Oilpath moves to Tonsley, unlocking new productivity and collaboration

The company’s brand-new, purpose-built $10 million engineering and manufacturing facility on MAB Eastern Promenade marks the next phase of the company’s development, delivering 3000 sqm of space and doubling its previous manufacturing floorspace.  

The new facility brings production, engineering, and quality functions together, with purpose-built layouts and improved product flow replacing the constraints of Oilpath’s former location. Materials now move efficiently throughout the factory, from machining through to assembly, test and dispatch. 

It incorporates a two-storey engineering hub for research and development, technical support, production and quality divisions. 

As part of its expansion, the company invested $5 million in new machinery, including several state-of-the-art Mazak CNC machining centres, improving quality, productivity and scalability. The advancement is especially important for hydraulic manifolds – considered the ‘brains’ of hydraulic control systems – with upgraded machinery and expanded floorspace enabling Oilpath to produce up to  

6,000 bespoke manifolds annually, building on a catalogue of 4,500 existing designs.  

Having officially moved into Tonsley in late January, the advantages are already apparent for Oilpath Chief Executive Officer Stephen McKee. 

“For almost 50 years, we’ve built a wide range of hydraulic products that we proudly design and manufacture here in South Australia, including our proprietary directional control valves, tipping valves and safety systems,” Mr McKee said. 

“We specialise in developing custom hydraulic solutions that precisely match operational requirements and performance goals and our team of experienced design engineers bring decades of collective expertise to every project. 

“Now, our productivity has increased by 25 per cent just by being in this new facility at Tonsley, and another 60 to 70 per cent through the investment in new machinery. 

“The introduction of the new machining centres has significantly improved our efficiency. A manifold that previously required four separate operations can now be completed in just two. 

“Each machine is equipped with six pallets, with each pallet able to hold four blocks. This enables us to program and run up to 24 different manifold designs simultaneously, enabling a ‘lights out’ production, while maximising machine utilisation. 

“We have also invested in a cobot capable of feeding up to 200 smaller, lower-value blocks into one of the machines, which allows for fully unmanned weekend operation, further streamlining our production process.” 

Oilpath designs and manufactures fluid power solutions featuring integrated hydraulic control manifolds to provide industry-leading solutions for critical market sectors Australia wide including agricultural, mining, transport, defence, industrial and marine sectors. 

These solutions are used in applications ranging from large-scale agricultural equipment such as harvesters and crop sprayers to mining operations, tipper trucks, scissor lifts and shipbuilding applications. 

Home to 31 staff with scope to increase workforce in the future, the new Tonsley facility also includes a 350 sqm expansion zone located next door allowing for future growth as the company rapidly increases its operations.  

“The expansion zone gives us a clear path for future growth,” Mr McKee said.  

“In four or five years, we expect demand to be strong enough to justify a new line of machinery, which would allow us to shift our stores, testing and assembly operations into this area.” 

The company is so trusted that its clients regularly ask it to create two to six new designs each week for often very complex manifolds. The next step in OilPath’s efficiency mission is to accelerate the process of getting those designs into production and tested. 

That’s why it is embarking on a joint project with Flinders University’s Factory of the Future at Tonsley to explore how artificial intelligence can accelerate Oilpath’s testing process. The collaboration will develop an AI system that interprets hydraulic circuit diagram information and will generate a test, replicating real field conditions, greatly reducing the time and specialist knowledge currently required.  

The relocation to Tonsley was a necessary step that is now driving growth, with plans to expand Oilpath’s product offering to include hydraulic pumps, motors and an expanded range of cartridges. This will create a one-stop shop for customers’ hydraulic system needs, while supporting annual growth targets of seven to 10 per cent. 

“When I came on board as part owner in 2019 with fellow directors Callan Rogers and David Zundel of Inventure Partners, we had a view to accelerate our path into the future in numerous areas. We wanted to upskill people, have a defined strategy in place, upgrade the facilities and machinery and connect to new markets,” Mr McKee said. 

“It’s important to us to have a company that’s built for the future hence we’re looking at expanding our markets more into defence and marine and our new facility will certainly enable us to present better in those sectors. 

“This represents the first step in Oilpath’s future; showcasing a purpose-built facility, achieving the right level of productivity and attracting best talent. 

“We are really excited to reach this milestone and over the past few years we have been preparing for this moment, but now it is time to realise and achieve our full potential.”