Small repairs keep a poultry site running
A feeder line hanger that snaps, a stainless drain cover that cracks in a processing room, a cage frame rusted through where water collects: this is what most call-outs to our service team look like. None of them is a big failure, yet each one holds up work on the farm until a trained person with the right tool reaches it.
So our technicians trained on three laser processes with AM.CO.ZA, the Johannesburg machinery company that supplied our workshop equipment and ran the training that came with it.
“Good equipment on its own does not fix a bracket. What stood out with AM.CO.ZA was that the training came first. Our technicians stood at the machines in Sunnyrock, practised on offcuts until their results were consistent, and went back out to farms knowing how to set up each job.”
Musa Cele, Training and Support Lead
Where the training happened
The sessions were hands-on at the AM.CO.ZA Johannesburg branch in Sunnyrock. Between sessions our people rewatch setup steps on the free how-to videos from AM.CO.ZA's Ambitious Academy channel on YouTube.
AM.CO.ZA also hosts workplace learners funded through merSETA, the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA, and lecturers from TVET colleges such as South West Gauteng TVET College. We value that link as we bring more young technicians into our careers programme.
Laser welding stainless fittings
Processing rooms and small abattoirs are full of stainless steel: drain covers, rail brackets, splash guards and work tables. The team trained on the LaserMaster Versatile-Lite 2000W, a handheld fibre laser that cleans, welds and cuts metal from one system on a 220V supply. A precision water chiller and a 7 metre torch lead come with it, giving a technician room to work around a long rail or a large table.
On thin stainless the laser seam is narrow and tidy, so there is little to grind back on surfaces that must stay easy to wash down. For heavier fabrication, AM.CO.ZA carries a wider range of laser welding machines.
“We started on practice pieces and kept going until every seam looked the same. Only then did we move on to real brackets, and by the end of the course the team was asking for harder joints.”
Wandile Buthelezi, Service Supervisor
Laser cleaning rusted cage frames
Older layer cage batteries rust where water and manure sit against the steel. Before a section can be repaired or re-coated, the metal has to be bare. Switched to cleaning, the Versatile-Lite lifts rust, paint and surface contamination without blasting media or chemical strippers, so no grit is left to sweep out of a working house.
Bigger rebuilds call for a dedicated machine, and AM.CO.ZA supplies a range of laser cleaning machines for that work.
Marking spares so the right part goes out
Lineo Ngwenya, our Operations Manager, pushed for the third skill. We now mark our own stainless ID tags for feeder and drinker spares on a LabelMark 20W fibre laser marker. We line each tag up under the red guide square first, and its software numbers every tag in sequence or adds a barcode. A foot pad fires the job, so both hands stay on the tags.
Every bin and kit that leaves Jet Park now carries a clear part number marked into the steel. AM.CO.ZA's range of laser marking machines includes larger units, but the 20W suits small tags well.
“It sounds like a small thing. But when a farmer in Limpopo opens a nipple drinker kit and every part inside is labelled, that is one less problem for the farm and for us.”
Lineo Ngwenya, Operations Manager
Why we chose AM.CO.ZA
We spoke to more than one supplier, and what settled it was the training. AM.CO.ZA wanted our people able to set up each machine on their own before the kit left Sunnyrock, and the quote for the whole workshop setup was fair. Their machinery support site and the AM.CO.ZA guide give our technicians somewhere to check a setting while they are out on a farm.
What it means for our clients
- Repairs by our own people. A snapped hanger or a cracked drain cover can be fixed by the technician who is already on site, rather than sent away.
- A cleaner house after the work. Laser cleaning leaves no blasting grit or chemical residue behind among the birds.
- Spares you can identify. Each spare we dispatch carries a readable part number on a stainless tag.
- Training that continues. New technicians who join us go through the same sessions.
The same skills support our turnkey projects, from the first site plan to handover, and ongoing work on sites like the Bapsfontein layer house. Planning a processing room? Our notes on small abattoir layouts are a good place to start.
For a repair, spares or a service visit, use our contact form or meet the people on our team.
