Refurbished and ready for rapid response

Claire Spillane explains: "Our well-established role centres on the supply – both on a purchase and hire basis – of expertly refurbished equipment that can provide welding and allied solutions at a fraction of the cost of new investment.”

She points out that the company typically retains for offer in excess of 300 machines – including associated equipment such as cutting and positioning systems – which are refurbished to order to meet exact application requirements.    

Importantly, of course, this goes hand-in-hand with the company’s commitment to sourcing the optimum equipment.  “We continually look to promote this side of our business and regularly offer incentives and promotional benefits to potential suppliers,” adds Spillane, who points out that this can represent a development opportunity to both suppliers and customers alike who may otherwise delay or indefinitely postpone equipment replacement because of perceived economic and logistic complexities of disposal.

It is an approach that allows Westermans to provide a rapid response service that often enables customers to benefit from a level of technology that may otherwise require far larger expenditure if new equipment was sourced.

In practice

An example of the Westermans approach in practice can be seen at Coventry-based Sentinel Gas Systems where two AMI 207 orbital welding units have been supplied to the specialist gas system installer, enabling the organisation to optimise both its on-site service and also its in-house clean room facility.  

“We meet a series of application needs in industries as diverse as automotive, pharmaceutical and research and, in all cases, we design systems that can handle gas supplies to 300 bar – often of a hazardous or toxic nature,” says sales director, Stephen Kane. “In many cases, this calls for tube welding of the highest quality, which has pointed us towards the AMI units and the services available from Westermans International.”

Small diameter pipework of between an eighth of an inch and two inches, and often made of specialist material such as stainless steel, is at the heart of most of the installations undertaken by Sentinel Gas Systems. The AMI orbital welders ensure clean, consistent results and have a memory function that enables them to retain up to 100 welding programmes  

“Our ability to supply the two AMI 207 units from our extensive stockholding to meet the operational requirements of Sentinel Gas Systems was very important,” adds Claire Spillane at Westermans International. “Two systems were fully refurbished with key operational parts fitted as new and were supplied with full training and access to spares and maintenance operations.”  

Sentinel’s installation director, Richard Barber stated that the equipment performance is exactly as expected as is the input from Westermans in terms of knowledge, refurbishment skills and support services – all at a fraction of the potential investment required for comparable new units.  

Westermans’ dual recognition of the need to deliver high standards in both purchasing and sales operations is key to its success. Spillane concludes: “Because we attach equal importance to both our suppliers and customers, we believe we are able to maintain an up to the minute understanding of the industry and, more importantly, allow growth opportunities to be developed for both our suppliers and our customers alike.”