The lead times for their steel processing became intolerably long. “There was such limited time between when we received construction drawings to when we had to install the steel on site,” Skye recalls. “At the time, it was taking between 1 to 3 weeks for cut and drilled steel to be delivered.” “So we decided we needed to do something,” Chris says. “We needed to have more control.” To solve their problem, Skye and Chris did some research, while also reaching out to Todd Dolling of Specialist Machinery Sales. In consultation with Todd, they eventually decided on purchasing a beam line system that would cut, drill and mark all four sides of a product in one pass in addition to lights out automation. They then purchased their new facility in Crestmead. The beam line system has made the company so efficient; Chris explains that within 24 hours of receiving drawings, they can start having steel cut and drilled. Further increasing their efficiency is the amount of gantry cranes they now have – over the last few years, they have gone from having a workshop with no cranes to having four cranes. In addition to reducing fabrication time, that beam line system has also reduced the amount of fabrication issues that later have to be resolved on side. That’s largely a result of the four side layout marking, which the steel service centres they used to work with would never provide. Layout marking increases the speed of fabrication due to less time spent interpreting the drawings, measuring out cleat locations, it also increases THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE AUSTRALIA
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