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Testimonial Steel and pipe supply

  • Location:
  • Core business:
  • Tonnes per year:
  • Employees:
  • Founded:
  • Kansas, United States
  • Steel service center
  • 20.000
  • 100
  • 1965
ED BARE |

“The guys running the machine have to work a lot harder than they used to, just to keep up with the machine.”

Steel and pipe supply - a steel service center

Steel and Pipe Supply is a family business with family values. The fact that they are a privately held company is remarkable due the size of their corporation. Steel and Pipe Supply is the 17th largest steel service center in the U.S.A. Steel and Pipe Supply began with Sam Goldstein, who in 1933 founded Kansas Hide and Wool in Manhattan Kansas. In 1954 Sam's son, Jack Goldstein, took over the business and built a steel warehouse to supplement the Hide and Wool business. By 1959 steel had become the dominant part of the company and in 1965 the name was changed to Steel and Pipe Supply. At the Kansas City location, they are known for their large inventory. At this location 20.000 tonnes of steel is held.

Investment in shot blasting machine

When Steel and Pipe visited one of their customers, HME in Topeka (KS), they saw a Voortman VSB shot blasting machine and were very impressed by its blasting quality. They knew immediately that this was the direction they wanted to go.

Ed Bare: "The material comes out clean, looking great and ready to go. Furthermore, the guys running the machine have to work a lot harder than they used to, just to keep up with the machine."

The biggest advantage of their Voortman VSB1500 shot blaster is the position of the material. The majority running through their shot blaster is wide flange beam. In the past they always had to place the beams in the I-position and were in need of operators with brooms to sweep the blasting abrasive as it came out of the machine. Now they can place the beams in the H-position and an automatic adjustable brush, combined with compressed air cleans the material and leaves no blasting abrasive.

Ed Bare: "I actually got an e-mail in the last hour from a customer. They said they could tell a big difference in the material that came of the old blaster, compared to the new blaster."

Shot blasting multiple items at the same time

With the 60 inch opening, Steel and Pipe Supply runs multiple items at the same time through the shot blaster, which saves them a lot of time. They literarily put anything through the VSB1500. Tubes, pipes, angles and narrow plates.
Ed Bare: "We don’t limit the items we put though. If the customer needs it, that’s what we put through it."
Aside from shot blasting, Steel and Pipe Supply offers cut to length services, line cutting and processing with cutting tables.