Processing

Our BlueScope Distribution teams are experienced in handling and processing steel and aluminium coil products. With our processing capability, our teams can take large steel coils from the BlueScope mill, or aluminium coils from our trusted partner brands, and slit and recoil them to sizes our customers require, to suit their manufacturing needs.

Recoiling is the process of rewinding large coils into smaller coils to a desired weight. Slitting and recoiling is when a steel coil is fed through the slitter machine, cutting the coil into narrower strips using multiple sharp blades. These thin strips are then rewound or recoiled on the other end of the machine into smaller coils for efficient storage, transportation and manufacturing purposes. Slit recoils are used in many manufacturing applications, such as building products, HVAC, automotive components and many more.

Many customers use steel sheet and aluminium products in their manufacturing processes, such as turret punching or break press forming. Our shearing services enable our teams to cut steel and aluminium coils into sheet steel and stack in palletised packs for delivery, storage and utilisation on our customers’ machines.Our teams maintain stock of standard sheet sizes of popular products such as COLORBOND® steel coil, aluminium, hot rolled and cold rolled sheet. We can also discuss your business needs for other sizes of sheet, depending on your end-user product manufacturing requirement.

Steel plate is used in many heavy industrial applications, such as mining, transport, renewable energy, infrastructure and defence. Key to delivering on the timelines for these projects is the ability to reliably source processed steel plate components, for rapid final fabrication. Our BlueScope Distribution team is experienced in the supply of steel plate products such as XLERPLATE® steel, TRU-SPEC® steel and quenched and tempered steel plate products from BISALLOY®. We can coordinate your steel plate processing needs using our plasma cutting services, including cutting, drilling and bevelling options – enabling parts to be finished in one set up. Our plasma cutting services offer fast cutting, minimisation of waste material through nesting, shape generation using CAD/CAM, and can accurately cut long shapes and automated multi axis bevel. Our plasma processing transforms rectangular steel plates into components of specified shape and size, which are semi-finished and fit for fabrication by our customers. This can save our customers time and labour in their fabrication.

Our range of oxy cutting plate processing services provide our customers with flexible options, to have their steel cut the way they require. Many of our customers in manufacturing, transport and automotive, defence, infrastructure and agriculture utilise our oxy cutting services for their steel plate, as it offers a reliable and economical steel plate processing option perfect for many applications. Our teams can easily assist with shape generation using CAD/CAM and many of our customers find our oxy cutting services ideal for their heavy gauge steel plate needs.

Bevelling: Bevelling is a process which creates an angled edge required for optimum welding (often used when the plate needs to be rolled into a final shape).

Drilling: We can assist with pre-drilling holes into your steel plate to help speed up the fabrication process for your project.

Etching: Etching is the process of lightly scratching the surface of the steel to provide useful markings which help with welding and other additional work that needs to be done as part of future assembly. Talk to our team about marking your processed steel plate.

Other options: Counter sinking, tapping, milling, punching, hard stamping, and pin marking.

Setting the benchmark for quality, our aluminium router cutting is fast becoming the processing type of choice for leading aluminium industry segments, such as marine, transport and automotive components. Fully integrated with one of the world’s best in nesting-based manufacturing software, our aluminium router capability delivers the complete package in processed aluminium sheet. Router cutting will give your product component requirements a clean, high definition edge. The most complex shapes can be cut with precision, ease and accuracy, meaning less post cut finishing, saving your business time and money. Our router capability includes state of the art swarf extractor, automatic tool changing carousel, diamond head scriber for marking, and compatible software with autocad through DXF transfer. Typical applications for our aluminium router include marine, transport, architectural products, signage, handrail systems and louvre fabricators.

Our teams can help your business to test aluminium component designs by providing 3D prototypes produced from the drawing you supply. This can assist with testing that your die or component designs is fit for purpose prior to any major product investments on your part. Using 3D printing technology, our BlueScope Distribution team can create models for our customers to help save them time and money in the process of casting dies. This will help minimise the chance of errors in design and production, and allow for the component to be tested prior to manufacturing.

Our team understands the importance of waste reduction during the processing of aluminium and stainless steel sheets.
BlueScope Distribution offers the application of a temporary PE (Polyethylene) protective film to help minimise processing quality risks, reduce product wastage and improve processing efficiency.

Our plasma beamline processing capabilities offer our customers a range of structural steel processing options with a high level of accuracy and efficiency. 

Using state-of-the-art technology, we can pre-process structural steel products including welded beams, columns, plate, tube and merchant bar, supplying customers with semi-finished components ready for final fabrication and installation.

Beamline cutting options include:

• Square cut & mitre cutting
• Notches
• Bolt holes
• Slots
• Flange thinning
• Bevelling
• Merchant bar profiling
• Weld prep
• Centre & pop marks
• Text scribing

With this processing capability, our team can service customers within agriculture, fabrication and profiling industries, reducing fabrication time, labour and waste. Our plasma beamline services can provide a complete product and processing solution to help you deliver your next project on time and to specification.

Cut to length tube products are available through our direct to public outlets, ideal for trades, home improvement and handyman jobs. Speak to your local branch today.

Kitting enables us to group together different products and custom processed steel and aluminium components. These can then be delivered, packed how our clients require for final fabrication into applications like truck trailers or boat building projects. We can supply material to our customers in kit form, which provides significant efficiencies for our customers when assembling the products. Talk to our team today.