SSAB successfully delivers steel plates to Kocurek Excavators for 35 years

For over three decades steel company SSAB has delivered steel plates to England-based My Inner Strenx members Kocurek Excavators, the industry leaders in the manufacture of demolition equipment.

“We never received a faulty steel plate from SSAB,” said David Kocurek, founder and owner-director of Kocurek Excavators.

SSAB helps family business Kocurek Excavators in Ipwich, England to constantly push the boundaries on behalf of their worldwide-customers. The extreme forces needed when tearing down buildings with demolition equipment up to 70 meters high is supported by SSAB’s Strenx performance steel to help them stand the test of time.

Kocurek has been using SSAB’s steel in their products for over three decades and finds that the material has several benefits. One of them is that it is so easy to work.

“The key benefit for our company is that we can achieve the high technical results required from the product while welding under normal conditions. I think that is the most important thing for me,” said David Kocurek.

One other benefit has been that SSAB’s plate products are delivered blasted and primed, without any scale or rust on them.

“With the primer, we have been able to weld straight on to the plates without any prior cleaning. That is an added benefit with SSAB’s plates. It has saved us a lot of time over the years.”

The demolition excavators’ arms have a length of up to 70 meters. They need to be able to withstand extreme forces when they literarily tear buildings down, piece by piece. The use of Strenx performance steel supports the strength and helps saving weight.

“We are always pushing the limits of what we are achieving with the excavators. We need to make the arms as high as possible, as our customers constantly want to go higher. That is why it is so important that the steel has good fatigue resistance. So, we try to save weight by using a thinner material. Naturally, we need to maintain strength, so we select SSAB’s Strenx 700 steel to maintain the strength while reducing the thickness of the plate,” said David Kocurek.

Kocurek’s quality products are in high demand all over the world. As an industry leader, the company exports equipment all throughout Europe. The company also ships to the United States, Philippines and India. Recently there has been a lot of orders being sent to Australia.

“It is very satisfying to have customers travelling from Australia to order equipment from us, and we are sending equipment to all corners of the globe,” he said.

Rebecca Kelly is dealing with spare part orders and service administration at Kocurek. From her perspective it is paramount to use quality material in the products manufactured by Kocurek and being a My Inner Strenx member is proof of this.

 “We are very privileged to have been able to join the My Inner Strenx program, it is a reassurance to our customers that we are using the best quality materials, as well as the best quality processes and practices. The My Inner Strenx logo makes it simple and straightforward, you look at a product and you know it is approved,” said Rebecca Kelly.

For the manufacturing process, long steel plates are required for the long reach and high reach equipment. SSAB has been able to supply Kocurek with larger plate sizes so the product can be put together with fewer joins.

“When you are building something very long, the fewer joins the better. One of the key points where SSAB has helped us is with sheets that we can use effectively and efficiently for our design, and that are suitable as well as durable for the equipment,” said Rebecca Kelly.

The equipment from Kocurek are sent out to stand the test of time in working conditions where tremendous forces, and the many repetitions of these forces, are involved. That is why Kocurek has to use a product that will cope over a long period of time. This is what the customers are paying for.

“People expect something to last if they are putting out a lot of money, so for us Strenx steel is the obvious option. It is a quality product going into our quality demolition equipment.”

For further information, please contact: 
Loredana Colianni, SSAB Special Steels Marketing, loredana.colianni@ssab.com

SSAB is a Nordic and US-based steel company. SSAB offers value added products and services developed in close cooperation with its customers to create a stronger, lighter and more sustainable world. SSAB has employees in over 50 countries. SSAB has production facilities in Sweden, Finland and the US. SSAB is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and has a secondary listing on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.ssab.com. Join us also on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.