Davies Baird Pty Ltd – Your Local Foundry

RUSSELL MAKER, General Manager Davies Baird Pty Ltd reports on the changes to the business and the Australian Foundry Industry.

DAVIES Baird is a new Associate Member to the CMPA, however has a long tradition and experience in the manufacture of castings for the Extraction Industry. In the 1980’s Davies Baird was a major producer of castings for crushing equipment wear parts in Australia.

Changes in procurement of these parts from onshore to off shore resulted in a 30 year period of inactivity. Davies Baird has joined the CMPA to provide members with an alternative to inferior imported products by providing top quality with local support and backup.

In the intervening period Davies Baird have been successfully producing castings for the mining industry ranging from small ground engaging wear parts to major components up to 7000 kilos. Our experience gained in mining, working to high standards, demanding specifications and dimensional accuracy is available to all members.

Davies Baird has been a major manufacturer and supplier of steel castings, to a number of industries, for the past 130 years. The last 50 years from the Coburg site located ten kilometres from the centre of Melbourne.

Davies Baird casting capacity ranges from 5kgs to 6,000kgs (raw or machined) across a wide range of material grades. Over the past years many changes have influenced the Australian Foundry Industry.

The immediate influence is the Australian Dollar which is at an all time high. The Australian foundry industry, like all manufacturing industries in Australia, is under huge cost pressure mainly as a result of the high Aussie dollar. The Davies Baird management is working to keep costs low however the overall effects have been:

• Reduced market export opportunities due to a 30-40% increase of cost.
• The increase of low cost sourcing castings as importing is a cheaper option.
• A decrease in the Australian Foundry
• Industry by 40-50% in the last 10 years.

Russell Maker, General Manager of Davies Baird commented “The goals and objectives of the Davies Baird business are to provide the quarry industry with castings that are of high quality and improved performance to provide value to our customers. Being local we can work with customers to implement changes quickly and verify the results in days not weeks or months. Our initial trials within the crushing industry are showing we are achieving these goals and objectives even out performing all expectations. Davies Baird produces castings that the industry needs to maximise throughput of repeatable quality product.”

Our message is simple: We are local and producing what the industry is seeking. If you are looking to overcome current issues with castings, eliminate product size variability or a partner to develop your ideas into reality, give Davies Baird a call. We can help to save you money while improving product quality.

Low initial casting costs are undoubtedly attractive and the price difference between Australian castings and imported product is hard for customers to ignore. This differential is particularly evident when dealing with wear parts that require changing at relatively short intervals.
However initial cost benefits are rapidly eroded due to:

• Delivery issues,
• Dimensional inaccuracy,
• Uncertainty regarding material integrity.
• Reduced casting life.

Davies Baird has been made aware the integrity of imported castings is suspect, evidenced by current reduced wear characteristics experienced by the quarry industry in Australia. This coupled with extended downtimes during fitting as a direct result of dimensional irregularities provides a negative effect on an industry reliant on production throughput to meet financial goals.

The objective of Davies Baird is to work closely with customers within the quarry industry and through years of experience provide sound castings to significantly decrease these problems.

Davies Baird will utilize existing in house skills, such as, extensive knowledge in metallurgy, process control and by engaging the full suite of None Destructive Testing (NDT) to verify casting integrity before any castings leave the Davies Baird plant.

The other key factor is that Davies Baird is locally based which provides flexibility to work hand in hand with the industry to develop and enhance casting performance and durability. Davies Baird is currently working with a local operator within the quarry industry to fine tune casting dimensions to eliminate a majority of machining to castings, decrease installation times and improve wear characteristics.

The preliminary results of installed Davies Baird castings indicate a major improvement in casting wear and significantly improved installation times due to superior dimensional properties.

As an Australian based and owned foundry the Davies Baird business is here to support all industries by:

• Problem solving
• Casting solution development
• Provide engineering & technical support
• Provide a quality casting in an acceptable time frame
• React positively to urgent customer needs

Other attributes of the business are:

• ISO 9001 Accredited supplier
• NATA accredited for chemical composition
• Provides internal/external testing to verify mechanical properties
• Conducts NDT (Non Destructive Testing) techniques such as LPI and Ultrasonic examination
• Fully equipped in-house machine shop
• Local supplier, accessible to all customers
• face to face or by electronic media

If manufacturing disappears from Australia it will never return. Davies Baird produces castings in our Coburg facility that uses Australian material, labour and expertise resulting in superior castings in all aspects to meet all customer expectations.

For further information at Davies Baird:
General Manager: Russell Maker
Ph. (03) 9353 0005 Mb. 0418 547 134
Technical & Quality Manager: Murray Brown
Ph. (03) 9353 0017 Mb. 0407 509 484

60 SECONDS WITH AN ASSOCIATE MEMBER…

What is your name?
Murray Brown
Who do you work for?
GM Davies Baird Pty Ltd
How many years have you worked for this business?
5 years
How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
36 years
What is your role at the company?
Technical & Quality Manager
What does your job involve?
Provide support to customers to produce superior castings to meet their demands. Develop solutions to customer casting issues to improve casting performance and results.
What is the best part of your job?
Finding solutions to customer casting/material problems that result in meeting or exceeding expectations.

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