When asked what makes Krakow-based BTH Import Stal special, board member Tomasz Kotarba says: “Family. We are a family-owned business and our 300 employees are an extension of that family. Unlike many of our competitors who are simply part of larger shareholder driven corporations, we have the flexibility to respond to market trends. We also have the freedom to invest in our staff and equipment regularly to ensure we maintain our industry leading position.”
While at the outset BTH Import Stal was a stockholder of stainless steel, the business has developed and now focuses more on adding value, supplying pre-processed material, semi-finished and finished products by developing its capabilities with the introduction of laser cutting, bending, and coil processing.
“Added value production is becoming a larger part of our business – the more we process, the happier we are,” Mr Kotarba adds
The company currently operates from a 30,000m² in Krakow, with ambitious plans to double that within the next three years, while also increasing the 75,000 tonnes of acid resistant and stainless steel that it processes on an annual basis.
“From a commercial aspect doing business with Timesavers is a pleasure; the people are nice to deal with and they are open to do business,” comments Mr Kotarba. “Technically, they are also excellent; we rarely have need to contact the service department, but if we do the response is fast and efficient. As part of our plans to double the size of the factory, we intend to invest in a second line and Timesavers will be our supplier of choice.”
The relationship has seen a sheet-to-sheet processing line installed in 2007, now fondly known as the Grandma line due to its longevity and reliability, as well as standalone grinding and surface finishing machines, such as the 42 Series deburring and grinding machine.
The success of these machines made the decision straightforward when BTH Import Stal wanted to increase capacity and capability by introducing a coil-to-coil line. “The Grandma line has been running successfully since 2007 thanks to the solid, yet simple design of the Timesavers machines. The long life of these machines and the fact that in some respects the Timesavers technology is timeless made the decision an easy one and we probably wouldn’t have considered another supplier,” Mr Kotarba affirms.
The new coil-to-coil line features two Timesavers 71 series machines, one equipped with twin wide abrasive belts for finishing and the second fitted with twin brushes for fine finishing operations.
The decision was founded on improving efficiency and productivity. Both Timesavers 71 series machines can operate independently. Depending on the surface finish specified by the customer, and subject to the thickness of the material, a coil can contain up to 1.5km of stainless steel, which can be processed without interruption or manual intervention.
“Processing coil material is much more efficient than sheet-to-sheet both in terms of throughput and production costs,” says Tomasz Kotarba. “Consumable costs are reduced as we find the abrasive belts last much longer, and the productivity gains we can achieve will see costs reduced by 50% in some cases.”
Both machines are operated under ‘wet’ conditions, with the abrasive belts and material subjected to coolant delivered at every stage. Therefore, a washing/drying unit is installed in the line prior to the material be re-coiled.
Using a wet process may seem out of step with modern environmental thinking, but Mr Kotarba disagrees: “Wet grinding is often viewed as old technology and less friendly to the environment, but we see it as having distinct advantages in the manufacturing process. We can achieve better and more consistent finish on the material we are processing when grinding with coolant – a particular advantage when processing coil. It also reduces the number of abrasive belts that we use compared to dry grinding, which is a positive outcome in environmental terms.”
The machines are capable of producing a variety of surface finishes including Duplo, Microlon and Hairline in stainless steel materials. Control of the 71 Series is via the easy-to-use Siemens man/machine control interface which enables the operator to control every aspect of the process while maintaining a good line of sight to the material being fed into the machine.
“The versatility and ease-of-use of the Timesaver machines ensures that we can meet the demands of our customers who operate in a diverse selection of industries including architectural, medical, food processing and construction,” Mr Kotarba explains.
“The investments we have made have created a flexibility that our competitors are unable to match and that is something that is appreciated by customers, who are confident that we can deliver on our promises. We are focused on providing clients with a first-class service and a ‘can do’ attitude means a customer will never hear us say ‘we can’t do that’ because we can and will constantly strive to meet their requirements.”
In the UK, Timesavers is represented by Christchurch-based Ellesco.
Ellesco www.ellesco.co.uk
Timesavers www.timesaversint.com
