KUBE Blasting System

RS Blastech provides KUBE Blasting System for steel fabricator GR Contracts

As a professional fabricator with a well-known reputation in the field, GR contracts delivers projects within the commercial, industrial, retail, residential & public sector. After 8 years of evaluating and analyzing the situation, they decided to transfer their blast and paint production in-house. Around last year, they finally started to take actual steps towards a new investment on automating the blasting line and started to look around for modern blasting systems that could make a change.

Because of our previous fruitful partnerships, GR Contracts chose us once again to help them automate and bring in-house for the first time in their company's history, the blast and paint production. First, we met them to further discuss their situation and how we could come up with a great and useful offer. When speaking with Robert Savage, one of the representatives of GR Contracts and a seasoned employee with 16 years of experience in the company told us:

"Basically we subcontracted all our blasting and painting, but (investing in a blast machine) it's something that we have always had as part of our plans. We started a year and a half ago to plan having a blast machine in our shop."

Then, he shared with us more regarding the context and the backstory of this decision, so we could have a further understanding why they were in need of this investment at this point in time.

"It's been part of a plan for maybe eight or nine years now, and it took us this long to get here."

What they've been looking since the past year is mostly the size factor, which would be determined from the area of their shop, and it also had to be a compact machine. The main goal was ultimately to provide them with a high-tech product, that would also utilize all the space available in a smart and efficient way.

02

THE CHALLENGE

When they first got in touch with us, they had their steel production subcontracted to a blast shop, which was an effective approach but that would result in several issues. The production was achieved but meanwhile, they were suffering in lead times, which was causing unnecessarily high costs.

Furthermore, the continuous transport of the materials back and forth was environmentally impactful and incautious, and was one of the top events that they wanted to avoid when making the new investment. The grinding process was noisy and the steel needed to be welded. Acquiring the new machine meant for GR Contracts more effeciency and no more welding before blasting. They trusted our experience, our knowledge, and our products, to provide them with an in-house blasting system that could solve these problems, improve lead times and have a profitable return on investment.

03

THE SOLUTION

After evaluating the situation, we decided to go for the KUBE Modular Blasting System. The machinery we chose were from their TF Series Through-Feed Shotblast.

The KUBE TF Series has a powerful 11kW motor as a standard source, motor inverters that can blast steel sheets up to 6mm thick, and a HEPA filtration system for dust extraction as its main features.

The brand, which has just recently entered the UK and Ireland market, is our take in prioritizing the automation of blasting processes and bringing 21st-century tech into our industry. The KUBE machinery is all designed and manufactured in Europe, by a team of professionals with almost 50 years of experience in manufacturing.

As we understood from the meetings with them, GR Contracts was in dire need of solving their:

transportation costs
lead times and performance
noise production
steel welding process

So after striking a deal with the machine type, concept layout and the budget proposal, we got to work and install the TF 1608 Through-Feed Blast System in GR Contracts' facilities.

04

INNOVATION

Our decision to provide our client with the KUBE machinery was proving to be the right one as we got more and more to the end of this project. After the purchase was completed and the final contract was signed, we were at the last and most important stage of the project; the project management which includes:

pre-install coordination
delivery and offloading
the in-house installation
electricity supplies and additional tooling
operator training and inspections

Regarding the technical aspect of the machine installation, we had problems with the height and width available to install the machine in their facilities and the lack of a had crane. So we had a maximum of 4 meters height to make use of when installing the machine. Additionally, across the aisle, they had a saw and drill line in their workshop so what we needed to do, was to install the machine in a way that we could still have space for the operators to come around the workshop freely.

We decided to turn around the motors on the belt and bucket elevator and we managed to push the machine very close and install it within 60 mm, of the crane rails. We also offered the double belt and bucket elevator system, to reduce the head height of the system down to 4m high without digging any pit. One of KUBE's blasting systems biggest benefits is that they are available as a flat floor machine, meaning that we don't need to dig a pit when installing it. That in itself is an extremely innovative way of delivering the required results.

However, the GR Contracts technicians wanted to lower the height of the conveyor belt, so they, either way, dug a small shadow pit (750mm x 250mm). We helped them with the marking and building of the precise sizes for the pits and we also assisted GR Contracts with their air compressor and electrical system supplies. The KUBE blasting system has featured a Gardner Denver silenced workshop compressor, to provide for extraction and blast system air requirements.

Regarding the feeding system, KUBE TF 1608 features a fully powered roller infeed and outfeed lengths available in 2.4m modules. Also, the machine includes the KUBE TF Brush & Blow system included as standard with internal and external blow-off pipes.

To further show our commitment to our projects, we provided them with a 3-year warranty, which is noticeably different from other companies' 12-month warranties, and the delivery and commissioning included within our price.

05

SUPPORT

Our team was there to oversee the delivery of the machine, taking care of the offloading process, transportation, and ensuring a swift installation, all in 9 days. As Robert reviewed it:

"Everything was as promised. The 3-week installation ended up being in under 2 weeks."

The first piece of training took place before the machine instalment. After the machine started working, one of our engineers sat with the operators for two days of field training to observe their performance. Initial training is crucial because we are able to give them soon in their experience with the new machine, suggestions, guidance, tips and information that will help them in their everyday job. Our primary goal in this stage is to make them develop good habits with the machine, that will affect the quality of work and the longevity of the machinery.

After this successful endeavour, the inspections at GR Contacts have been weekly since the installations, to ensure that everything is going as predicted. After these frequent visits, we will be doing follow-ups every 3 months until the end of the machinery lifetime, to cater for them with any needs, information, tooling and other requests as needed.

06

RESULTS

The KUBE Blasting System helped GR Contracts to remove the transporting of materials back and forth, the need for welding and the additional costs coming together with this kind of approach. Because of our fruitful partnership, GR Contracts wanted to get a third piece of machinery to speed up their production. The RS Blastech team managed to carry out adjustments to the angles of the blast and accommodate them with everything they needed.

We managed to pick a brand and machinery type that is modern, extremely effective, and eliminated right away all their pain points. The KUBE machinery reduced drastically their energy usage from 50 kW to 11 kW-15 kW motors, which can deliver the same amounts of scalable performance with less noise, dust, and waste. KUBE machinery removed the HAVS risk for those currently grinding/fettling steel before welding and presented them with a much less labour intensive operation than grinding/fettling or manual blasting. The operation is now consistent, fast, accurate, and most importantly, in-house.

Another successful collab is complete! If you want to have a look at our catalogue of products, brands, and offers, visit our website or contact me for a one-on-one conversation.