Camco commits to finding the answers

First established in 1995, the company employs some 550 personnel in four Western Australian locations, while also expanding across Australia and into export markets including in Papua New Guinea.

With its head office located in Canning Vale and engineering facilities also in Belmont, Welshpool and Karratha WA, Camco provides high level engineering services in mining, power generation, oil and gas, energy, transport and rail along with general engineering work.

Group operations manager Matt Casley says the company’s work is “strong and expanding” in all the markets where it operates.

The company is about to build a 4,000 square metre heavy lifting facility with one 150 tonne overhead lifting crane along with other smaller lifting cranes. A new storage facility is also being built.

Camco Engineering is also fully accredited to a number of international certifications including ISO9001, ISO45001, DNV CP-0352.

“Such are the engineering capabilities of our staff that we have a policy of never turning away a job no matter how challenging,” he says.

“We just find the right solution for our customers and our work covers refurbishing sizes, crushers, vibratory screens, conveyer pulleys, magnetic separators, exciters, gearboxes wheel grippers, bogies, cryogenic pumps, expander generators, marine loading arms, rope access work and sub-sea manufacture plus much more.”

Employing four design engineers and six draftspeople, Camco offers CAM/CAD design facilities and services related to fabrication, welding, robotics, gear cutting, inspection and metrology, machining plus design and manufacture.

“In our engineering shop we have two Okuma machining centres and two Okuma CNC lathes and a strong working relationship with Okuma WA that ticks all the boxes,” Casley says.

“With reliable, stable precision engineering outcomes, strong technical support from the factory with skilled local technicians, user friendly programming and training, it is a company that goes the extra mile.”

The new Okuma MA-8000H Horizontal Machining Centre accommodates a broad spectrum of workpieces, from robust steel components to lightweight aluminium parts, which provides great flexibility for engineering shops across a broad range of industrial applications.

Meanwhile, Okuma’s latest CNC Lathe model LB3000BMYC x 950 – with the new OSP-P500L controller – is designed with precision in mind, combining thermal stability with robust structural engineering.

This lathe maintains dimensional accuracy in variable temperatures delivering critically reliable performance.

Casley says Okuma’s willingness to go the extra mile is demonstrated by the company’s efforts when commissioning of a new Okuma machine and rolling out the necessary training to its Karratha facilities, some 1,500km away from its home base.

“There is always an air of excitement within my team that comes with the introduction of a technically advanced machining centre with the very latest technology and competition occurs as to who will operate the new machine,” he says.

“The Okuma machines are running 24 hours a day producing an ever-increasing range of components.”

Complementing these machines is Camco’s 38 apprentices – within a team of 550 personnel – pursuing a robust apprentice training program getting experience within all divisions of the company before returning to their core trade training.

The outcome for Camco Engineering is well-rounded workers – including a gold medallist in Fitting at the recent WorldSkills Australia event – many who want to say on once their apprenticeship is complete.

“The economy in Western Australia has been very strong for us over the last few years, and we expect this to continue,” Casley says.

“However there remains a lot of work still going overseas where Australian manufacturers have the quality skills to economically undertake this work and this needs to be addressed.”