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1998 Stainless Steel Awards Welding
WINNER: STEN PRODUCTS
Sten Products has designed, developed and built its own catalytic converter shell, high speed welding line, mainly in the use of 409 ferritic stainless steel. Since starting the project, the company is now building its 9th machine and each machine is capable of welding a shell within 35 seconds. Sten Products has also designed and built its own tube manufacturing equipment for both ferritic and austenetic stainless steel. Five to six years ago, Sten embarked on a Research and Development Programme to find a simple way of manufacturing catalytic converter shells of all shapes and sizes, mainly round and trapezoidal, in grade 409 stainless steel. The process used overseas, in the main, is to manufacture the shell off a high tech tube mill, after which the trapezoid is cut to length from the tube. The tube mill required to achieve this process costs approximately R15 million. Of course, this was way beyond the company’s means, especially when one considers that each shape requires a dedicated set of tubing rolls, which would cost R800 000 to R1 million per set. Taking this factor into consideration, Sten Products embarked on developing a simple process which allows trapezoids to be welded together on a dedicated welding machine with the assistance of a simple system of forming and sizing dies, which are used to hold the shell in position while the welding process is undertaken. A cell capable of producing 280 shells per hour consists of a cut-to-length and sizing facility, a forming machine and three specialised welding units costing a total of R480 000 (South African Rand) for the total cell. To date four forming units have been built, with the fifth unit completed in August 1998, for producing shells for various customers who complete the manufacturing process and export the finished catalytic converters to various countries.
STEN PRODUCTS Tel No: +27 41 54 5524
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