Established in Sheffield in 1997 by Italy’s Cogne Accial Specialis, Cogne UK (www.cogne.co.uk) is now a market leader in the stockholding and processing of stainless steel, tool steel and construction products, with over 4,000 tonnes of steel held in stock.
When the company was contracted to supply stainless-steel billets that required completion in less than 4hr — compared to the usual 60hr — it turned to Kettering-based Prosaw (
www.prosaw.co.uk), which recommended the use of circular sawing technology.
While high-speed cutting with carbide circular saws has been available for some time, it has generally been limited by cost to processing carbon steel rather than stainless steel. Cogne would need to process at least 500 components with each saw to make the contract financially viable.
Prosaw undertook a lengthy testing programme with a Mega CS-150S saw, which resulted in each blade producing over 700 billets, with a cutting time of just 28sec for each 131mm-diameter stainless-steel billet. On 76mm-diameter stainless steel, a single blade was able to make 2,700 cuts and reduce the total job time from 70hr to just 6.5hr.
Tony Evans, Cogne UK’s group operations manager, said: “Our philosophy is to give customers the best product and the quickest delivery possible. Having made a significant investment in time working with Prosaw and a significant capital investment in purchasing new machines, we can continue to offer our customers the very best of service.”