Cape Metal Pressings, based in Capricorn Business Park in Cape Town, has recently reaffirmed itself as a preferred component supplier to leading brands in the automotive industry including Gabriel.
With a combined total of 130 years of experience in the tool making and metal pressings industries, Cape Metal Pressings is poised to chalk up any future market share the global automotive industry may send South Africa’s way, which, judging by OEM investments over the last year, is a trend set to continue for the South African automotive industry.
While the global automotive market clambers and wrestles with the imminent onslaught of more reliable electric vehicles, many markets, including the African one, will still be using standard combustion engines for quite some time to come.
Gerald Stark, owner and managing member of Cape Metal Pressings and the new 200 ton YANGLI press
Cape Metal Pressings recently expanded its operations even further with the addition of a new Yangli 200 ton Metal Press, supplied by Coastal Engineering Supplies in Cape Town.
The new machine extends the existing range of presses to 14 presses, that range from 30 to 200 tons. All of these are fitted with decoilers and feeders.
“Coastal Engineering Supplies have supplied all our presses from the beginning 25 years ago. The first few presses were supplied by George Hintenaus and his son Albert has supplied the rest including the 200 ton this year, as well as the associated material handling and decoiling equipment. We commissioned four other new press lines about four years ago,” explained Gerald Stark, owner and Managing Member of Cape Metal Pressings.
Cape Metal Pressings manufactures small to medium size, high volume metal pressings for various industries including the shock absorber, motor industry, telecommunications, electrical and raised flooring industries, amongst others.
Various components manufactured by Cape Metal Pressings
Stark, himself a qualified tool and die maker with 35 years’ experience, continued: “The main reason for the investment is the extra workload from Gabriel shock absorbers. We were approached by Gabriel in late 2018 to take over the work that GUD company Precision Press had been supplying as GUD moved their manufacturing operation to Port Elizabeth. We also supply SJM in Port Elizabeth monthly with some pressings for the catalytic convertor industry.”
“We will consolidate the current work and new Gabriel work into 2020, and look for more business in the motor industry next year. It is probably the country’s and world’s worst trading conditions in 25 years, far surpassing the 2008 crash, and having just invested in new plant, machinery and premises, we will be selective in our choosing of new work.”
Cape Metal Pressings manufactures a wide range of metal pressings in many different materials including different grades of mild steel, stainless steel, brass, copper, aluminium and plastic. ISO 9001 compliant since October 2001 (and currently compliant with ISO 9001:2015), Cape Metal Pressings prides itself on quality control with stringent measures and procedures in place for quality management.
This quality management extends well within the company itself too with all production press tools being designed in house on AutoCAD, and manufactured in their own tool room. This includes tool maintenance. Further to this, records are kept on tool history and performance, with tool designs and drawings being stored electronically for easy reference.
Components manufactured by Cape Metal Pressings for Gabriel
“We have two wire EDM’s that run under a separate company – Precision Wire Cut Services. We use them for cutting our new tools and they also do outside work for other companies. We also have a range of rotary and vibratory finishers to complement the stamping process.” The company also offers projection welding, spot welding and riveting and assembly work.”
“We built our first factory of 750m2 in 2006 and the second of 725m2 in 2013. We have recently purchased the factory and land next door which will allow us to erect a new factory of 500m2, thereby adding to the existing 250m2, giving us another 750m2. This will be used as the main receiving and stores areas for raw material coils and finished goods, as well as for press tools. In total this will bring our under roof area up to 2 225m2 and all three factories will be linked for forklift access.”
As a company that is not just customer-focused, Cape Metal Pressings has grown from strength to strength in the last decade and now employs 50 people today, up from 20 in 2006.
Cape Metal Pressings manufactures between 1.5 and 1.7 million parts per month, which equates to approximately 30 to 40 tons per month. Exports consist of about 30% of production, and components are exported to Lesotho, Poland, Sweden, North America, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.
Cape Metal Pressings is a level 8 B-BBEE contributor.
For further details contact Cape Metal Pressings on +27 (0)21 709 0512 or visit https://www.capemetalpressings.co.za
