Blackwoods Knows

Alpha VersaDrive: Less Doing More Done

Written by VersaDrive | Jan 9, '23

Quality Product Development Drives Quality Work

The non-slip 11.0mm hex shank design fits into all standard drill chucks, and has three concentric lock positions allowing perfect alignment and accuracy when tooling with any of the modular adaptors.

The high-grade tool steel attachments have been specifically designed to outperform the closest comparable products on the market, producing results which are up to 15x faster, with longer life and more holes per product.


Testimonial: Alliance Metal Solutions

“We had a large fabrication project which required high precision with very low working tolerances. After processing and galvanising, a range of holes that required precise alignment fell outside of working tolerance. We were looking at a complete remake or arduous manual rework of the parts involved, which would have incurred substantial costs.

“Thankfully, we came across the Alpha VersaDrive reamer that allowed us to accurately and quickly open up the misaligned holes to a point where they could function as intended.

“The Alpha VersaDrive reamer changed a job that would normally take us a week down into a day. We highly recommend this product for anyone in the metalworking industry who is looking for an efficient and speedy way to solve a problem.”

Revolutionizing Traditional Work Practices

One of Australia's largest national engineering firms contacted Alpha Tools, wanting a solution to the time-consuming and costly refurbishment of heat exchangers used in alumina production.

Usually, the time and cost taken to refurbish these units are significant and expensive, especially when it comes to cleaning, machining, and preparing tube sheets and baffle plates. 

The refurbishment's cleaning, machining, and preparation phase generally takes 60 hours and requires 10 machine operators.

However, a new procedure implemented with the Alpha VersaDrive range resulted in a sizeable 300-hour reduction per unit in both time and manpower. 

There are several other safety benefits when using these high-performing products, including a massive reduction in noise usually produced by traditional techniques, and reducing potential injury caused by vibration.

 

Tube sheets-1000 holes

The reaming of tube sheets at this Australian engineering firm initially took 2 days (4 shifts), equalling 48 hours. Due to breakage, this process consumed at least 3 reamers.

The Alpha VersaDrive range has now reduced this process to half a day, which is less than 1 shift (6 hours). That works out to be a mammoth saving of 42 hours!

In total, 1 reamer completed 4000 holes (4 tube sheets). With each reamer costing $1000, a company using this method could potentially save up to $5000 (5 reamers).

 

Baffle plates-internal (Steel LP 3000 holes and Duplex HP 4000 holes)

The costly and time-consuming procedure for baffle plates initially took 10 days (20 shifts), equalling 240 hours. This process ate through 40 carbide burrs ($67 each) and 2 die grinders ($100 each).

The Alpha VersaDrive range slashed the lengthy process down to just 3 days (6 shifts), equal to 72 hours compared to a whopping 240 hours previously. The new procedure only consumed 2 no.3 reamers per entire heater —that's 2000 holes per reamer.

In total, that's $880 saved and a monumental 168 hours of hard labour diverted. This does not include significant dollar amounts saved due to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and potential injury avoided.

 

Discover Alpha VersaDrive Sets

We offer several different Alpha VersaDrive sets that will get you started, including impact starter kits, tapping kits and installation kits as well as imperial and metric sets that cater to a wide range of applications and industries.

 



 

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