Rebuilding and reconditioning is an important line of business for users of construction, earth-moving and agricultural equipment. For the equipment owners and operators, rebuilding makes economic sense, particularly with regard to the hydraulic components. Since 2006, rebuilding has been in such demand at U & L Engineering that it has now added CNC machining capabilities to its shop, in order to fulfill its requirements.
Among the critical components now installed at U & L engineering is a Hurco TM12 CNC heavy duty lathe that has a travel of 305 x 1016 mm, a maximum turning diameter of 550 mm, turning length of 1000 mm, a bar capacity of 102 mm and a spindle of 2.8k, 604 Nm @ 870 rpm.
“This is the biggest lathe sold by Hurco in South Africa and it is one of the first machines to be installed in South Africa with the re-branded livery, that was only launched a few months ago,” said Ulrich Olivier U & L Engineering’s owner.
“We chose the Hurco because of the power and flexibility of the integrated Hurco control powered by WinMax®. The control can be programmed on the shop floor with Hurco’s patented conversational programming or industry standard NC,” continued Olivier.
The second major capital equipment purchase by U & L this year is a Sunnen HTA-4100 horizontal tube hone with a four metre stroke, allowing the company to resurface scratched and rusted cylinder barrels as well as manufacturing new barrels. The machine comes equipped with a powerful Siemens PLC with colour touch screen controls, electrical functions of the system in conjunction with standard push buttons and a joystick.
“This is the first time that we have ventured into the CNC domain. It became necessary for us to go this route because of the increased volume of orders that the company has experienced over the last few years. Bringing this previously outsourced machining work in-house has helped U & L to increase its revenues, add new staff and to improve delivery schedules and costs for customers.”
“These were the principles that the company was founded on in 2006 and we intend to maintain these principles going forward.”
The main focus of U & L Engineering today is refurbishing hydraulic cylinders. However, it was not so for the company in the beginning. At the tender age of 24 Olivier believed that he could start his own company, even if he did not have a product that he could sell or offer a service that was necessary to an end user.
What he did realise was that there was a need for refurbishing of wear parts and better still if he could do it ‘on the fly’ or onsite.
“Simple economics dictate that there are always going to be customers who are going to be rebuilding machines, especially in this economic climate. We have customers who are tearing down machines in the field and completely rebuilding them.”
“When I started I did not seek any work that required elaborate or complicated machining operations. It was simple cutting, turning and welding repairs to components that could be easily and quickly refurbished and returned to the customer. Of course this is the source of other more complicated and bigger requests and if I was going to progress then I would have to increase my service offerings.”
“Before I knew it I was renting a small factory in Anderbolt, Boksburg, took on my first two employees and purchased my own machines. One staff member was a machinist and the other was a turner and we acquired some conventional machines. That was in 2007.”
“I also purchased my first Sir Meccanica portable line boring and welding equipment. This gave us the opportunity to do the repairs or refurbishment onsite whereby we would carry out boring, overlay welding on inside and outside surfaces, and drilling and tapping operations. Offering this service eliminated the need to disassemble the equipment, reduced down time and avoided costly transport to a repair shop.”
“This side of the business has kept on growing over the years and compliments the machine shop in many ways. We now have seven sets of the Sir Meccanica equipment of varying sizes and configurations for different applications.”
“More importantly we have purchased two service vans that are permanently on the road servicing clients, both locally and cross border. You will be surprised at the locations that our vans have travelled to and what repair work they have carried out.”
Hydraulic cylinders
“Hydraulic cylinders are used in a multitude of applications and come in a number of different sizes. We have been repairing, refurbishing, rebuilding and manufacturing new hydraulic cylinders for several years including hydraulic cylinders for challenging applications in the most difficult of environmental conditions. We rebuild to OEM spec and now that we have the Sunnen HTA-4100 horizontal tube hone, supplied by Micron Technologies, we can salvage a cylinder with honing, and the cost and time for the customer is a fraction of replacement. In the current economy, customers appreciate this.”
“We can replace the barrel, rod, rod eyes, head/seal areas, hydraulic lines and connections, or custom-fabricate new cylinders to spec,” explained Olivier.
“We have worked on Sumitomo, Caterpillar, Hitachi, Komatsu, Terex, Kawasaki, Volvo Bell, Foxton, Doosan and Liebherr cylinders to name a few. On average we turn out about 130 a month and are looking to increase this figure. Depending on what has to be done our turnaround time is three to four days.”
“Stripping and assembly has its own building which also houses the test bench. All cylinders are supplied with a test certificate.”
“We have also built a new 600 m² building to house the Hurco lathe and the Sunnen tube hone, with a view to increasing our CNC machining capacity in the future. We installed a 15 ton capacity crane so we are well catered for in this area. It cost us over R400 000 to upgrade our electricity capacity, taking it from 100 amp to 250 amps.”
“The old machine shop consists six conventional lathes all equipped with DROs and we can turn up to three metres between centres, a TOS horizontal boring mill, as well as a Scharman 120 boring machine.”
“When repairing, refurbishing, rebuilding and manufacturing new hydraulic cylinders there are a number of ancillary components that need to be replaced or repaired. These include bushes, pins and others. Most of this work was shopped out but now that we have the Hurco this will all be done in-house. We have taken the decision not to manufacture on order but rather hold stock on these smaller components and this is where the Hurco will be very handy. It will give us the opportunity to machine our own shafts. Ultimately we are going to be able to machine to tighter tolerances, machine more and varied components and bring our costs down which we will pass onto the customers.”
“We are not limited to the cylinders and these components. We still refurbish a number of other wear parts, for example buckets, h-frames, dippers and other mining and construction equipment wear parts. A client can deliver his machine to us and we will strip, repair and assemble so they don’t have to have the hassle of finding service centres to complete the different operations.”
“If we need any grinding work done my wife runs a precision grinding shop in Apex Industrial, Gauteng so we send her the work.”
About U & L Engineering
When visiting U & L Engineering you do not get the impression that there is a relatively newly established machining and service shop that is on the rise because directions are to a small holding in Putfontein, Benoni, Gauteng. But once you drive down the gravel road, past the high walls and gates you get a very different impression. The company was formed in 2006 by Ulrich Olivier and in 2007 he employed his first two staff members. That same year Olivier rented his first factory in Anderbolt, Boksburg, Gauteng and purchased his initial manufacturing equipment.
In 2008 the company moved to the small holding taking up occupation in three relatively small garages. In 2009 the company built a 300 m² building, and in 2012 took occupation of a 320 m² building followed by a further expansion of a 600 m² building.
The company now employs 35 staff, which includes six turners, one machinist, three boilermakers, nine fitters, two job inspectors and one honing machinist.
Besides running a machine shop that caters for most of its needs the company is very active in onsite machining and welding, carries a stock of components, bar and tube and has an all important modern test bench to certify the hydraulic cylinders it has repaired, refurbished, rebuilt or manufactured.
For further details contact U & L Engineering on 082 311 6045.
Hydraulic cylinders are used in a multitude of applications and come in a number of different sizes
The new Hurco TM12 CNC heavy duty lathe that has a travel of 305 x 1016 mm, a maximum turning diameter of 550 mm, turning length of 1000 mm, a bar capacity of 102 mm and a spindle of 2.8k, 604 Nm @ 870 rpm
The new Sunnen HTA-4100 horizontal tube hone supplied by Micron Technologies that U & L Engineering has recently installed
Ulrich Olivier – U & L Engineering’s owner
“I also purchased my first Sir Meccanica portable line boring and welding equipment. This gave us the opportunity to do the repairs or refurbishment onsite whereby we would carry out boring, overlay welding on inside and outside surfaces, and drilling and tapping operations. Offering this service eliminated the need to disassemble the equipment, reduced down time and avoided costly transport to a repair shop.”
Stripping and assembly has its own building which also houses the test bench. All cylinders are supplied with a test certificate
The Hurco has been purchased to manufacture a number of ancillary components that need to be replaced or repaired. These include bushes, pins and others
Work being carried out on the TOS horizontal boring mill
A view of the original machine shop which houses the conventional equipment
