Thornton Engineering, a family-run manufacturer specialising in structural steel, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, steel plate and pile casing, relies on critical industrial gas supplies from Air Liquide Australia.
The company's founder, Andrew Thornton, started out in a small workshop on a farm in Pennhurst, Victoria and has since expanded the business to become a thriving steel processing company and today a major player in the Australian market.
Thornton’s entrepreneurial journey began with a small-scale project initially focused on servicing rural industries, and the workshop eventually grew to employ around 20 people, mostly in the rural sector.
As the business grew, the need for expansion became apparent.
So when Andrew's son, David Thornton, expressed a strong interest in taking the family business to the next level, it marked a turning point for the company.
Dave Thornton, who was studying at RMIT in Melbourne, suggested the company move closer to the city centre.
This led to the pivotal decision to relocate Thornton Engineering to Geelong, with the company purchasing two 10-acre parcels of land in the suburb of Corio, just off the M1.
Lucas Boogaard, Operations Manager at Thornton Engineering, explained the company in more detail to the team. Manufacturer Monthly Magazine.
“They purchased two 10-acre parcels of land here in Corio with a vision for the future and plans to build multiple stores over the next several years,” Boogaard said.
But the breakthrough for Thornton Engineering was the implementation of cutting-edge process integration, bringing slow-speed workshops to production lines known as beamlines.
“Shortly after building our first plate factory, Thornton built our first beamline, which allows us to produce high-quality products quickly and efficiently,” Boogaard said.
The beamlines have revolutionized our operations, allowing us to produce structural steel with incredible efficiency. Two beamlines are designed to produce fully fabricated structural steel from CAD drawings within 48 hours.
The production line consisted of a streamlined process starting from the raw materials through to the painted and machined steel products.
This innovation has enabled the company to become a key supplier to the mining industry, providing fast and reliable steel supplies for large-scale projects.
Following this new success, the company built a second, larger beamline to meet growing demand.
Thornton Engineering Today
Today, Thornton Engineering has grown to employ 220 people, each of whom plays their own role in the company’s ongoing success.
Since then, the company has established itself as a leader in the steel processing sector, with 150 skilled workers on the production floor and 70 more dedicated employees working in a variety of support roles.
“Thornton Engineering is now one of the largest steel fabricators in Australia,” Mr Boogaard said.
“We currently have three divisions: structural steel, structural steel plate, and pressure vessels and heat exchangers.
“This includes footbridges, road sign gantries and even larger projects such as rail bridges and large pressure vessel tanks,” Boogaard said.
Partnership with Air Liquide
As Thornton Engineering's business continues to expand, so does the demand for reliable welding and gases that are essential to its success.
“Every part of our process is important, but the majority of what we do is welding steel products,” Boogaard said.
“Our mission is to deliver quality products quickly, so issues with welding equipment and gases are a real problem.
“We rely on Air Liquide for deliveries every Tuesday and Friday, which suits our needs very well, but we are starting to consider installing an on-site mixer in the near future,” Boogaard said.
The on-site mixer has been carefully considered by Thornton Engineering’s management team, with advice from Lau and the Air Liquide team.
Thornton Engineering currently uses a variety of gases, including the Air Liquide ARCAL Reference Line series of shielding gas products.
Andy Lau, Welding Engineer at Air Liquide, explained how they ensured Thornton Engineering's needs were met.
“The regular fortnightly delivery service to Thornton provides a just-in-time service to customers whilst freeing up workspace by avoiding the need for large storage areas for gas, reducing logistics costs,” he said.
“Most importantly, Thornton Engineering has five distribution depots on site to cater for each plant’s gas requirements.”
Air Liquide provides Thornton Engineering with high quality products
Thornton Engineering has been using ARCAL gas for several years; it is a key part of their welding process and meets their need for a high-quality, robust gas.
ARCAL Speed gas is designed to increase welding speeds while reducing the need for wire feeding and post weld cleaning. ARCAL Prime is also used by Thornton Engineering and its high purity allows it to be used generally but especially for root shielding.
Lau also recommended that Thornton Engineering use ARCAL Force to produce fast, deep welds, which was critical to meeting the needs of the company's welders.
Air Liquide has been working diligently in recent years to improve welding worker safety and create a greener, safer environment. Our low smoke formulated products improve worker safety compared to traditional welding gases and help reduce exposure to harmful welding fumes.
Investing in the future
Initially, the Kinetic Plate Plasma Cutters and Oxy Cutters were purchased by Thornton Engineering solely to support the pressure vessel shop.
These methods could not meet the huge volume that the company needed to produce in the coming years, so alternatives had to be explored to meet the organization's needs.
“These machines run full time, two shifts per day, and required significant floor space and storage space to store the incoming lumber,” Boogaard says.
“The situation was not ideal. It would have made much more sense to utilize the space for manufacturing rather than storage,” he explained.
To meet this challenge, the company made the strategic decision to install a second new Kinetic plasma cutting machine in its dedicated plate processing shop, with a manifold supplied by Air Liquide.
A specially designed manifold system facilitates continuous delivery and regulates a variety of flow rates and pressures. It supplies gas to two plate cutting machines.
With the Air Liquide manifold system in place, operators were able to spend more time cutting plates and less time monitoring gas flow and delivery.
“By separating the material handling and manufacturing areas, we have achieved an optimized workflow that improves both efficiency and productivity.”
The addition of a second new Kinetic plasma cutter will significantly increase the company’s ability to process materials quickly and accurately.
The new plate fabrication shop will not only allow Thornton Engineering to increase production capacity but also optimise floor space utilisation, freeing up valuable real estate for manufacturing and assembly.
Enabling Advanced Manufacturing
Already a leading player in steel manufacturing, Thornton Engineering is leaping into the future with the innovative use of robots to enhance its welding capabilities.
Known for its dedication to efficiency and precision, the company has introduced a series of robots that are revolutionizing the welding process at its facilities.
“We've also installed robots with plasma and oxygen cutting heads in our container plants that use Air Liquide gases, which allows us to meet production schedules with high precision and efficiency,” Boogaard said.
The robots are strategically positioned on-site to operate within the beamline, streamlining the welding process to maximize efficiency.
Additionally, Thornton has equipped its latest workshop with a giant 15-metre-wide gantry that runs alongside 200 metres of railway track and is the centrepiece of the new facility. The gantry is fitted with two robots with MIG torches and twin-wire capabilities.
The introduction of these robots has significantly improved the speed and accuracy of welding operations, helping the company meet growing customer demand more effectively and address the skills shortage in the coming years, Boogaard explained.
“These new robots have increased our production speed by almost four times. We're very excited about this.”
