Teräselementti strengthens its tube laser cutting service operations
Teräselementti Oy is enhancing its service offering in tube laser cutting. Alongside its tube laser capable of cutting 18-metre steel profiles, the company invested in the autumn in a machine with a capacity of 12.5 metres. The machine enables fast and versatile processing of components, says Product Manager Manu Heinämäki.
Teräselementti is traditionally known in the market as an implementer of large-scale steel structure projects in the construction sector, and the company has specialised in their processing and production since 1964. Its offering includes steel halls and contract manufacturing of steel frames, and in recent years the company has also developed its operations around façade and glass structures as well as other façade products.
The products are individual, and they are often designed, manufactured and installed as complete packages. Implementations of these products can be seen throughout Finland, and naturally in particularly large numbers in the company’s home region of Pirkanmaa. Near the company’s premises in Lempäälä stands one well-known large-scale example, Ideapark. The company generates annual turnover of approximately EUR 35 million, and employs around 120 people in total across design, production and installation.
Finland’s largest tube laser
Teräselementti is an implementer of steel structures, but today its operations also strongly include metal subcontracting. In this context, this means the provision of tube laser cutting services.
A few years ago, the company invested in a BLM Adige LT24 tube laser, which can cut steel profiles up to 18 metres long and 20 mm thick. Serving both the company’s own production and strongly supporting its service offering, the machine is the largest of its kind in Finland and among the leading machines in its class also in the Nordic countries. Customers include processors of large tubes and profiles in machine and equipment manufacturing as well as in the process industry.
The machine enables various cutting operations in a large size category. For round profiles, the maximum processing diameter is 610 mm, and for square tube profiles it is 450×450 mm.
A key aspect in practical production is that the machine also makes bevels in beams, reducing the need for further welding in heavy structures.
The new LT8 Compact model
Teräselementti is currently further developing its tube laser cutting service offering.
At the end of last year, the company invested in a new BLM tube laser cutting machine in a slightly smaller size category, the LT8 Compact model. The machine can be loaded with 12.5-metre blanks, which can be cut into parts up to 7.5 metres long. The material thickness for processing is 12 millimetres.
“The machine is a new model from the Italian manufacturer BLM, and it was first introduced to the market at the end of 2019. In Finland, and more broadly in the Nordic region as well, Teräselementti’s machine is the first of its kind. In addition to the new size category, it includes new technical features. One example is the new loading device, which is well suited for processing individual beams and profiles,” says Managing Director Pasi Pitkänen from Fredko, BLM Group’s representative in Finland. Fredko supplied the new machine to Teräselementti, just as it did the large LT24 model a few years earlier.
Fast and versatile
At Teräselementti, the background to the machine acquisition was particularly the need to increase efficiency in service operations for cutting smaller components.
“The machine’s advantage is above all its speed. We are able to cut smaller-size components significantly faster than before, which increases production throughput,” says Manu Heinämäki. “As a whole, the new acquisition complements our service and develops it further,” says Manu Heinämäki. Like the larger machine, the LT8 is equipped with a bevel head, and the machine can process a wide range of materials from carbon steel and stainless steel to aluminium, copper and brass.
Quality in the company’s service offering is further increased by shot blasting all components before cutting.
“One of our advantages is that versatile processing of open profiles is also handled smoothly. The machine can cut tube, U and L profiles, and in the future, processing of H profiles will also be possible. As the implementation of markings on components is nowadays very important, part and assembly identifiers as well as, for example, heat numbers can also be marked on the parts smoothly,” summarises Manu Heinämäki, who is responsible for tube laser sales at Teräselementti.
