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PLASMA TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE BRINGS BROWN MCFARLANE MAJOR QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY BENEFITS
Brown McFarlane ltd of Stoke-on-Trent, one of Europe’s leading quality steel plate distributors and processors, has one of the largest ex-stock ranges in both carbon and stainless plate inside the UK. This allows the company to serve a variety of markets including process engineering, mining and both the nuclear and renewable energy sectors. Keeping its market leading position has been in no small part due to the philosophy of investment in the latest profiling technology and in terms of its plasma cutting facilities, this has meant a long term association with ESAB Cutting Systems. This now includes investment in the latest plasma power sources, retrofitted to an ESAB Suprarex machine which was originally acquired in 1995. The installation demonstrates how the incorporation of modern plasma power sources into existing profiling technology can provide major benefits.
The Suprarex is regarded as the mainstay of Brown McFarlane’s carbon steel profiling operations. It is one of a number of plasma profiling machines operated by the company for cutting both mild and stainless steel. The Suprarex is the company’s longest standing investment and has offered continued reliability. The key to this has been Brown McFarlane’s on-going investment in both planned preventative maintenance and the upgrading of key components on a regular basis to enhance performance and ensure reliable operation.
This has included the renewal of the machine’s rack and pinion drives some four years ago and a new Vision 52 NC controller two years ago. Now, two new 400 amp plasma power sources have been added, replacing existing 200 amp sources, bringing extra power and higher cutting speeds as well as producing the highest quality of cuts, dross free and with minimal heat affected zone.
The retrofitting of the two plasma units took just three weeks at the Brown McFarlane plant at the start of 2009. The Suprarex was completely stripped down and effectively rebuilt from scratch. Whilst the two new plasma units have meant twice the productivity for Brown McFarlane, was not been the over–riding concern for the company. More important is the fact that it was essential to ensure the profiles offered by the company to its customer base were of the highest achievable quality.
“With the Suprarex as the backbone of our carbon steel plasma cutting operation, it was essential that we selected a company with ESAB’s reputation and knowledge when we made the original investment. The company has supported us over the years and the quality of cut parts produced by our latest technology upgrade has undoubtedly been the biggest benefit,” says John Riddell, Group Operations Director of Brown McFarlane.
The Suprarex is being used to pierce and cut mild steel from 0.5mm – 50mm thick, up to 100mm from the material’s edge. With minor modifications, to the power sources have the versatility to be used across the same range to cut stainless steel materials too. The Vision 52 controller, with its LCD monitor and ergonomic keyboard, has already proven very simple to use. Its fully integrated database allows Brown McFarlane to set up fully automated production cycles that require no extra manual settings or operator intervention. The optimum cutting parameters and speeds are set automatically for materials and thicknesses to be cut with and all cutting processes are controlled by the Vision 52. In this way, Brown McFarlane is assured of both maximum productivity and maximum quality.
“The attitude and commitment of the ESAB technicians during the retrofit was top class. The new equipment takes quality up to a new level and will help us maintain our market leading position,” concludes John Riddell.
