We don’t sit still

At Monkeytoe, we’re always asking, “What could be better?”

Then we roll up our sleeves and make it happen.

This month, we’re lifting the curtain on a couple of recent changes that you’ll be excited to learn about.

For a long time, Monkeytoe – and countless others – have used a variety of metal mesh products like Amplimesh and WebForge for walkways, decking in industrial areas and data centres, and industrial platforms of all sizes in power stations, food processing plants, and even helicopter landing decks. But we started wondering if we could do it better ourselves.

That’s why we’re excited to announce our own Monkeytoe Grating solution, designed by Logan Klenner and made in Australasia. It’s lighter, smarter, stronger, more resilient, and a real game-changer for platforms, chiller decks, and any space where weight and strength matter.

And while we’ve been inventing at one end of the shop, we’ve been changing our systems at the other. Thanks to the leadership of Mehrdad Soltanifar, we’ve ticked off some major milestones with new ISO certifications for health & safety, and quality.

So if you’re looking for gold standards, Monkeytoe has you covered.

Check out what’s on the cards in this update.

A few years back, we started to wonder what it would take to make a grating like Amplimesh or WebForge ourselves. After all, innovation is in our blood; if we could design a solution that’s just as good or better than what’s currently available, then we could bring serious benefits to our customers and boost our manufacturing abilities at home. Current offerings on the market aren’t structural, but what if they were? Could we create something that’s lighter, easier to work with, and corrosion-resistant, all in our own backyard?

Logan Klenner, Monkeytoe’s own Development Manager and father of the XBEAM, started working with the Operations Team to see how it could be done. After several years of R&D, prototyping, and the building of an impressive manufacturing machine, we did it.

It starts out with an extrusion. An aluminium profile is created, which is then carefully punched to create slots, and the top knurled for grip. The emerging mesh is stretched to turn cut slots into diamonds, and slowly the grating forms from the machine.  

The design is not the most technical part, but the manufacturing process is. The process is very similar to existing Amplimesh and the like, but with some critical differences. Existing mesh solutions are ‘open’ at the bottom, which limits the load-bearing strength. Ours is closed at the bottom, reducing bending under load for superior strength in two directions, but this also requires a more complex extrusion. That also created challenges for the accuracy of the extrusions and punches, demanding 1/2mm tolerance across the length of the mesh.

Plus we had to learn how to punch the aluminium and eject the slugs without crushing or localised bending. With our 15 and 25mm meshes, that was straightforward. But for a 40mm profile, it required a change of approach to our methods: a strategic punch on both sides. That makes our machine something very special.

As Logan explains, you have to have extensive knowledge of aluminium’s real-world performance to know that something like this mesh is possible. Finite element analysis doesn’t necessarily give the same results as physical testing: on the computer, meshes should fall apart, but we know that they don’t in reality. Grates simply perform better in the real world, and this was especially true of our grating. Sometimes you have to look past the numbers and trust your gut that it’ll work. But because Logan and the team have been working with these materials for a long time, they know what it takes to make it succeed.

The results are clear. Under the same loading, our 15mm grating deflects ~40% less than the competitor’s product. At around 15kg/sqm, it weighs a fraction of a WebForged product at ~50kg/sqm – so ours represents a massive weight saving for less structural loading and seismic safety. Plus it can be handled by hand and cut on site, allowing us to reimagine installation as a fast and easy process. It’s making our mesh very attractive for the likes of chiller decks on data centres and massive platforms – or anywhere that you want a lighter, faster to install, simpler and longer-lasting solution.

The alternatives out there aren’t considered structural elements, but the thicker Monkeytoe Mesh ranges have been designed as structural for mounting reasonably sized equipment. And it’s proudly made in Australasia, which counts for a lot these days.

We already have some exciting projects for our new grating on the cards, including a 10,000sqm chiller deck. Watch this space for more – and get in touch if you want to talk more about how Monkeytoe’s new grating solution might fit your next project.

Monkeytoe proudly receives ISO certifications

In business, there are some key certifications you want to get to show that you go above and beyond. National standards, of course, but what about stronger international standards?

Over the last couple of years, we’ve been pushing for ISO certifications for health & safety, and quality management, with members from across our team collaborating on this intensive but very valuable challenge.

In short, we’re serious about ongoing improvements to our H&S and quality management, and now we have the certifications to prove it. Our Quality, H&S & Environmental Manager Merhdad Soltanifar has been leading the team through this process and embracing our spirit of ongoing improvements.

And now we have the certifications to prove it.

What’s the big deal with ISO?

Well, the International Organization for Standardization sets standards for making the world safer, easier, and better. It’s a collaborative effort: countries put forward their best practices, and then ISO defines a set of standards that anyone – regardless of size, place in the world, or the nature of a business, can sign up for.

There are some general families of standards (like 31000 – Risk management), and some that are more industry-specific (like 22000 – Food safety management). Basically, ISO – and the countries and companies that follow their standards – are there to be thanked for the safe standardisation of everything from camera film speeds to anti-bribery management systems, country codes, and ISOFIX child seats for cars.

Monkeytoe had a good H&S system in place – and quality management, which we’ll get to – but national standards only go so far. ISO is the most comprehensive and is well understood for bigger companies approaching markets in other countries.

As Mehrdad explains, “Having ISO certification shows customers and clients that we are a company that cares about our people. It also opens up new markets for us, given that we get a lot of jobs through tenders. Having ISO in place means clients can expect us to meet national and international standards, and that their investment with us is done responsibly.”

It’s a hard-knock industry

Construction is known for its high number of incidents and accidents, which is why it made sense for us to focus and start here rather than, say, with environmental standards or quality management. Plus, H&S is a big deal, because doing things properly means that everyone at Monkeytoe and that we work with on site gets to go home safely.

ISO 45001 – Occupational health & safety standard considers all the usual culprits for what might harm our workers – machinery, vehicles, falling objects, working at heights, etc. – but some newer features as part of the health management system like viruses, mental health concerns, stress, fatigue and so on that can also do harm.

It’s not an easy journey to go through to get certified – we’re talking a year-long process including an intensive multi-day audit. It’s taken a substantial collaborative effort from people across the business. But good H&S is also an investment in our people and our future. So we established a strong team and made sure that the resources we needed were there.

“That’s not always the case with organisations,” Mehrdad explains. “The outcome of these kinds of projects isn’t always visible at the first. Some managers see that as a cost rather than an investment for the future. As the joke goes, ‘If you think health & safety is expensive, try an incident!’”

“It might take more time to complete a daily checklist, but when you see how it benefits you every day, then it becomes a lot easier to get behind good processes.”

That’s what led us to completing the ISO 45001 – Occupational health & safety standard a little over a year ago. But we wouldn’t sit still.

Going for Quality

Once we had H&S ISO under our belts, it was time to go for quality.

There are four key standards that companies tend to go for: quality, H&S, IT (including information security), and environmental standards. The nature of the business tends to determine which standards they approach. For us, it made sense to move on from H&S to ensuring we meet high standards of products and services: from our suppliers to material certification, processes (like welding and cutting), systems (e.g. our resource planning), and that it arrives to our clients (and performs) as expected.

But surely quality is important to us, right? Well yes, of course, and we keep up with national standards – because it’s the right thing to do, and because we want to make sure our products last a lifetime. “With ISO certification, we have the proof that across the design, manufacture and install part of our business, we’re embracing a quality management system,” Mehrdad explains.

What’s next?

We completed our five-day audit for the quality ISO at the end of February, and passed it without major issues – so we’re waiting for the certification to be issued.

But ISO has at its heart continuous improvement, so by its nature, we’re not resting on our laurels. “Certification isn’t the end, but proof we’re on the right track,” says Mehrdad.

“The cycle of plan-check-do-act (PCDA) sees us continually auditing our work, evaluating our supplier performance, and keeping our process certifications up-to-date,” says Mehrdad. “It’s not just a badge for us. We’ll make sure we implement and keep the training up, and improve the quality of our products.”

So for the rest of 2025, we’ll be improving everything we’ve built so far, before establishing an environmental management system in 2026-7 and getting our ISO 14001. And all the while, you’ll see that spirit on innovation and improvement in everything we do.