T.W. Woods Group has implemented a number of new technologies into their manufacturing process, which has not only allowed them to expand their portfolio, but also helped them cozy up as a supplier to a number of industry giants.
A new laser-guided 1,000 amp sub-arc welding facility has been introduced by the T.W. Woods Group to help handle large and challenging pipelines, pressure vessels, cylinders, tanks, and other material handling and metal fabrication tasks in which it specializes.
The high speed, high efficiency facility — which delivers crack-free high quality butt welds in thick steel — is part of an ongoing multi-million dollar expansion of the company’s Tomago facility to serve customers in industries including energy, mining, minerals processing, materials handling, metals, manufacturing, process engineering, energy, and water.
Complemented by expanded press brake capacity at the Tomago site, the sub-arc welding facility permits even more major fabrication tasks to be handled in-house at the Tomago plant, says T.W, Woods Managing Director, Tom Woods. This helps facilitate total quality control and faster turnaround of orders.
Investment new plant at Tomago includes a 300 amp cad-cam profile plasma cutting bed capable of cutting 13 x 3.5 meter plates up to 60mm thick with plasma, and more than 150mm with oxygen. The facility also houses a 1,600 amp stud welding machine and a plate handling and processing facility serviced by a 10-ton overhead gantry crane.
Production efficiency is also enhanced by the plate processing area being integrated into the same new building with an 800 sq. meter paint and blasting facility. A sand blasting chamber — with a 10-meter high ceiling — handles large jobs and challenging assignments from companies around the world.
Housed on the company’s two-hectare site with Hunter River frontage, the new facilities complement 4,000 sq. meters of workshop area in which the company undertakes medium–to-heavy steel fabrication, plate rolling and pressing, and manufacturing of material handling equipment, such as chromium carbide clad plate hardened steel products. The company’s services (including specialised shaping, fabrication and welding technology for metals including carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminium) are used by organizations such as Delta Energy, Incitec Pivot, water and waste water authorities, Integra Coal, Laing O’Rourke, Xstrata, and mining companies throughout Australia
The company has also become a valued supplier to the water treatment and materials handling industry because of its expanded capacity to process specialized metals and manufacture complex shapes required for special-purpose tanks, silos and pressure vessels.
“Through good times and bad, we have retained a dedicated and capable staff team in whose skills we have invested,” said Mr Woods. “The benefit for customers is that, as demand picks up, we are in a position to supply from a high skills and technology base. We also offer the reliability and turnaround customers expect from a family-owned company with a tradition of quality extending over generations.”
For further information, please contact T.W. Woods Group at [email protected] or www.twwoods.com.au.
