When you have the machinery and engineering experience, what have you got to lose by tapping into those resources and exploring and growing your in-house manufacturing capabilities? That’s the philosophy embraced by family-run business DTS Security Products as next generation family member Andrew Schmidt adds his touch to the business.

DTS Security Products, based in Spartan, Kempton Park, started out as an industrial hardware retail store but the family-run business has continued to evolve over the years and today boasts full in-house fabrication facilities that include fiber laser cutting, CAD work, bending and CNC turning.

The core focus of the business still remains where it started once the hardware store was sold off – manufacturing a range of security products – but now the company has taken its experience of fabrication and again spread its wings.

DTS Security Products have boosted their manufacturing capabilities by venturing into fabricating container conversions, including modification of the container skid bases – and pretty much everything else involved with modifying a container. These containers can be used for a number of different storage options

“We have been very fortunate to have continually experienced growth over the years and this has culminated into a move into our new facilities. The move has seen us go from 1 500m2 to 3 000m2,” explains Andrew Schmidt, son of one of the original founding members of the business, Linton Schmidt.

“Part of the reason we needed to move was that we had simply run out of space because of a new venture the company had decided to get into – fabricating container conversions, including modification of the container skid bases – and pretty much everything else involved with modifying a container. It’s a turnkey product that means we essentially rebuild the container from the bottom up, welding, painting and installing IsoBoard. It’s a very manual process and involves a lot of traditional fabrication as you can imagine.”

“These containers can be used for a number of different storage options and these are specified by our customers. For instance, we are busy with a conversion project now where the container will be able to hold a significant amount of battery storage. This particular container will be a 6m high cubed container with dimensions of 2.9m x 6m x 2.4m and once finished it will weigh in the region of 34 tons.”

The company have recently installed a Bodor 12kW fiber laser that was supplied by Spectrum Machine Tools Africa. It has a bed size of 3 000mm by 1 500mm

“There is nothing standard about these container conversions – they will all be to client specifications and will have different requirements depending on the industry we will supply them into or the environment where they will be situated. These containers can also be stacked on top of each other to provide even greater storage options as well as space saving options, again this depends on what the customer wants or needs as a solution.”

“We are able to source the containers ourselves, but often the customer will supply them directly to us. Another custom solution we can provide is to work with bigger containers that we can then kit out with an internal crane in order for the customer to move whatever may be stored in the container around inside the container easily.”

“Being a turnkey solution, the containers are fully waterproof and we have done a lot of research into the paint we will apply for instance as this will affect the longevity as well as the general appearance of the container.”

DTS Security Products’ KIATURN 21LM is still a workhorse on the shop floor helping to manufacture their range of gate wheels

“I suppose you could say that this was a bit of a natural evolution for us because we had already been custom manufacturing enclosure solutions – so why not make bigger ones?”

“Even though we have decided to really start pushing our manufacturing capabilities – I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade and am currently completing my Masters – we have still kept our core focus on manufacturing our range of components for our range of security products.”

“These include our gate motors, gate wheels, garage door openers, electric fencing that incorporates various kinds of flat, round and square bars and tubes, rainshields, nylon and steel racks, base plates, goosenecks, angle brackets, battery boxes as well as various accessories and spares.”

“Our Amada Vipros 2510 King turret punch press is still working as it always has though we are using it differently these days – for the manufacturing of some of our polycarbonate components. I don’t think there are many people out there that would be using a turret punch for manufacturing polycarbonate components but we have found it works very well.”

“The range also includes various receivers and transmitters, alarms, as well as the accompanying PC boards needed to run the components. We basically manufacture everything related to these products other than doing our own injection moulding. We even manufacture motorcycle wheel chocks now.”

“We haven’t needed to do too much in the way of capital equipment investment in recent years but we have recently installed a Bodor 12kW fiber laser that was supplied by Spectrum Machine Tools Africa. It has a bed size of 3 000mm by 1 500mm and has helped immensely with our cutting capabilities for our range of sheet metal enclosures. We will be using it for the cutting of our range of racks too. We are generally processing in the 0.8mm to 6.5mm range in aluminium and we will go up to 10mm in mild steel. Of course, we are also able to do custom cutting depending on customer requirements and this is why we went for a higher spec optical output power for the laser.”

“At the same that we purchased the new fiber laser we also decided to invest in a 3kW Bodor Aqu Series self-cooling handheld laser welder and we have some exciting and innovative uses for it.”

The company has full in-house electrical assembly capabilities for its range of security products

“Our Amada Vipros 2510 King turret punch press is still working as it always has though we are using it differently these days – for the manufacturing of some of our polycarbonate components.”

“I don’t think there are many people out there that would be using a turret punch for manufacturing polycarbonate components but we have found it works very well for manufacturing insulation components for one of our customers. We have also used it for shelving components. There is a little bit more involved when it comes to keeping it clean in terms of how it processes polycarbonate as opposed to sheet metal, but the results we are able to achieve for what we are doing are great.”

Father and son, Linton and Andrew Schmidt

“Are far as future plans go, we are currently installing our own powder coating plant and are in the process of developing an app that will allow you to control some of our security products.”

“There is nothing that I will say to a customer that I can’t do. I would rather try and find a solution and make it work,” concluded Schmidt.

For further details contact DTS Security Products on TEL: +27 11 392 5540 or visit https://dtssecurity.co.za