Steel Industries Save Time and Money with a Waterjet

Established in 1967, Steel Industries is experienced in dealing with the rugged country conditions and challenging environments faced by the fabrication industry of Papua New Guinea.

Despite these challenges, Papua New Guinea is the seventh fastest growing economy in the world. Through sheer dedication and innovation, Steel Industries has succeeded despite many hurdles along the way.

No more waiting for the team at Steel

A bump in the road facing the team at this Port Moresby based company was the lack of access to raw materials. Taking anywhere from three to four months for stock to reach Papua New Guinea, Steel Industries now maintains several million dollars worth of stock on site, allowing rapid turnaround of parts and no longer having to wait for metal to arrive from overseas.

Traditionally, Steel Industries worked their fabrication shop in the old fashion way by tracing paper templates onto sheet metal and cutting it with a handheld oxy torch, wasting valuable time and labour.

Maxiem revolutionises with ease

It wasn’t until Steel Industries discovered the ease and versatility of the Maxiem waterjet system at the Austech trade show that their work has been transformed.

Its cold-cutting process and fast cutting speed led Derek Hunter of Steel Industries to purchase a Maxiem 1530 JetCutting Center with a Motorized Z Axis. With an X-Y cutting area of 3099mm x 1575mm, Steel Industries is using their Maxiem 1530 to cut a wide range of material sizes up to 50mm thick.

The Maxiem 1530 is Steel Industries’ first CNC cutting machine and right away has made a difference. The confidence Derek now has in the machine has led to an increase in business, including parts exporting, something they have never done before. The ease of use was an important feature for Derek. Training and setup was quick and simple, significantly shortening production times. After having the machine for only four months, the Maxiem is running six to seven hours a day, five days a week, cutting everything from fiber cement to mild steel.

Maxiem and the crane

Steel Industries was given the task to replace a broken crane part located on the other side of the island, which normally would have a lead-time of three weeks.

The crane owner traced the broken part and faxed it to Steel Industries, where they took that drawing and imported it into the Intelli-MAX Software Suite and created the CAD file for the Maxiem to cut. At the same time it was cutting, the crane owner took a helicopter to an airfield and then flew a small plane to Port Moresby to pick up the part. Within a day the crane owner had the replacement part and was able to be back in business, rather than go through three weeks of downtime waiting for traditional channels to deliver the part.

With their newly found production efficiency, custom fabrication work continues to open opportunities for Steel Industries.

Contact us today

For more information on the Maxiem 1530, visit the waterjet machine range section.

Or you can contact us at marketing@headland.com.au