DESPITE the global financial crisis, which has hit all sectors of the economy including the rebar processing industry, the MEP Group says it has remained committed to expanding its client base while maintaining its policy of investing heavily in research and development on new products.

The group has also expanded its manufacturing facilities in Italy as well as its servicing structure that operates on a global basis. Its efforts in this direction have been rewarded with a number of important contracts in the Middle East to introduce new technology and new solutions that address the demand for more efficient processing of the steel material.
Among its recent innovations is the new Shear Line LTM500 – a modern and extremely robust design based on a 510-mm wide and 300-tonne hydraulic guillotine shear with cutting capacity of up to 60 mm rebar.
“It is built on MEP’s style, which means the highest quality standard and no compromise even in the choice of both mechanical and electronic components,” says a spokesman for the Italy-based company.
The new machine joins a family of quality rebar processing equipment from MEP, which includes the Cut-Line, the Syntax Line – a unit of which is now operating in the GCC – and the Planet range. “The Cut-Line system is always available for those who need to base the processing of rebar on more flexible and automated criteria,” says the spokesman. “The Syntax Line 25 – now also available in the bigger 28 version – is an outstanding full automated cut-and-bend centre with unique and innovative solutions such as a secondary feeding system, allowing the unit to work with only one bending head and a double-cutter system, among other features.”
The Planet 20 large-shapes bender is capable of processing 20 mm coil in single strand and 16 mm in double strand. “It is now probably the most advanced and sophisticated equipment developed for processing of coil material,” the spokesman points out.
He continues: “A new family of machines has been developed on that design frame, such as the new Bitronic 20 straightening-and-cutting machine and the Format 20, the last and biggest version of the well-known Format stirrup benders series. Format 12 and 16 are already very popular models in the Gulf.”
MEP has also developed a new solution in the field of weldmesh plants and cage assembling machines. “For example, the GAM pile cage maker is now available in versions up to 2,000 mm and 2,500 mm and lengths up to 24 m, offering in a limited footprint an extensive margin of flexibility in production,” says the spokesman. “A new patented system allows production (automatically weld on the board of the machine) of cages with double longitudinal design, either mounted radially or circumferentially around the cage.”
MEP came into being in 1967 with the development of the first-ever automatic stirrup bender fed from coil. This innovation, quite extraordinary then, allowed the shaping and cutting of the steel wire in a continuous cycle, revolutionising the methodologies in use at that time which all required the use of steel in bars, says the spokesman.
In a market scenario where competition will become fiercer and margins more difficult to protect, MEP says it can supply reliable and highly productive equipment, reconfirming itself as a strong, reliable and prestigious partner.