WIRED FOR SUCCESS 30 July 2016 M A C H I N E R Y Walking through the massive 52,000 square foot Sockburn workshop and you sense the Kiwi engineering No. 8 wire that has come before. Like tracking the growth of a child’s height with lines on a door frame, South Fence’s rich Kiwi engineering heritage is shown through a wide assortment of variously aged machines: mostly Okuma. It’s not a graveyard though, more of a fully-functional machining Mecca. All the machines are still in use, and get put to good use. “It’s fair to say South Fence has had a long relationship with the Okuma brand,” co-director Martin Neill tells Engineering News with a welcoming southern smile. And he’s quick to point out, “our growth has come with a need for new machines and when it comes to that, and in today’s engineering environment, it’s what comes after the purchase that really counts today.” The company has invested heavily as international demand has grown for its quality Kiwi-made wire fence machinery and associated equipment. Saying that South Fence is churning out machinery would not do credit to the quality, but with at least three machines a year on the books and high demand from overseas sources, Mr Neill knows that schedule is everything and down time is not an option. Co-directors Martin Neill, left, and Ben Byers with their new Okuma MU6300V-L CNC machining centre. taking up floor space, instead explaining that every machine has to produce parts that are a match for the machining capability available, allowing more efficient production of parts at the limits of the machines machining envelope. “We have to find the most efficient and cost-effective ways to produce our machines to meet our current market and production demands. With the new Okuma MU6300V-L we’ve removed the small - medium sized parts from our larger machines and some of the more complex parts from our machining centres, streamlining the production process. We now have all bases covered and have the right machine for the job, big or small.” Having a wide range of machining options also means the company can tailor each machine’s specifications to suit customer requirements, while also being able to offer a wider range of general engineering services to the wider Canterbury region. “Every year we are expected to design and manufacture increasingly complex production machine solutions. To ensure we can use the current CAD/CAM packages efficiently and to continue producing the complex parts required to achieve this, our machine technology and machining techniques must be at the multi-axis/ multi-tasking machine level,” explains Mr Byers, South Fence Machinery: Christchurch-based South Fence Machinery knows the lay of the engineering land well, and it was ‘real estate’ and the need to maximise it that ultimately saw the investment in a brand new Okuma MU6300V-L 5-axis vertical machining centre - it’s done more than fill the gap. “We have to know that if anything goes wrong there are places, people and parts to turn to. We get that from Okuma. Sure, the new machines we now have on site are faster, more functional and outperform previous models, however machine performance is only a small part of what our business needs from such heavy investment. Back up service and support is critical after the initial investment has been made,” says Mr Neill. South Fence is the only New Zealand Company to manufacture a complete suite of wire fence machines – fixed knot, hinge joint and stiff stay, covering almost every fencing need from camels in desert sands to cows in gentle pastures; from deer in alpine meadows to security alongside motorways, rail tracks or surrounding buildings. Co-director Ben Byers is in total agreement, explaining that for them it’s about getting as much as they can from what they have got through maximising efficiencies. “All of these machines are basically real estate,” he explains, gesturing at the pure physical sizes of two older Okuma machines on site: MCV-A and MCR-A double column machining centres, both still playing a major part in the manufacture of necessary components for their wire machines. But Mr Byers isn’t talking purely of the machine The machines that make the machines: Okuma features strongly in the massive Christchurch factory, with machines that may look from a past engineering environment, however both large Okuma units still manufacture the quality frame parts today, ensuring South Fence can continue to produce internationally recognised wire fence machinery.
EN-Jul16
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