Pressing the Boundaries with XLERPLATE®

08 August 2004

Western Australian firm, S & E Engineering

Established Western Australian firm, S&E Engineering, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In today's fast paced and dynamic manufacturing industry, S&E Engineering's dedication to quality, integrity and innovation has stood the test of time.

With the expertise and experience of three generations of mechanical engineers, S&E Engineering designs and manufactures a premium brand of precision production machinery, the Scalen range of press brakes, guillotines and plate rolls.

"Our core business is manufacturing high quality, high accuracy press brakes for manufacturing industries, such as steel building products, and the automotive industry," says Bill Stowe, General Manager at S&E Engineering. "We could be described as a boutique manufacturer."

Press brakes are machines used for linear bending and forming of metal parts and components, including heavy gauge materials. S&E Engineering produces equipment for many different applications, from press brakes for steel building products and sheet metal forming, to four column presses for car panels and deep drawing applications, to guillotines, and plate rolls.

"Our long term success is down to our adherence to certain key values," explains Bill. "We are committed to quality and integrity in design and manufacture. We also focus on our ability to develop products specifically to meet our customers' requirements, as well as the provision of lifetime technical support on all of our products."

"That's the reason why we are still here after so many years, excellent service and a good quality product," he adds. "Our machines are world standard, after all, we even export them to Germany, which says a lot. It's also the reason that we have such high profile customers, like major automotive, mining and building product companies."

It seems that the commitment to quality and customer service has paid off. "Business is going very well," says Bill. "We set the bar higher all the time, the emphasis is on continuously improving our products and building on our success, and providing even greater support to our customers."

"Its great to see that XLERPLATE® compliments S&E's core business values and backs up their market offer to their customers," says Elly Pilkadaris, Western Australia State Sales Manager at BlueScope Steel. "We get a lot of satisfaction working with local businesses to produce quality products, and it's brilliant to see S&E's products compete on a global scale."

According to Bill, a keen focus on new technology has been a major contributor to keeping S&E Engineering at the cutting edge of its industry. "We do invest in research and development, we have to keep moving forward in order to stay at the cutting edge of the industry, and ahead of the competition."

This commitment to innovation has allowed S&E Engineering to create non standard size machines to meet the unique requirements of their customers, by using world leading 3D modelling and stress analysis software.

"We were one of the pioneer companies to use geometric element analysis," says Bill. "It's a variation of finite element analysis, a 3D computer modelling technique used to study stresses and strains on mechanical parts or components. We model all of our machines and test them through this method, before we physically make and test an actual machine, which saves both time and money. It's how we generate all our designs."

The benefit of using such software is that it provides an extremely rigid frame design for the machines, which results in accurate bending in the most demanding conditions. The company's flagship products are the FX series of Scalen Servo press brakes, which range from 90 tonnes x 3.1 metres, to the Scalen FX120500, an enormous 500 tonne x 12 metre press brake. Standing at 4.5 metres high (excluding the 3 metres of the machine that is underground) the FX120500 is S&E Engineering's longest model, and is constructed from 125 tonnes of XLERPLATE® hot rolled plate steel from BlueScope Steel.

According to Bill, S&E Engineering takes care that only premium quality materials are used in the production of their machines. "We make a concerted effort to only use steel from BlueScope Steel in our products."

"We use AS/NZS 3678 - 250 XLERPLATE® and AS/NZS 3678 - 350 XLERPLATE® to produce the press brakes, as well as our guillotines and plate rolls," adds Bill. S&E Engineering is currently manufacturing a 6.5 metre guillotine, using 26 tonnes of XLERPLATE®.

"We'd use a minimum of 1000 tonnes of XLERPLATE® annually. It's a great product," says Bill. "We've always had a good relationship with BlueScope Steel."