Blademaster: A driving force in wear parts for earthmoving, mining, quarrying and recycling sectors looks to expand BladeMaster in both domestic and export markets

Con Mech Engineers have over 65 years of success in ground engaging tool production. Part of the Con Mech Group of companies, Con Mech Engineers is a family business with a £12m turnover. Con Mech promotes its very own range of wear part replacement edges to the domestic and world markets under its unique brand BLADEMASTER.

Started in Woking in Surrey 65 years ago, and moving to the North East during the Eighties, Con Mech Engineers has gone from strength to strength across its different divisions. The business is made up of three distinct operations, ground engagement tools, sub-contract heat treatment services and precision engineering. Now housing ten heat treatment furnaces, surveyed to the American Petroleum Institute API 6A standard, the flexible approach and bespoke attitude mean that Con Mech can deliver a tailored product to match client's exact specifications be that for OEM new build or aftermarket applications.

The heat treated boron Blademaster product is their trademark product, and the range consists of over 14000 core parts that are available worldwide. Everything in the range is available in standard, heavy-duty and very heavy-duty versions to match the demands of the working environment.

We spoke at length with Christine Ames, Managing Director and David Waine, Global Business Development Manager. David started by outlining “ We worked with reputable Western European steel mills to develop an alloy steel chemistry which is tightly controlled during the production process. We buy hot rolled special profiles with the bevel or arrow head pre-rolled or buy plate which we profile and bevel as required. We fully process all of the material whilst it is still “soft” before heat treating to achieve the desired properties.

This gives us a distinct advantage over our competitors. When using pre-hardened wear plate it is a documented fact that induced heat due to gas cutting will result in a reduced hardness close to the cutting edge. This “soft zone” extends from the cutting edge a short distance in to the plate and can have an adverse effect on the service life of the component. As our wear resistant products are heat treated after processing this phenomenon is not present in our product and the customer benefits from a fully through hardened, quenched structure throughout the full thickness in the finished product. This maximises the properties required for optimum performance. With our new Extreme range, we can now also offer our clients a more bespoke product. If a client wants a different thickness to the OEM product then we can provide that, the fit-up is the same. Our bespoke service gives the customer what they require a part with more available wear material.

Talking with Christine, she was passionate about the new Extreme product range “At Plantworx, we will be launching the new Extreme range, which will include the Extreme Heavy-Duty, the Extreme Very Heavy-Duty, the Extreme Sub-Zero, and the Extreme Extra-Tough product lines. We are keen to offer with this a bespoke thickness on the final product to the specific requirements of each of our clients.

The new sub-zero range is designed to operate in temperatures down to -50 degrees centigrade. The Extreme Tough product is designed for thicker wear edges above 50mm and exhibits higher strength and crack resistance to withstand high stress. Also, our bespoke service is extremely important to us and we are always looking for ways to improve this for our customers and always endeavour to provide parts for anything that they ask for.

Recent capital investment means that we can deal with product thickness currently in excess of 100mm, and we have recently installed a new plasma cutting machine, a 3m VMC, two new saws, a new profiling facility, and a bespoke small batch furnace . We also 'hot- cup' our end bits, whereas a lot of companies sell them as a casting, so we see that as a real strength as it will last much longer. We are also developing other complimentary products as part of our sub-zero range. As product gets bigger our future investment plans will include a walk through furnace, more quenching facilities and a 400 tonne vertical press, allowing us to expand production in this area.

We are always looking to bring something to market that is different and that will ultimately last longer.”

This professional and totally in-house wear parts production process means that the end product is very well respected within the industry and is a true alternative to more well known wear plate solutions.

For more information please visit www.conmecheng.com or call us on
+44 (0)1207 230621, or Visit us at Plantworx, stand 5 E3