BM Steel Group are a formidable player in the UK steel stockholding market, with over 130 years of experience and an extensive range of products. Operating from 15 sites across the UK, they bolster their extensive range of steel beams, columns, rounds, hollow section and bright bars with an ever-expanding catalogue of access and safety products, such as stair treads and GRP, as well as glass balustrades, composite cladding, decking and fencing composite materials and much more.
However, one thing that Regional Manager Gavin Morrison and his team felt that they could improve upon was an enhanced in-house processing capability.
Starting their journey, BM Steel recently invested in a state-of-the-art “Lightning HD” plasma cutter from Esprit Automation.
This precision plasma cutter offers ‘laser-like’ precision, with all the benefits of lower cost and greater versatility of materials that plasma offers.
Why did we decide to invest in a plasma cutter?
During a recent visit to BM Steel’s Aberdeen site, The Metal Magazine’s Peter Comerford spoke with Regional Manager Gavin Morrison and Depot Manager Paul O’Rourke to discuss the company’s decision to invest in a plasma cutting machine.
Gavin told us “BM Steel is a long-established organisation and a fully accredited JOSCAR supplier. We have a long history of stocking and supplying top quality steel products, but often our customers would need to send the products somewhere else to be cut, where more intricate cutting work was required for their project.
“Being able to conduct more of that processing work in-house means that we can greatly increase our service offering to our customers, reducing lead times for them while enhancing the skill set of our team and adding another revenue stream.”
Why did we choose the Esprit Automation machine?
“In our research phase, we evaluated several cutting machines from a variety of manufacturers. We were blown away by the quality and accuracy of the Esprit Automation Lightning HD machine.
“The machine has True Hole technology, which ensures that cuts made at 90° to the surface will remain at 90° throughout the depth of the material. This means that if the cutter is used to cut circular holes in a piece of material, the diameter of the circle at the top surface of the material will be exactly the same as the diameter of the exit circle at the bottom, as well as consistently throughout in-between. Other solutions that we looked at, using water cutting systems, just couldn’t guarantee the same level of accuracy.
“The Esprit Automation plasma cutters also produce guaranteed smooth surfaces on cut materials, meaning that we’re required to perform very little finishing of products once they’re cut.
“Finally, we found that the Procut CAD/CAM software was excellent, really easy to use and integrated seamlessly with the Lightning HD because it’s purpose-designed by the same company.”
Looking to the future
BM Steel are rapidly increasing their in-house processing capabilities across their business, and will be further expanding the range of services that they can offer over the coming months.
With this new plasma cutting capability, they have bypassed intermediate stages and arrived decisively at the front of the pack.
We’ll be back on site with BM soon to unveil their next big investment. Watch this space. 👀
You can find out more about the extensive range of products and services that BM Steel offer by visiting their website: www.bmsteel.co.uk
You can find out more about the Lightning HD plasma cutter discussed in this article, visit the Esprit Automation website: espritautomation.com/lightning-hd
If you have further queries about the plasma cutting services now available at BM Steel, you can connect with Gavin Morrison on LinkedIn or contact BM Steel using the contact details on their website.
