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STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNER FOR THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR

By ASD Westok in Article

The agriculture industry is one of the major industries in the UK. The total income from the sector in 2020 was over £5.1 billion according to the data released by the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs. In 2020, the sector contributed £10,240 million to the UK economy, making up 0.52% of the GDP.

This sector uses various metals to help create the structures, equipment and tools needed for efficient functioning. Let’s take a look at the unique metal requirements of the industry and how we at Kloeckner help cater to their specific needs.

Understanding the Needs of The Sector

The agriculture sector has specific needs when it comes to their metal requirements. One major necessity for the industry is steel products that are highly durable, hard wearing, heavy duty and abrasion resistant. The metals used need to be strong so that they are able to resist wear and corrosion. At the same time, they also need to be easy to cut, weld and shape in order to be used to create the right tools and equipment to support the industry.

Product and Service Solutions for the Agriculture Industry

Kloeckner supplies a number of products that are designed to be used in the agriculture industry.  These products are utilised in production of vehicles and vehicle equipment, axle and suspensions, forestry equipment and landscape protection. Here is what we offer the industry:

For Agricultural Buildings

We supply universal beams, columns and channels, mild steel angles and flats, hollow sections and Magnelis for agricultural buildings.

Magnelis® is a metallic steel coating which provides surface protection in a variety of applications against long-term wear and tear. What’s more, Magnelis can also be folded, bent and formed and offers a uniform, consistent quality and finish.

For Agricultural Vehicles, Equipment and Storage

We supply FineXcell high grade tubular products which offers a weight saving solution that can be used within agricultural vehicles and equipment. The product is made with high strength, fine-grain steel that is known to offer good impact toughness and excellent weldability. In addition to FineXcell we also stock material of Hardox equivalent including 400HBW, 450HBW, S690 and RQT701.

Our stock also includes:

  • Hollow sections
  • Profiled or laser cut sheets and plates
  • Mild steel angles
  • Flat bars and
  • Stainless steel sections, sheets and plates

Corrosion resistant materials like stainless steel have multiple advantages. Unlike galvanised steel, the corrosion resistance of stainless steel stays the same over the whole lifecycle of the product. It is very easy to clean which is especially useful in dairy farms where the microbiological quality of raw milk is essential.

Stainless steel sheets and plates are mainly used for building grain stores and storage tanks for the agriculture industry.

Paddock systems, fencing and gates also use tubes made of stainless steel due to its easy clean properties. In addition, its weldability, formability and bend properties make it an ideal material for the fabricators.

Stainless steel is also more forgiving of the harsh environments that can be found within the agricultural sector. On site welding repairs to mild steel farming equipment are seldom as good as the original product whereas stainless steel is much easier to work with as it its inherent corrosion resistance needs no additional application of protective coating to restore its weather resistant properties, making it a more interesting and cost-effective solution to mild steel in many applications.

How We Deliver Excellence to the Agriculture Sector

To support the agricultural sector, we offer a wide range of value-added services that allows for bespoke solutions to all the sector’s needs. We invest heavily in the latest machinery and handling equipment which allows us to offer both volume and small batch profiling with a competitive lead time.

Our site at Dudley is equipped with a LT14 3D Laser that can process hollow sections, beams, columns, angles, channels and split tees up to 355mm round and 15.5m in length. This size can help with a variety of jobs for green goods such as creating machine trailers and attachments as we are able to cut in one-piece box sections. Our LT14 laser is complemented by our LT722 and LT8 tube lasers which can process a variety of materials including aluminium and stainless steel.

We have recently invested in ring rolling and tube bending equipment enabling us to offer a variety of structural sections, solid flat bar, round and square bars and also hollow sections rolled into rings, hoops or with more complex multi-bends for a variety of end uses.

Our Durham site is equipped with HD Plasma Profiling machines that offer High Definition Plasma and Oxy-Fuel Profiling processes. These machines are able to offer large area cutting with a high level of accuracy up to 80mm thick, and through the Oxy-Fuel process we are able to cut plates up to 200mm thick. These services are complemented by our on-site drilling and edge preparation abilities.

We make sure we constantly expand our stock profile so we can offer the latest solutions to our clients in the agriculture industry. Currently, our stock profile includes steel sections which can be used to make heavy duty, abrasion-resistant frames meaning we can ensure that the parts required for machinery are much more durable.