B & T Steel widens their offerings with an Easycut Plasma Cutting Machine from MicroStep

B&T Steel

is a steel structure and fabrication specialist that pride themselves in offering complete turnkey solutions for structural steel solutions. To extend their offerings and offer their customers even better service, they have acquired an Easycut Plasma Cutting System from Microstep SA.

B & T Steel operate in Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa and their projects entail everything from the design of all structural components, detailing and production of fabrication and erection drawings up to the final fabrication and erection.

Established in 1995 in Mpumalanga, they have always been proud to be a family business that offers cost – effective solutions that are of high quality.

They are a sought-after company when it comes to turnkey steel structure solutions. They have a dedicated team that has many years of experience in the steel industry. B & T are dedicated to making every steel structure a reality. They design each structure with the complete business in mind taking all building aspects into consideration and therefore making it an optimal environment.

Having been involved in many large projects, their customers speak very highly of them.

Their customer base ranges throughout Africa including Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique.

Even more reason why they are able to offer such timeous service is due to their own in-house fleet that can deliver materials to different construction sites in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

MicroStep SA conducted a brief interview with the companies Technical Director, Norman van Vuuren and asked them some questions about their new acquisition:

1. How did you hear about MicroStep?

The Managing Director, Ludwig Oellermann gave us a call. He showed us a very valuable calculation that works out how much you are spending on outsourcing vs owning your own machine. It was an eye opener for us and we took things further.

2. What were your expectations when you were looking for a Plasma Cutting Machine to add to your service offering?

Once we realized what we could do with our own machine, we were looking for a reliable system which would be able to cut all previously outsourced plate profiling. MicroStep stood out from the competitors because of quality and reliability and the brand which is known to have a very high standard. MicroStep’s price was also very competitive.

3. Why did you decide to buy the MicroStep machine?

Norman van Vuuren: Prior to this, we were buying all our profiled plates from profiling companies, which came with cost and lead time challenges. We were frustrated with having to rely on outside companies and saw the capacity to do everything in house.

4. What do you use our MicroStep machine for?

Norman van Vuuren: To profile all our general requirements, production process and in particular our connection plates.

5. How has the MicroStep machine impacted your business?

Norman van Vuuren: The MicroStep Plasma Cutting Machine has allowed us to reduce costs, as we are no longer outsourcing and therefore are now able to save time, increase capacity and have control over the quality that we produce.

6. Have you won any projects lately?

Norman van Vuuren: We have recently been appointed for the manufacturing and installation of Ford’s New Press Plant Facility in Silverton. This entails 1700 tons to be completed by the end of the year. To date this is our biggest project and we are very proud to have been awarded this.

Reference from Norman van Vuuren, BT Steel:

“Since we have acquired the machine we have been able to increase our capacity and have been able to deliver on projects timeously. This has opened up our ability to take on more. MicroStep SA service levels experienced to date have been good and availability of consumables have never been an issue”

About B & T Steel

About the Machine

Easycut 6000 x 2500, HPR 130XD

• Flash Disc drive USB2.0
• AsperWin – Basic module
• Integration of Plasma source into the CNC system HPR, HD, HT, HF, FF
• Active cooler for control system
• Remote diagnostics
• Power distributor for system
• Preparation for pipe cutting in future

Standard Features of a Easycut Plasma Cutting Machine

• Good cutting quality as a result of synchronized tandem drive system in the longitudinal axis
• User-friendly PC-based CNC control system iMSNC500 with a TFT colour monitor with touch screen
• Positioning speed of 20 000 mm/min, with a maximum cutting speed of 10 000 mm/min
• Precision cutting of contours and details is a result of precision rack and pinion drives and high quality CNC-Controls under Windows® 2000™
• Integral remote diagnostics utilities via modem
• Extensive cutting database covering both oxy-fuel and plasma cutting techniques
• Manual control unit on the gantry provide jog positioning and remote operation control functions
• High quality automatic height sensor control for both oxy-fuel and plasma cutting torches
• Laser pointer to help in quicker setting of cutting head position
• Safety and environmental standards are very high and fume extraction is through a sectional system under the working area
• Data can be imported in DXF Format from all standard Auto-CAD/CAM program systems