From August issue NZ Manufacturer www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz

Export award winning, Tauranga based Oasis Engineering continues to expand its international market as a specialist manufacturer delivering world leading solutions to those pushing the boundaries of energy and fluid transfer for the benefit of humanity and the environment.

 The company originally began as the maintenance division of a soft drink brand but was separated during a restructuring during the 1980’s. The new company quickly established a strong reputation as a machine shop that reliably produced high tolerance precision machined parts in difficult to work materials such as stainless steel and titanium.

This led to work manufacturing valves and couplings that were required for the new and emerging Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel market for a major CNG supply company and this quickly expanded to every major CNG supplier and to every significant CNG market in more than 40 countries.

Today Oasis Engineering is part of the ELAFLEX Group of Companies of Hamburg and is manufacturing precision CNG, LPG and Hydrogen reticulation products for the world market with approximately 80% of production going to the USA, 10% to other world markets and 10% to the local New Zealand market.

The company is well placed to meet the demands of emerging markets including Hydrogen and Methane for heavy transport vehicles and renewable Natural Gas with sales doubling within the last two years. Oasis also produces specially designed high quality fluid couplings for the milk industry trailers.

This state-of-the-art manufacturer is fully accredited to ISO 9001:2015 with product testing facilities including a Hydrostatic test rig rated to 4000 BAR and an Environmental Test Chamber rated between -80⁰C and +185⁰C. A new addition will be a Hydrogen product test laboratory which is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the year.

Meeting the demands for the highest precision and ultimate efficiency from day one, the company invested early on in an Okuma CNC machine and today this high-tech machine shop has fourteen Okuma CNC Machines including Multi-tasking CNC Machines, 5-axis Machining Centres, CNC Lathes, Bar Feeders and Robotics.

“Okuma has always been at the centre of our precision manufacturing machine shop, providing unparalleled reliability, easy programming, time saving multi functions and the highest quality output, coupled with the high level of service backup directly from the manufacturer,” said Managing, Director Kevin Flint.

Keeping abreast with products of the future and also meeting the demands of special applications and solutions for clients, is a team of ten engineers in the internal design office covering industrial design, hydraulics, environmental and future product development. ELAFLEX Germany also supports the design centre in product development. The design team also look into and implement design changes and make recommendations on improvements for clients to increase efficiency or improve the manufacturing process.

Some of the latest Oasis products include Hydrogen quick couplers, cylinder valves, ball valves and trailer load/unload manifolds.

Kaizen methodology plays an important part in increasing productivity in the manufacturing plant and in teaching people to perform experiments on their work using scientific methods to identify waste processes. Kaizen is an ongoing daily process in all areas of the business producing measurable outcomes.

The team of skilled engineers at Oasis Engineering have many years of experience in working with different materials including stainless steel, titanium, brass, aluminium and engineering plastics and from its inception and continuing today it provides precision contract manufacturing services to external clients worldwide. 

Overall, the company employs some 50 personnel and has at least two apprentices under training at any time with one or more taken on each year and this is leading to a high retention rate of skilled labour.

“Following the long-term relationship that recently retired Okuma General Manager Fred de Jong has built up with this outstanding company it will be a pleasure for me to continue with this close relationship to ensure that the right machines always meet their requirements and market needs,” said newly appointed Okuma New Zealand Manager Karl Medley.

“The newly appointed Okuma Service Engineer will also play an important role in further strengthening our services in this area,” he said.