A bucket load of XLERPLATE® steel

2008 was a record year for Nepean Engineering. The company fabricates buckets and log grapples for the earth moving and forestry industries.

The 33 year old company is the founding member of the Nepean Group, one of Australia's leading privately owned, diversified engineering and industrial manufacturing businesses.

The group produces a broad range of products from fabricated structural steelwork to earth moving equipment and fine detailed, specialist medical equipment.

Nepean Engineering's Narellan workforce used more than 35 tonnes of XLERPLATE® steel per week in 2008 to produce its highly regarded buckets.

"On average, buckets require approximately 100 hours each to manufacture," said Nepean Engineering Manager, Stephen Cantrill.

"We secured a contract to fabricate nine special order buckets for a major earth moving equipment supplier," continued Stephen. "That meant we increased our production output last year to nearly 60 buckets, which is a very significant achievement.

"We use Grade 350 XLERPLATE® steel manufactured by BlueScope Steel. It's a quality product and reflects Nepean Engineering's commitment to deliver high quality products to its customers through engineering excellence.

"Our buckets take a lot of punishment in the field and they need to be able to withstand aggressive operating conditions," Stephen said. "Nepean's long standing reputation hinges on providing customers with the highest quality products they know will perform and last."

Nepean Engineering's bucket designs are adaptable and tailored to the needs of individual customers. All use XLERPLATE® steel for linkages and pivot bodies as well as bucket bodies. The company's standard definition plasma and oxy profile cutter allows it to cut steel up to 200mm thick.

"We have the steel supplied in 9.6 x 2.4 metre plates which is ideal for maximising yield of the product we purchase," Stephen said. "This enables us to make eight cubic metre hightip buckets, 10 cubic metre general purpose buckets with tailored widths, forms and special orders."

Nepean's tradespeople find XLERPLATE® steel an excellent product to work with. The company cuts, bends, rolls, fabricates, machines, line bores, sand-blasts and paints the high strength steel buckets.

"Using Grade 350 XLERPLATE® steel is a competitive advantage for us," concludes Stephen. "We distribute our buckets Australia wide and our customers continue to come back to us rather than our competition. XLERPLATE® steel quality has a lot to do with that."