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Howard Wright Ltd is a leading New Zealand manufacturer of medical beds and stretchers used in hospitals and healthcare facilities worldwide.
Their M10 Ward Bed required a lightweight yet durable frame structure capable of withstanding high loads and repeated loading cycles while maintaining the precision fit and surface finish essential for medical-grade equipment.
To achieve compliance with international safety standards, the M10 Ward Bed required a structural tube with higher yield strength and improved fatigue resistance compared with what standard cold rolled annealed (commercial quality) grades could offer.
Earlier materials had shown inconsistent mechanical performance, making it difficult to achieve a satisfactory safety factor and ensure compliance of every bed manufactured.
The design also demanded:
Industrial Tube Manufacturing worked closely with Howard Wright to develop a custom tubing solution that balanced strength, stability, and manufacturability.
After trials and tensile testing, the team selected NZCC-1P, a single-pass cold-rolled steel produced by New Zealand Steel at Glenbrook. This locally manufactured material not only met the technical targets for strength and dimensional stability but also supported our joint drive for as sustainable as possible, locally sourced steel made locally in New Zealand.
NZCC-1P provided:
To accommodate the higher-strength steel strip, Industrial Tube implemented proprietary adjustments to the tube-mill setup—refining roll pressures, forming-stand alignment, and scarfing control—to ensure consistent forming without compromising weld quality. Internal weld beads were controlled using in-process ID plugs, maintaining tight internal clearances.
The resulting 1.6 × 50.8 × 25.4 mm tube achieved ± 0.13 mm OD tolerance and < 4 % wall-thickness variation, exceeding the precision required for telescoping assemblies.
Tensile tests conducted to AS 1391 (2020) confirmed that the 1P tube met and exceeded specification:
| Property | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.2 % Proof Strength | 471 MPa | ||
| Ultimate Tensile Strength | 503 MPa | ||
| Elongation after Fracture | 12.8 % | ||
| (Independent testing by MTL Labs NZ — Report No. J65503/1) |
Howard Wright subsequently validated tube performance in their own cyclic-loading and durability test rigs, confirming product compliance with international safety standards.
This project demonstrated Industrial Tube’s capability to customise both material selection and tube-mill processing to meet a specific engineering requirement.
By adopting NZCC-1P cold-rolled coil from New Zealand Steel, Howard Wright gained:
This collaboration highlights Industrial Tube’s ability to engineer fit-for-purpose precision tubing beyond standard grades—Made Here, Supported Here—for critical applications in healthcare and advanced engineering.
“We are a make-to-order exporter of medical beds and stretchers. The work load on our factory can vary, so a responsive and quality orientated key supplier like Industrial Tube is critical to our performance. During the April to May COVID-19 lockdown, Industrial Tube went above and beyond to ensure we were supplied with tube to meet short customer supply deadlines. We have no hesitation in recommending Industrial Tube to companies seeking a first rate tube supplier.” – B MOLLER | Howard Wright Ltd
End-to-end manufacturing, streamlined. Design, prototyping, and production — all managed in-house for precision and control.
