Hi Folks,

The past few months have been exciting for some of us and catastrophic for others. What with rugby wins and losses (Go the Bay, and let's not talk about the All Blacks), Olympic successes and disappointments, floods and tornados, life has been far from boring!
Whether we like it or not, business is impacted by these events, and opportunities are available to those innovative organizations who are able to think outside the square.

One of the key factors of success in any business is the development of its people. In this update on our activities we have included some of the ways AIE is ensuring we have the right people with the right skills and attitude to deliver high quality engineering solutions to our customers for many years to come.

Thanks again for your support as a supplier to our business, and I wish you a successful second half of 2004!...

Mark Lovegrove - General Manager

Click on these links to take you straight to the articles:

We do whatever it takes to get the job done!

If this was Tony Soprano, and that was a gun, its time to run.
But this is Karl Duxfield, AIE welding and fabrication team leader and he has just taken delivery of a worn out dirty fractured log crane.
Karl and his team were given the task of restoring this crane to as good as new in seven days, and if getting very dirty to start with was part of it, that was what we did. The crane was from Kinleith, with AIE doing the work in association with ABB, who project managed the job on behalf of Carter Holt Harvey.

After cleaning and blasting to bare metal, a thorough structural examination was carried out of the main structural components to locate areas requiring repair.

Whole sections of the crane were able to fit with ease in AIE machine tools.

 

This picture shows new pivot eyes being line bored in our large floor borer.

 

 

The range of AIE machine tools allows for larger jobs to have multiple machines working on the same job at the same time, reducing the overall time the equipment is out of action.

After fabrication and welding, accuracy of machining assured the assembly was in alignment and easily put back together.

Early morning loaded ready to go, and within seven days!

The job Karl and the AIE team have worked around the clock to complete, rolls out the doorway, restored and ready to deliver many more years of use for another happy customer.

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Training young people key to our future

If you are involved in the employment of trades people, you will appreciate the difficulty many companies in New Zealand face with trying to recruit people who have good hands-on skills that are able to refurbish and maintain modern plant and equipment.

At Allied, we realize that having people with excellent skills and the right attitude is absolutely critical to our success. We currently have one 3rd year and one 1st year apprentice, and are in the process of signing up a new apprentice. We also assist some of our customers by training their apprentices in our machine shop, and have recently had one apprentice learn the basics of CNC machine operation.

Scott Whyte, who is nearing the completion of his first year, started with us as a TA for a school holiday job, and was soon offered an apprenticeship. He was keen to learn, and excited at the prospect of joining the AIE team. He says that he enjoys seeing finished products that are created from steel bars and plate, and loves the variety that engineering provides.

Scott is keen on Motocross, and can be seen here getting some air over a jump in Taupo. He recently competed in the Tarawera 100.

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Crack Testing capabilities expanded

One of the critical factors in the quality of refurbished plant is the integrity of the parent material. As plant life is extended, there can be a higher risk of cracking, potentially leading to catastrophic failure. Over the years AIE has been increasingly involved in testing for signs of cracking prior to repairs being made.

Last year, Wayne Erdbeer, our Quality Assurance/Planning Manager, attended a HERA course in Surface Methods of Inspection to increase the skills and knowledge we have in doing NDT work.

We are often asked to carry out NDT inspections using either dye penetrant, magnetic particle, or florescent dye methods. Included with this service is a full inspection report including photos of any crack found.

This photo shows the crane boom from the project outlined above after crack testing using the dye penetrant method.

Tip to stop procrastination:
"Reduce interruptions. Many interruptions are caused by people checking to see why something hasn't happened. Gain a reputation for doing things on time and you will be interrupted less"

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Recording engineering information key for good plant reliability

With changes of people on a site, and plant modifications and improvements happening on an on-going basis, it is important the plants have a good record of the equipment they have. More and more customers are using the services of our draughting team for:

  • Site measurement of existing plant and equipment
  • Re-design of components which give improvement in plant reliability
  • As-builts of newly manufactured items.

Simon, Bob and Jim all have a trade background, and combined experience of over 50 years in engineering. This means they can complete projects with minimal supervision from customers, can use the experience gained from other projects to provide better solutions, and are able to efficiently produce drawings that communicate what is required. They also are very well aware of the level of accuracy and detail required for various components of plant - i.e. some require specific machining tolerances and surface finishes (which cost more to produce), and some do not.

Photographic records are also becoming a very important part of retaining information about items of plant, and AIE has invested in a robust computer system which allows good information collection and retrieval. This means that customers can rest assure that if they need information on items of plant that we worked on it will be available for years to come.

A thought to leave you with:
"It is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude in life"

Have a great day, and thanks for taking to time to find out more about what AIE can do for you. 

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