Leussink Engineering is an outstanding, state-of-the-art engineering company with more than four decades of experience. The company boasts an ever-expanding range of capabilities as a result of ongoing skills training and investment in the latest technologies.
Carel and Muriel Leussink founded Leussink in 1977, initially operating out of a humble home garage in Unanderra, New South Wales. Today it is a second-generation family business offering complete design, fabrication and machining services and solutions for clients over a wide spectrum of industries. It prides itself on delivering world-leading after-sales service, maintaining close client liaison to ensure expectations are met or exceeded on each job. It is equally renowned for machining bespoke components, fabrication or projects manufactured to turnkey operational level, leveraging years of skills and experience.
“At Leussink we genuinely believe in local manufacturing,” says Jason Leussink, the company’s Managing Director. “Of course, in our industry, it is not always possible to buy 100% Australian made materials, but where we can, we do buy Australian and support other organisations that have the same philosophy.”
The company’s boasts a wide range of capabilities including CNC machining, milling and turning, wire cutting, surface grinding, design, metal fabrication, welding, robotic welding, assembly, reverse engineering, power transmission and parts qualification and verification. Work is undertaken for clients in such diverse industries such as defence, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, oil & gas, mining and minerals processing, pulp and paper, heavy industry, transport, construction / civil engineering and marine.
In concert with its high level of customer services, Leussink also plans and anticipates its clients’ spare parts requirements – ensuring they are available when required – thus minimising costly machine down-time.
Whilst the engineering side of the business is predominately within New South Wales, the company operates nationally, manufacturing and supplying welding fabrication tables in various sizes and configurations. The ‘in-house’ Leussink fabrication department utilises these very same fabrication tables in conjunction with a 16m-long rail system, ensuring fixture flatness of 0.1mm per metre length of table.
Due to a strong commitment to its clients, particularly in the defence area and international customers with propriety components, the company enforces high levels of IT protection. It has actively participated in AusIndustry’s Cyber Security Maturity Assessment program. This covered assessments in risk identification, threat detection, protection, response and recovery, ensuring that the company remains ‘low risk’ in this area.
Leussink today has with more than 40 employees including apprentices. Addressing a serious shortage of apprenticeship applicants, Leussink has been proactive in working closely with local secondary schools careers advisory personnel and addressing student groups on career opportunities in engineering. This has proven to be successful and the company currently has eight apprentices under training.
This socially responsible community-minded family business is also actively involved in the Illawarra and NSW South Coast community through participation in annual charity events along with other local businesses in raising money to support those in need. The company supports local schools, opening up opportunities and present a vision for young people to pursue careers in engineering.
A commitment to technology investment
Complementing its strong engineering business, the company is firmly focused on modernising workshops and production facilities throughout Australia. Utilising a wide range of engineering solutions, it uses world-leading welding and fixturing tables and accessories to portable metrology arms that deliver the highest accuracy per part qualification. It also provides metrology solutions for industrial application nationwide with products, software and services to meet the challenges of the manufacturing environment with internationally regarded products.
In the high-end technology area, Leussink has had a long association with Okuma Australia – going back some 26 years to when its first lathe was purchased. Its most recent addition is the latest Okuma LH55-N-Cx4000 CNC lathe, with an OSP-P300LA control. This machine complements an earlier similar model, providing the company with further advanced technology and greater capacity in the heavy engineering area, where it performs repair and rework, reverse engineering and specialist high-end jobs cater for clients in general manufacturing, mining, the steel industry and the energy sector.
“We have found the equipment to be reliable and proven performers, and not least of all, the service and support from Okuma has been outstanding,” says Chris Walton, Sales Manager at Leussink. “The combination of these points made the company’s decision to invest in additional Okuma machinery a ‘no brainer’.”
Chris adds that negotiating the purchase from Okuma was a professional and stress-free process, noting that Okuma’s communications are a particularly strong point when seeking spares or technical support.
“The Okuma team and the machinery they provide is an exemplary package, making it hard to look elsewhere,” says Chris.
The latest Okuma acquisition complements a number of other Okuma machines in the engineering shop, opening up new business opportunities and dramatically reducing deadlines. The capabilities also allow shorter runs, reducing inventory and enhanced competitiveness. New business opportunities for the company are being advanced in the defence sector and both the mining and the steel industries, promoting the competitive and quality advantages of Australian manufacturing.
Leussink takes full advantage of the training support offered by Okuma where appropriate, but being familiar with the easy programming and operating systems of the Okuma machines, the skilled engineers and operators are competent in this area.
“It is exciting to work with yet another progressive Australian company investing in the future and taking advantage of the current strong support for high-tech and competitive manufacturing in this country against the threat of overseas suppliers – and winning,” says Dean McCarroll, Managing Director of Okuma Australia. “A strong vibrant, competitive and reliable manufacturing base is vital to our Australian economy, supporting recovery in the current climate and in the longer term.”
For Jason Leussink, the new machine from Okuma is evidence of an optimistic outlook for his company.
“The new lathe effectively doubles the turning capacity within our workshop,” says Jason. “It will complement our existing lathe and allow us to increase the size of the items we machine as well. We’re investing in our future work. Having just one large lathe in our workshop was creating a bottleneck that will now be eliminated. The old lathe will be used to rough jobs out and the new one for finish machining.
“Australian manufacturing is alive and well and we will continue to invest in it. We’ve been competing with overseas companies for years, and the COVID pandemic has brought new work our way because overseas suppliers cannot always guarantee continuity of supply or the same quality that we offer.”