Baxter Engineering in Canberra, Australia has most of their fabricating bases covered with two separate divisions; a Structural Fab shop for all things structural and a Mechanical Fab shop that makes truck bodies, excavator buckets, and does mechanical repairs and more.

Second generation owners, Matt and Nathan Hart, saw the Ocean Blaster for the first time at the Fabtech Show in Chicago a few years ago and fell in love. They knew that once they had finished building their new facility, an Ocean Blaster would immediately find a home in their shop.

Fast forward to present day: Matt and Nathan have completed construction on their new facility, the Ocean Blaster has been installed, and it is already exceeding their expectations.

As you can see from the images, their shop is super clean, and Matt attributes a lot of that to the Ocean Blaster cleaning the steel before any of his guys even touch it. 

The team at Baxter fabricated their own cross-feed supports on both the in and out-feed sides of the Blaster. These supports create a good buffer zone on either end to reduce crane time. They also installed a jib crane on either end so they don’t tie up the overhead. 

We love our ingenious and creative customers, and we learn from them every day!

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It doesn’t matter if your VW Bug changes into a robot from outer space or your ’58 Plymouth Fury is possessed. People love giving their vehicles names, it signifies our close connection to our machinery and after all – machines are alive… right?

Not long after McCombs Steel in Statesville, NC, got their Ocean Challenger Robotic Welder, they realized what an asset and valued employee it had become. Huh, “valued employee”? Yes, you heard me correctly. “Bruce”, as he is affectionately known around the shop, has been welding up a storm with minimal breaks, no lunch, and never calls in sick. Bruce the robotic welder was most recently named McCombs Steel’s Employee of the Month.

If you would like to have an employee like Bruce, give us a call 800-286-3624, or visit https://oceanmachinery.com/es/ocean-challenger-robotic-welder/ for more info.

Special Thanks to Adam at McCombs Steel for the footage of “Bruce” and his new rotators working an easy 168 hour shift.

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Ocean Machinery’s Vice President, Danny Steyn, fresh off his 2018 SCCA Runoffs National Championship win in Super Touring Lite, as well as securing the 2018 Hoosier Super Tour National Championship, has set about his attempt to repeat the Double in 2019.

At the Hoosier Super Tour season opener in Sebring, Steyn smashed the track record twice winning on Saturday, but only finishing 2^nd on Sunday when his transmission failed, and he had to coast across the line, losing in the last few yards by only a tenth of a second To Cliff Ira.

This past weekend the 2^nd round of the Hoosier Super Tour was held at Austin’s famous Formula One track, the Circuit of the America, more commonly known as COTA, in freezing and rain soaked conditions.

In one of the dry qualifying sessions, Steyn qualified on pole for Race 1 by over three seconds, but on the out-lap, third gear in his transmission hand grenaded, so he waved the entire field past; started from the back of the field in 4^th gear and drove the entire race without shifting out of 4^th, knowing full well that if he did, he would probably destroy the rest of the gears.

Despite crawling through some of COTA’s five 2^nd gear turns in 4^th gear, Steyn was able to march his way through the field, eventually finishing 2^nd and securing vital championship points.

In Sunday’s feature race, held in wet conditions that he loves, Steyn drove away from the field, winning by almost an entire lap, and stamping his lead in the 2019 Championship points.

The next stop in the Hoosier Super Tour takes place at Road Atlanta March 15-17

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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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UPDATE 10/19/18

After three rounds of qualifying, Ocean Machinery’s Danny Steyn cemented his spot at the front of the Super Touring Light field and will start from pole for the 2018 SCCA Runoffs. Steyn’s time of 1:49.1 in Q3 is more than 5 seconds under the current STL lap record and was almost a full second clear of his nearest competitor.

The front row is an all Mazda affair with Craig McHaffie in 2^nd also in a Mazda MX-5. And while the front row was locked out by Mazda’s, the 2^nd row on the grid is an all Honda row with Cliff Ira in 3^rd and Tim Auger in 4^th, both in Acura Integra’s, adding more fuel to the fire of the already contentious but friendly Mazda v.s Honda rivalry!

This will be Steyn’s 7^th Runoffs appearance and while he has made the podium in Spec Miata before, he has yet to finish a STL Runoffs title race.

The STL title race takes place on Sunday at 11:30PST and will be streamed live at www.scca.com/live.

UPDATE 10/18/18

Motor racing is filled with peaks and valleys, the Highest of Highs, the Lowest of Lows. At the 55^th  running of the SCCA Runoffs, held at Sonoma Raceway this year, Ocean Machinery’s VP dominated the test days, laying down times around the iconic track more than 4 seconds faster than the current lap record. But in the final session the motor of his Ocean Machinery Mazda MX-5 tightened up and threw a rod through the side of the block, in a catastrophic mechanical failure.

Fortunately, Steyn had a spare motor which his team installed overnight and they were ready on the grid on Tuesday for the first of three qualifying sessions. Unfortunately, in the previous session, a car had oiled up the racing line through the esses, and drivers had to be cautious through the speedy dry used to soak up the oil.

Steyn was able to lay down a time that was good enough for 2^nd place, but significantly slower than his test day times.

But on Wednesday’s 2^nd qualifying session, Steyn was up on the wheel and further improved his lap times, running more than 5 seconds under the lap record and setting provisional pole with a gap of 1.3 seconds to Cliff Ira in his Acura Integra and 1.7 seconds to Craig McHaffie also in a Mazda MX-5.

Today is Tire Rack Pole Day, the final qualifying sessions that will determine the starting grids for Saturday and Sunday’s Runoffs races, which will also determine the Hoosier Super Tour Championships.

Steyn’s qualifying session 3 takes place at 11:30PST

Follow along LIVE at scca.com/live

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The top US amateur sports car drivers, as well as a few international drivers, are heading to Sonoma California this week for the 55th running of the SCCA Runoffs, the winner-take-all finale, that caps the Club racing season.

Hoosier Super Tour STL class points leader – Ocean VP, Danny Steyn

Ocean Machinery’s VP, Danny Steyn, currently sits atop the Hoosier Super Tour points for the Super Touring Lite class with a slim 1-point margin over fellow Mazda driver Nick Leverone. While the two of them have gone door handle to door handle all season, the Honda’s have yet to show their strengths and will also be a major threat in the STL class. While Steyn has 4 wins and 3 additional podiums this season, both he and Leverone have not turned a single lap at Sonoma Raceway yet, so they will be at a distinct disadvantage to the local racers, on this exciting but nuanced race track.

The Ocean Machinery sponsored STL class, Mazda MX-5

Steyn will also compete in Spec Miata, arguably the most competitive class in all of club racing in the USA. Steyn sits in 5th place in the Hoosier Super Tour standings, with only a single win and 3 additional podiums in the 2018 season. Steyn has finished on the podium in two previous Runoffs, and recently won the NASA TOYO Tires Spec Miata Classic at the Circuit of the America’s.

The Spec Miata race takes place on Saturday Oct 20th at 1:30pm PST

The Super Touring Lite race takes place on Sunday Oct 21st at 11:45am PST

Racing will be televised live at www.scca.com/live

The post Top amateur Sports Car drivers compete at Sonoma Raceway! appeared first on Ocean Machinery Inc..

Longevity in the steel fabricating business means being prepared, delivering the job on-time and within budget, and being forward-thinking. Avellini Brothers in Durban, South Africa is a great example of the longevity that is possible in this industry, this year they are celebrating 70 years in the fabricating business.

Ocean Machinery is proud to be associated with Avellini Brothers and we look forward to a long and successful partnership!

Congratulations to Avellini Brothers on this milestone anniversary, we wish you many more!

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