Game changing technology rewrites history
It is one thing to use technology, but it can be quite the gamechanger to trust in technology.
For D&T Hydraulics and Engineering’s General Manager Ben Moore, that is the core of how the business has become a leader in Laser Metal Deposition technology.
Ben said D&T Hydraulics repairs and manufactures hydraulic cylinders for heavy industrial applications.
“We are a local family-owned business celebrating 40 years serving Australia’s critical industries”
D&T Hydraulics are proof that taking a chance on technology can help evolve business leading them in the right direction towards the future.
D&T Hydraulics integrated Laser Metal Deposition four years ago as a response to industry demand for corrosive and abrasive wear solutions. The company manufactures, repairs and overhauls hydraulic cylinders. A major part of that process involves specialist coating repairs on critical components that make up a hydraulic cylinder.
“Historically, the repair processes have been environmentally unfriendly and extremely time consuming.
“To make matters worse, there is only a handful of facilities in the country who can do the historical bronze electric plating process, so we were experiencing lead times of up to 10 weeks to get components back to us. The mining industry doesn’t have time to wait that long for coating repair work,” Ben said.
In order to meet this demand, D&T researched the leading technologies for doing this type of repair process. Extreme High Laser Application (EHLA) Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) was a game-changer, and they found a company in Germany doing some amazing things with this technology.
From there, D&T Hydraulics decided to integrate the technology into their workshops. “We were the first company in the southern hemisphere to commercially utilise the technology. “Think of a 3D printer, printing components on a flat plate, but instead of printing new components, we print new material on top of existing parts”, Ben explained.
“First, we pre-machine the damaged surface. It’s important to remove all corrosive and abrasive wear, and any thermal spray coatings. We then load the component into our 3D printer and utilise a very high-powered laser, and specialised metal power, to add new material to the surface. Finally, we take the component and put it through specialised finishing equipment to achieve GD&T specifications.”, he added.
This technology has allowed D&T to improve their productivity significantly and minimise reliance on external suppliers. Today they have more control of their outputs by having all the processes in house. “We went from 10 weeks for one supplier down to 7 days - it has allowed the business to expand quite significantly in the past 5 years.”
Ben’s background is in manufacturing, with 15 years in the industry, starting with his Fitter/ Machinist apprenticeship with Hastings Deering in Rockhampton.
After his apprenticeship, he moved to Brisbane working at a technology incubator, which lead him back to regional Queensland and D&T Hydraulics.
“D&T has always had very strong history of identifying opportunities to increase efficiency and quality by installing modern technology, and we will continue to do that as the years progress, it is really essential.”
“It all comes back to having trust in the technology, having sufficient evidence to trust that the new coating technology will perform equal to or better than existing repair technologies.”
Ben said the company has had hundreds of parts that have been out in the field for many years and over that time you would expect a percentage of them to fail due to poor bondage adhesion.
However, thanks to the revolutionary technology, in the past three years they have not seen one case of poor bondage adhesion.
D&T Hydraulics are proof that taking a chance on technology can help evolve business leading them in the right direction towards the future.
For more information visit www.dthydraulics.com