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	From humble beginnings in 1895 as a small metals dealer, to its place today as Belgium's largest service center, Holvoet NV has used diversification to achieve stability and growth. From its locations in Ghent and Kortrijk, this family-owned firm offers diverse metal processing services such as cut-to-length, slitting, welding, bending, large assembly and shotblasting. Holvoet processes and sells aluminum and several grades of steel, but is especially well-known for fabricating large, complex parts -- pressure vessel heads, structural steel beams and building assemblies. Its workforce of 150 is skilled in the techniques					First Operating SCS Licensee -                     Belgium's Holvoet NV   Believe It or Not, We Ran Oiled               Steel On Our SCS Lines!
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						and special equipment needed to make such challenging products. Nicolas Holvoet, General Manager of the Ghent works, explains how Holvoet NV uses this ability to solve customer problems: "A customer was ordering 4m x 3m sheets, lasering them one at a time, and welding them together for over-the-road trailers. When we heard this, we showed them our laser that accepts pieces as large as 16m x 3m. Now we laser single large sheets for them -- no welding." Nicolas sees Holvoet NV's new SCS capability as solving a wide range of longstanding customer problems. The Holvoet SCS Sheet Line, which has been in operation about six months, brushes material that has already been stretcher-leveled on their new Stretcher-Leveler Cut-to-Length line built by Red Bud Industries (RBI).
	Nicolas Holvoet is part of the fourth generation to lead Holvoet NV. He        is shown here against the SCS Sheet Line, his competitive response        to the shortage of P&O material that Europe is presently experiencing.       "No one else in Europe offers this       combination of stretcher-leveling       and SCS brushing. It's technology       that puts us in the lead," says Nicolas. Because of their fabricating business, Holvoet NV is in the unusual position of being an SCS producer and a user. "It's a big help to our sales effort because nearly all the processes our customers do, we do ourselves.," explains Nicolas. "So we have the chance to try faster lasering with SCS first. The same for welding or forming. Once we understand how to optimize performance with SCS, it's much easier to show a customer or to train our steel distributors how to exploit this advantage." Does that mean the selling cycle for SCS has been shorter for Holvoet? "I cannot say for sure, but I think not," Nicolas replies. " The reason is the customer still has to perform his trials -- he cannot simply accept our results and place big orders. This makes sense because everyone's processes are a little different. That's why we work with the customer to 'dial in' the best settings for running SCS in his facility. We use the SCS Fabrication Guides and our own experience. The important thing is to be patient and assist the customer through this process so he sees the results for himself." Are his customers seeing those results? "Yes, they are seeing big advantages that we expected, especially in getting oil out of their shops," said a grinning Nicolas, "but we are also seeing advantages we never expected. For example, we make a special assembly for a customer that had to be shotblasted. But it used very thin material -- only 2 mm thick. It's almost impossible to shotblast something so thin without deforming it . Now we make the part from SCS. It is super-flat and super-clean and it stays that way. We don't have to shotblast it. So we get better quality at a lower cost, but above all, we get a happier customer who brings us more business. Our strategy with SCS is as simple as that: work with the customer, let him see the advantages for himself, then look around his product lines for opportunities where he can repeat those advantages. To some it might seem like a slow process, but we have been in business for 110 years. We've learned the value of patience."
	And it wasn't an accident either. We wanted to test the idea of using the SCS cleaning capability to reclaim damaged material having either shape problems or rust, but also having a coating of oil. We were confident of being able to remove the oil from the  SCS closed-loop water system, but needed to make sure it had no adverse impact on brushes. Running oiled material through SCS machines is not something to do on a routine basis and our testing is not exhaustive enough to define all limitations. Nevertheless, we are pleased to report that results to date show thorough removal of oil is possible with no residue remaining on the brushes to 'infect' subsequent SCS material. Extracting any oil from the SCS closed-loop flushing water system is essential. We used a fairly simple oil skimmer on the filtration system reservoir, as shown in the photo on the right. The skimmer moves a looped tube over the water surface where tramp oil will float due to its having a lower specific gravity than water. Oil sticks to the loop, which is automatically lifted out of the reservoir and wiped clean to collect the oil. The process cycles automatically and had no problem keeping up with an SCS system's oil removal rate. Our first test was on the SCS Sheet Line, where we fed several 16" x 96" heavily oiled sheets. We had to slow down from 50 fpm to 30 fpm to achieve complete oil removal with no residue. Immediately afterward, we fed 60" wide sheets of hot rolled for normal SCS processing. These sheets came through with no oil residue whatsoever, and the skimmer kept the water going to the SCS Unit free of oil. Next, we moved to the SCS Coil Line where we processed a full coil of oiled CRS. Again, we slowed down line speed and were able to achieve complete removal of the oil film, with the skimmer keeping the water going back to the SCS Unit oil-free. The hot-rolled coils processed afterward produced smooth, clean SCS with no oil residue at all. That is not to say that running oiled material doesn't introduce complications. Leveler and conveyor rolls that contact the material prior to its entering the SCS Unit need to have the oil cleaned off before resuming normal SCS processing. Also, the oil collected by the skimmer unit must be disposed of in a proper manner. However, these seem to be relatively small cost penalties compared to the benefit of reclaiming the value of damaged P&O or CRS coils or sheets. TMW does not have plans to process occasional coils or sheets of oiled material on its SCS lines. To process oily material in significant volume, we would have to install an oiler on the lines -- remember, the material being cleaned is not SCS and it will rust without an oil coating. Furthermore, we need absolute assurance that the oil coating on the material being cleaned is NOT water soluble, so the skimmer will be able to remove it properly. Finally, we need to determine the disposal cost for greater volumes of oil and oil-contaminated filter media. None of these are 'showstoppers' that would prevent processing multiple coils of oiled material, but they must be investigated for their overall cost impact on the economics of this new type of 'material recovery.'
		Copyright 2006 The Material Works, Ltd.