Clipper CNC Angle Line.

Recent installation: dual column Terminator Band Saw and Ocean Avenger PLUS CNC Drill Line

One senses that not only is Pump and Steel Supplies about to rewrite structural steel fabrication in the country, but the entire country of Zimbabwe is poised for a massive bounce as soon as investment capital rolls in. While the departing president Robert Mugabe might have been reviled, the one thing he really did well was invest in education of the citizens, and the talent and skill in Zimbabwe is ready to make their mark on the continent of Africa.

Left to Right – Ray Chellew (SKOK salesman), Eugene Jackson (Managing Director – Pump and Steel Supplies), Ndaba Mhlanga (Technical Director – Pump and Steel Supplies), Sean Devenny Skok Installer

Ray Chellew and Sean Devenny of SKOK Machine tool in front of the Ocean Clipper CNC Angle Line at Pump and Steel Supplies Zimbabwe

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So, what do you do if a bulldozer has an untimely contact with a tree that destroys a vital ventilation screen?

Simple really, contact a steel fabricator that has an Avenger drill line! This is what happened to one of great customers, Gary Hobbs of GH engineering in Palmerstone New Zealand.

Gary looked at the original screen and said, “yeah mate, we can do this”, and put a 16mm thick steel plate on the Avenger table and let this versatile machine work its magic. Because the Avenger would have to drill more than 840 holes  each 26mm (1”) in diameter, Gary reduced the feed rate of the machine, so as not to overheat the hydraulic fluid that would be continuously working,

Despite the reduced feed rate, his Avenger still completed this unusual job in only 2hours and 12 minutes, proving yet again just how versatile this amazing machine is.

We love seeing these great stories and inventive uses of our Ocean Avenger, so if you have an interesting story or project, please send them to us – email to info@oceanmachinery.com

The versatile Ocean Avenger making replacement ventilation screen

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