Precision leveler opens up new business opportunities for carbon steel fabricator

The FlatMaster 140 from ARKU can level parts, sheets, and plates up to 1.8 in. (45 mm) thick. This before-and-after picture shows two steel plates. The one on the left has been leveled and is now within flatness specification. It is also stress-relieved. The plate on the right shows the material’s curved nature before the leveling process takes place.

Situation

Located near Toronto, Brannon Steel supplies carbon steel parts to more than 40 OEMs and fabricators in such industries as off-road construction equipment, power generation, and rail. As a one-stop shop for carbon steel, Brannon covers the whole steel fabrication process, from cutting, beveling, forming, and machining to kitting and leveling.

When founder Tom Brannon set up his oxyfuel cutting business in 1968, he was a pioneer in Ontario. He quit his job, sold his house, and moved into an apartment with his family so he could open a 2,000-sq.-ft. metal job shop employing four people. That bold move paid off: Today the company employs 200 workers in a 200,000-sq.-ft. facility.

For more than 40 years, Brannon Steel used plate rolling for leveling parts. But over time, what was once the latest technology became a hindrance rather than an accelerator.

“With the plate roll, you basically chase the flatness deformations out of the parts. It takes several runs to get rid of them. This is time-consuming and labor-intensive,” said Kirk Brannon, Tom’s cousin and current president. “As our orders grew, parts began to pile up in front of the plate roll.”

The need for a more efficient solution became pressing. On top of that, technological advances on the customer side called for a technological ramp-up on Brannon’s end. However, Kirk isn’t one to act rashly.

First, he thoroughly evaluated the options for new machines, always carefully weighing their potential added value. “We were looking for a machine that would really be an asset to our processes. But we were skeptical about the performance of most of the equipment on the market,” he added.

Resolution

In 2019 Brannon decided to purchase the FlatMaster 140 precision leveler from ARKU. “We were convinced that the machine would deliver what it promised. Today, that has been confirmed: The FlatMaster significantly adds to the quality of our products,” Kirk said.

The machine’s large alternating leveling rollers bend both the top and the underside of the parts several times in one go. “That really removes the flatness deformations. In addition, this technology relieves the internal stress on the parts, which in turn increases the efficiency of downstream processes,” he explained.

To assess the leveler’s performance, Brannon closely monitored its output. Within eight months, the machine had leveled more than 25,000 pieces from 300 different parts. Compared to the previous machinery, Brannon has seen a 40% reduction in throughput times without compromising on its versatility in forming parts of all shapes and sizes.

But according to Kirk, there is another factor that has taken production at Brannon to the next level. With the plate roll, the company could characterize its parts solely as “being flat or nonflat,” Kirk recalled. The leveler, however, makes it possible to adjust flatness tolerances, which has substantially boosted the company’s leveling precision. “Now we can even ask our customers, ‘How flat do you want it?’” he added. Additionally, the simultaneous stress-relieving of parts, sheets, and plates makes downstream processing much more efficient.

(From left) Kirk Brannon, president at Brannon Steel; Stephen Alfieri, sales manager at Brannon Steel; and Nathan Brown, sales manager at ARKU Inc., discuss how the shop’s new leveling capabilities will affect its business.

For the company, this isn’t just another fancy setting option but a major asset in its metal processing portfolio. As the team has observed, robotic welding has increasingly established itself on the shop floors of Brannon’s OEM customers. “It has doubled in the past two years,” Kirk estimated. “So that our customers can fully profit from the advantages robotic welding offers, parts need to feature the highest precision in terms of flatness and stress-relieving. That’s something we can only deliver with the FlatMaster.”

Its new leveling expertise has contributed to Brannon’s business on various levels. One of its products, for example, is a massive underframe for tow trucks. This heavy part has to be formed precisely to provide maximum stability for the vehicle. “We used to have some rejections from our customers in the past,” Kirk explained. “Now we can level the parts more precisely before we form them.”

Along with enhancing existing business, the machine has another benefit: While leveling used to be a single step in an internal process, Brannon now also offers it as a stand-alone service. “No one was offering leveling services for carbon steel in Ontario before. We’re happy to fill that gap,” Kirk said.