News

Metric Steel Services
Receives Runner Up Award for Energy Saving Wood Burning Stove

Metric Steel Services has developed an energy efficient wood burning cooking stove called the Little Wood Stove. The stove is a solution for rural areas as it reduces smoke by as much as 80%, preventing indoor air pollution, something that the WHO says kills more people each year than malaria. The stove uses 80% less wood to cook a meal compared with traditional three stone cooking, significantly helping deforestation in the rural areas as well as cutting down on time collecting wood. The WHO says an hour collecting wood is an hour not spent in school.

The WHO, Clinton Foundation, Shell Foundation and Morgan Stanley have all supported the initiative and the stoves will be incorporated into the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change Clean Development Mechanism.

The carbon revenue generated will allow the stoves to be distributed free of charge into the rural communities where the stoves are needed most. The stove is made of 100% stainless steel; grade 4302B is used for the stove body and 18/10 for the pot itself. The estimated lifespan of a stove is 10 years due to the use of stainless steel.

Source: Stainless Steel Magazine - Awards August 2012

Making the Big Top a Brighter Place

The company responsible for the design and fabrication of the seating system has been Metric Steel Services, a project management company that mostly services the food and beverage industry. Ricki Allen, a director for the company, says the seating system for the Great Moscow Circus was a fast track project.

“We were approached by the CEO of the Great Moscow Circus, Fred Hunter, in October 2005 to upgrade the existing auditorium seating system. The new platform however had to be ready for the opening of the Circus in January. This meant we only had three months to research, design and fabricate the new system!” Ricki ex- plains.

Fred believed that the existing seating system was too flat and did not offer optimal viewing. It was also made of wood and steel and to move the whole thing required two interlink trucks. He specified that the new system should be made from aluminium as it would be easier to transport.

Fred had seen an aluminium system that he liked in New Zealand so Ricki went over to look at the design. The
New Zealand system seated 700 so Ricki and the team had to make substantial alterations in order to design
a system that could accommodate the 2 100 seats required for the Great Moscow Circus. The end result is stunning.
The seating system has been manufactured using 4mm commercial quality aluminium tread plate. Weighing in at 16 tons, all the aluminium required was supplied in 1250mm wide coil by Gammid Trading, Metric Steel Ser- vices regular supplier of aluminium.

In order to meet the hectic deadline – with only seven weeks for the manufacturing process – the coils were sent directly to a local fabrications company, which was responsible for cutting to length, punching and bend- ing the aluminium to make the different panels required.

“We had a really tight delivery and fortunately all our suppliers came to the party, including Hulett Aluminium from which the tread plate in coil form had to be specially ordered. We had some sleepless nights, but the new seating system finally went in on December 24 – with some time to spare before the opening of the Circus in Johannesburg on January 3 this year,” Ricki says.

Not only does the new seating system look fantastic, but it offers long term savings benefits too. One of the big savings for the Great Moscow Circus is that the entire system can be moved in only one interlink. Also, the fact that the system is lightweight means that it can be assembled and broken down far more quickly and by fewer people.

This is an even bigger bonus when you consider that the Great Moscow Circus travels internationally – and the seating system goes with it!