Spot on precision is key to success in alignment
A
Fixturlaser product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Oct 2, 2002
Laser alignment services have proved to be a real goldmine for Australian Paul Burgess.
Hans Svensson is responsible for sales and support to distributors, and travels the world selling and promoting Fixturlaser.
This is a story he told when he came back from a recent trip to Australia.
"It was back in 1997, that I first met Paul Burgess when he brought in his Combi-Laser to us for checking.
The service guys had never before come across a unit with lasers that had been in use for well over one thousand hours.
We told him that his Combi-Laser was still well within specification and wished him and his team all the best".
Burgess started Burgess Aligning (BLA) in the famous Australian gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie in 1992, which was when he first heard about laser alignment.
Realising the potential in the mining market, he sold his motorbike and persuaded his bank manager that the purchase of a Combi-Laser would prove to be a good investment.
Knowing that gold mines are very sensitive to breakdowns, and that a breakdown in a ball mill is a costly business Burgess instituted a 24h service and BLA got off to a flying start.
Burgess soon became a name in the trade.
By 1997 the business had a staff of ten, servicing gold mines as far as 800 miles away, and even some jobs in Malaysia and Ghana.
Svensson continues: "On this visit to Australia, Max Wishaw from Vitech, our distributor in Australia and I, met Paul again.
We asked him about the secret of BLA's success".
Said Burgess: "When it comes to alignment, precision means what it says - no short cuts.
We work mainly with low speed machinery but alignment precision is a must, not just to within 0.1mm but absolutely spot on".
Burgess' story shows that quality and accuracy pays off.
He now has a staff of 65, two big articulated trucks fully equipped with about 3500 tools, and everything controlled with computers.
He has a total of seven laser systems, all Fixturlaser.
Svensson was curious about how he manages to keep abreast in an increasingly competitive market.
Burgess explains: "Each member of staff is a self motivated individual, needing no manager to tell him what to do I suppose it comes from me being one of them out there doing the same job".
That he clearly cares about his staff was demonstrated on one occasion when he persuaded a client to charter a BAE 146 jet to get his team home for a weekend's much needed R and R between jobs.
Svensson could not help asking what happened to the original Combi-Laser purchased back in 1992.
"Yes", said Burgess, "it is still being used on a regular basis".
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