Coatbridge-based sister companies Watson-Towers Ltd and Cairnhill Structures were asked to meet an urgent requirement for structural-steel repair plates when the Forth Road Bridge was closed without notice after the discovery of cracks in the structure.

Within 24hr of the initial enquiry, the two steel companies had cut and delivered the plates needed to repair
the bridge. Key factors included Watson-Towers stocking the correct grade of steel and the availability of an Esab Suprarex SXE 5000 plasma cutting system, which was able to profile and bevel the plates in one go — bevelling them manually would have taken too long.

The two companies — both part of the Watson-Towers group — are often called upon to meet tight deadlines on critical projects. Another recent job started with an urgent request for steel plates to repair the Lamington Viaduct, which carries West Coast Main Line trains over the River Clyde; they have also supplied fabrications for repairs to a nuclear power plant within 36hr of the enquiry.

They have been using Esab cutting and welding equipment (www.esab.co.uk) for some 20 years and now use Esab equipment and consumables almost exclusively. The Suprarex SXE 5000 is equipped with a rotating cutting head that enables plates to be profiled and bevelled ready for welding. For the Forth Road Bridge repair project, drawings for the individual profiles were received as DXF files, which Watson-Towers engineers marked up ready for the profiles to be programmed into the machine’s control system via Esab’s Columbus cutting and nesting software.

Dozens of profiles were required — most of them one-offs — but the Columbus software made the programming stage of the project as straightforward as possible. Watson-Towers was the only Scottish steel stockholder to have the necessary quantity of the right grade of steel.