The recent decline of the oil and gas industry has seen Böhler UK diversify its steel products portfolio that target the aerospace industry and a new man at the helm of its newly-created speciality aerospace division.
Böhler has built a strong reputation in producing special materials for the aerospace sector. Last April, a new UK Aerospace Division was formed to give greater focus to this growing sector. Paul Chruscinski heads up the new division, which offers tailor made solutions for aerospace applications.
With access to special material grades including creep-resistant stainless, nickel-based alloys and high temperature alloys, Böhler supplies steel in many, forms from bar, billet, sheet and plate to custom forged and finished products for rotors, shafts, blades and disc applications. The newly expanded warehouse and service centre in Oldbury, West Midlands provides machining, cutting and ‘Just in Time’ deliveries to production schedules.
With turnover responsibility of over £10 million, Chruscinski is well versed with the quality and service Böhler offers.
“Böhler is traditionally a tooling metals manufacturer, but over time has evolved and diversified into speciality metals, predominantly for oil and gas and aerospace components,” he begins. “Previously, there was one single speciality division at Böhler UK that was split between these two sectors. However, the oil and gas sector has unfortunately seen a decline over the last two years and with aerospace enduring a period of growth, it was decided to split away from oil and gas and form its very own division. The aerospace sector has never really had that much exposure at our UK site, so with my aerospace background I was brought in to lead this division.”
In the UK, the Böhler brand is structured into three core businesses: a Speciality Metals Division which specialises in oil and gas, CPI and energy industries, a Tool Steel and High Speed Steel Division which supports all sectors with high performance steels for tooling applications and an Aerospace Division which operates in the aviation segments. Each Division is an expert in its product category and work in unison to deliver world-class customer service.
“We’ve been working with aerospace customers when this part of our business was based within our specialities division for 10-15 years, but only on a very small scale. There is a mix of customers, including both OEMs and metals distributors. We have added value equipment onsite, including 19 bandsaws, a CNC machining centre and a Kasto automated racking system, which enables us to pick material in a matter of minutes and despatch it the same day. In terms of materials supply to the aerospace industry, we offer long bar lengths and sometimes cut billets too.
“And something that I am extremely happy with is a great team mixed with youth, experience and the willingness to want to deliver great customer service at all times.”
Tracked and traceable
In terms of satisfying the aerospace industry’s unique demands, all Böhler materials are fully traceable. Chruscinski reckons the main advantage here is that all the material that comes into the UK to a stockist will be badged up as Böhler Alloys.
“Our stock is fully traceable to the tier 1 aerospace machinist as Böhler, so they have a direct interface with us – the mill. We’re fortunate in that we work on behalf of the mill, so we get access to all the grades that only they produce, so this is an advantage for us in the market, especially when the mill is part of many ‘directed buy’ parts for the likes of Rolls-Royce and Airbus.
“Essentially, there are two things we are looking to do: remove cost and provide direct interface to the mill,” he concludes. “Anyone can store and cut metal, but what else can you bring to the table? Having our direct link to a steel mill is a huge advantage for us and one we will look to leverage on in the future.”
