Walking out of Newcastle Technical University College in the year 1957, a young Raymond Maclaren could be forgiven for being in an unassuming mood.
With the sun beating down, students scrambling everywhere, and a mind full of the day’s lessons in the thermodynamics of mechanical engineering, the innovation of one of Australia’s most trusted slings seemed eons away – yet it wasn’t.
Every day at work at steel tube manufacturer Stewarts and Lloyds, Raymond would see old Jock, the company rigger, performing his magic: splicing wire rope slings. He was absolutely fascinated by this ancient skill that would convert a length of wire rope into a Wire Rope Sling. He asked Jock to teach him to splice the wire rope during his lunch break, and soon Raymond would splice a sling while Jock smoked his pipe. That was the beginning of a life-long passion for wire ropes and their termination systems that, coupled with his engineering capabilities, would result in a career dedicated to manufacturing wire rope slings.
After graduating from Newcastle University, the 1960s had come around and he decided it was time to start his own business: Slingmakers Tamworth. Originating in Tamworth, Raymond worked diligently, hand splicing hundreds of wire rope slings and strops for councils, power authorities, and crane operators. It was during his time at Slingmakers that one of his trusted clients, a crane operator from Wagga Wagga, provided Raymond with some of the most integral feedback he would receive in his professional career; his steel slings were just not flexible enough.
It was at that time in the mid 1960s that Raymond put his mind to work and called on all his mechanical engineering nous to create a machine that would last for over 50 years; the orbital square plaiter. This machine, specifically designed to create the Superflex product, was conceived by Raymond over a period of two years; it would then take a further three years to design the machine, before taking five years to build and operate, eventually being commissioned in 1975. The first orbital square plaiter is responsible for the product he calls a “climax design”; Andromeda’s Superflex cable.
Andromeda Industries’ ‘Superflex’ design is a specialised steel cable that the Moonbi-based manufacturer holds exclusive rights over. At the core of its design are 912 individual wires which are then woven into the completed wire rope. By point of comparison, a standard 6×36 wire rope features 216 individual wires.
The unique feature of these steel cables is that they are plaited – not laid or twisted – providing a high-degree of flexibility as opposed to the rigidity of ordinary Wire Rope. For Raymond, the design and creation of these specialised cables is reflective of his engineering background, allowing him to design and manufacture the machines needed to make the cable flexible and critically engage with the central mechanics of his product.
“We can look at problems that are brought to our notice by people using our products and apply an engineering-based solution,” he said. “All our machines are designed and created in house; we hold full control over them, and today they consistently churn out the Superflex steel cables and slings that have come to play a pivotal role in Australia’s lifting and rigging equipment.”
Sentiments such as these are all well and good coming from the innovator, inventor and engineer of the Superflex cable. His words, however, are echoed across the crane industry by those who possess first-hand experience in dealing with Andromeda’s products. In the October edition of Cranes and Lifting, Borger Cranes’ Queensland Yard Supervisor Hennie Geyser labelled the structural integrity, versatility and capacity of the Moonbi manufacturer’s Superflex cable as “unmatchable”. With Hennie citing the products as “clutch” for jobs in hot environments requiring the use of equipment capable of handling high temperatures, Raymond pointed to the efficacy and durability of using steel as its material of choice.
“In the past few decades, fibre has made its mark on the industry and come through as a very competitive product,” he said. “However, the reliability of steel, the obvious nature of its wear and tear, and its increased resistance to high temperature means it is still the core material of choice for us.”
With reliability embedded in its exclusive product, safety is also a key feature of Andromeda’s Superflex range. Manufacturing with W.L.L of 84 tonnes in straight pull slings up to 165 tonnes and strops up to 168 tonnes, ensuring everything that leaves the Moonbi facility meets the highest standard is imperative for Raymond and the team. To facilitate this, Andromeda holds NATA accreditation, is a full member of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) and tests all its products to Australian Standards before they’re distributed to a client. Aiding them in these tests is a 300-tonne capacity horizontal test bed that was installed in 2019 and its 40-tonne capacity vertical test bench that provides assurances of the products’ load proofing. For Raymond, Andromeda’s stringent testing procedures are emblematic of the ideals that the NSW-based company was founded upon.
“High quality manufacturing is at the core of what we do at Andromeda Industries,” said Raymond. “We’re NATA accredited because we understand the importance of high standards of quality in the lifting industry; a sling failure is a big deal, and the onus is on us as the manufacturer of the product to make sure everything that leaves our facility is of the highest standard.”
All this is because, for a mechanical engineer whose wire-rope splicing career was started by old Jock, the Pipe smoking splicer at Stewarts and Lloyd’s, the exclusive Superflex cable range represents a passion project, a hobby, and an opportunity that he seized with both of his hands.
“Ultimately, Superflex’ design has not changed for 50 years,” he said, “which is testimony to the level of quality perceived in our product by end-users, by ourselves, and testimony to the time, effort, and care we put into our work.”
READ MORE:
- Borger’s super lifts with Superflex.
- Flexing its strength: Andromeda Industries.
- Small town, big product.