Heavy Metal

The Stevenson Engineering workshop is one of the largest mechanical repair and industrial maintenance facilities in the country. Q&M magazine was invited to tour the group’s extensive workshops in Auckland.   BY ALAN TITCHALL

It’s not immediately obvious that behind the corporate façade of Stevenson offices in Lady Ruby Drive in East Tamaki, there’s a vast and productive, ‘one stop workshop’ engineering complex with over 120 staff.

Behind the reception, with its two restored vintage Cat bulldozers, is a huge weld shop, a separate machine shop, hydraulic engineering tube honing facility, a cavernous area for heavy plant earth moving repairs and servicing, an engine and transmission overhaul fitting shop, automotive electrical shop, and specialised marine services area. In between these divisions there’s a 24-hour transport service and manufacturing facility where the likes of water tanks are made for the quarry industry.

The company is located in a new industry suburb surrounded by new housing subdivisions that have gradually built up around the original Stevenson quarry and its head offices. The four green acres of landscape surrounding the engineering complex contrast starkly with the industrious workshop floors, with their overhead gantry cranes and dismembered metal parts from a myriad of heavy machinery customers.

Weaving through each workshop division reveals one interesting project after another. In the heavy plant division, an Emico 913 underground wheel loader belonging to Solid Energy is being rebuilt from the chassis up. No small task when you consider the detailed compliance issues that are mandatory with machines that work in coalmines.

In the engine and transmission overhaul section, a thumping 1100hp V8 Cat 3508 from a  Cat 777 dump truck is being rebuilt, while in the hydraulic workshop a tidy row of arms from a Komatsu excavator lay on the floor, waiting their turn through a reconditioning process that includes better seals than the original.

Each division works in with the next, through an engineering synthesis overseen by three managers: Gary Richmond (customer accounts), David Young (engineering), and Grant Wearing (mechanical). Peter Dudson, is in charge of the whole operation as chief executive officer.

After 60 years maintaining its own heavy earth moving plant and equipment, over 90 percent of the work carried out by Stevenson Engineering is now sourced from outside of the group.

“The operation is basically divided into two plants – engineering and mechanical, covering mobile plant and earthmoving, quarry, and mining equipment,” says mechanical manager Grant Wearing as he guides Q&M magazine through his heavy plant workshop. Regardless of make or model, this division services, repairs and refurbishes plant, excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks, roading equipment and any other type of heavy machinery. Workspace is serviced with 10 tonne gantry cranes, all with at least five metres of headroom under the hook.

Waiting to be stripped is a well-used Cat 777 dump truck imported from Newcastle in NSW. With over 55,000 hours under its bonnet, this machine will get a major overhaul before heading off to a mining contactor in Huntly, which is much more cost effective than buying a new machine, says Wearing.

Account manager Gary Richmond says customers get a good reconditioned product for a low capital investment. “The whole equation of rebuilding machines make sense these days. It’s very hard to find good second hand machines, and delivery times on new machines is up to 18 months,” he adds.

Adjacent to the heavy machinery workshop is a ‘truck shop’ with a fully-equipped 30-metre drive through lube bay. “We specialise in repair of Iveco, Isuzu, MAN and Western Star trucks, but all work can be undertaken from basic lubes to major repairs and servicing,” explains Wearing.

“From fitting accessories to extending and modifying chassis. We can also manage a fleet from planning servicing to monitoring road users and registration.”

This section works in two shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, supported by the weld, machine and hydraulic workshops onsite and offers 24/7 breakdown service with 18 staff on the road.

The facility attracts all sorts of other equipment also owned by customers. A pair of Go-carts that belong to one of the Stevenson family sit in a corner. Leisure boats frequently turn up for maintenance, and a prison bus from the Corrections Department makes for an interesting diversion as we head towards the engine and overhaul shop.

“It’s all about doing it right for the customers and doing it right the first time,” says Gary Richmond, who was invited to join the company a year ago.

“Quality control is very important and we vet staff very carefully. All our apprentices have to sit tests – not anyone off the street just gets a job here.”

Stevenson Engineering takes on three to four apprentices every year. Many staff who head overseas after they complete their training rejoin the company on their return. Some of the staff have been with the company for over 15 years and, like Grant Wearing, have enjoyed long family associations with the Stevensons.

David Young joined the engineering division as an apprentice fitter after leaving school at the age of 15. He went overseas and came back to Stevensons and worked his way up to his current position as engineering manager.

Young joins our tour party to act as guide through the rest of the plant, starting with the engine servicing area where a large Cat 3508 V8 is getting an overhaul. The dynamometer shop (with testing up to 1000HP) and engine overhaul department is dust controlled and equipped with a five tonne gantry crane. 

“We can handle any make or type of engine/transmission and we maintain close contact with distributors,” mentions Wearing. “Clients can watch the testing if they wish.”

On the hydraulic shop floor are a tidy row of hydraulic arms off a Komatsu 1250 excavator that are being reconditioned, complete with newly designed seals that should see them through many more years of hard quarry work. 

Stevenson’s hydraulics has been in the business of building and repairing hydraulic cylinders since 1985 and has been ISO 9001 accredited since March 1996. Customers are diverse, ranging from quarry operators to NZ Steel and Ports of Auckland.

“We specialise in all forms of rebuilding and modifying hydraulic cylinders, using proven methods, many of which we have pioneered ourselves over the years,” says David Young.

Equipment includes a Sunnen HTIC computerised honing machine capable of working on a five metre, 1000mm diameter piece of metal in one pass, and a large capacity stripping/assembly bench and testing facility. All types of welding, large capacity torque multipliers, grinding and chroming services are available. Staff are certified to NZS4711.

In the shop at the time are huge 12 tonne paper rollers that were being built up with stainless steel weld and re honed on an computer controlled tube honing machine. It wasn’t that long ago that such gear had to be sent to Canada or Japan to be done.

“We recondition the whole roll for the same price as it used to cost in freight,” says Young.

In the weld shop, staff are about to start cutting the bowl of a motorscraper in half to shorten it. “No day in the weld shop that is the same,” comments Young. “These guys get a huge variety of work.”

New is an automatic gantry welding machine that can handle four metres at a time, ideal for building up worn track pads. Outside, work had started on a new, enclosed weld shop area that will feature a 10 tonne gantry crane.

“Refurbishment of plant - that’s where our future is,” says Young. “We have 60 years of experience doing engineering innovations and with very talented staff to do this work. Now we want to get the word out there that we are offering this talent to the entire industry with an external focus.”