Page 24 - MetalForming July 2011

Early this year Twinco replaced a 60,000-PSI waterjet-cutting machine with this Mitsubishi Suprema DX510 outfitted with a KMT Waterjet Streamline Pro 60-hp 90,000-PSI pump. The 50-percent increase in pressure allows the firm to process thicker material and increase cutting speed on thin work, while maintaining edge-and surface-quality tolerances.
Waterjet Cutting–
This manufacturer envisions a world made of fabricated sheet and plate, using waterjet cutting and other processes to build products typically made from machined castings.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Perhaps the folks at Merriam- Webster should add to their def- inition of the word “versatile” some mention of the waterjet-cutting process. I come to this conclusion after speaking with those in charge at Twin- co Mfg. Co., Hauppauge, NY. The very vertically integrated manufacturer pri- marily serves regional transit compa- nies, fabricating automatic train stops, impedance bonds, relays, contacts and other electromechanical devices. Its 50,000-sq-.ft. facility houses CNC machining, stamping, molding, fabri- cation and assembly operations.
“We manufacture inhouse as much as possible,” says operations supervisor JC Schatz (whose father John is the com- pany’s president), “due to the low-vol- ume high-mix nature of our work. Also, downtime is critical to our customers. Any delay in obtaining replacement rail-
The Swiss Army Knife of Metal Fab
road parts costs the transit authorities dearly. Inhouse control of the manufac- turing operations allows us to turn on a dime and truly serve the customers.”
Twinco’s vast range of capabilities has both Schatzes pledging to grow the company’s contract-manufacturing business (aside from its work for transit authorities) from five percent currently to 15 percent within the next two years.
Making the World from Fabricated Sheet and Plate
Twinco’s roots trace back more than 45 years, as a tool and die shop pro- viding electromechanical components for equipment OEMs serving the rail- road industry. In the 1980s it began to work more and more directly for the transit authorities (New York City, Chicago and others).
“The key to our success, says John Schatz (whose father founded Twinco in 1963), “is being able to offer a wide variety of inhouse processing capabil- ities, so we can select the best process for each specific job, particularly the low-volume (one to two) high-mix jobs. Doing all of the work inhouse allows us to inspect in-process, not after the fact. We don’t inspect quality into our parts;
we manufacture quality into our parts.” Twinco’s latest vertical step to diver- sification: the addition of waterjet cut- ting. In 2005 the firm added a 60,000- PSI machine, coinciding with its move to its current location from a much
smaller 22,000-sq.-ft. shop.
“Waterjet cutting really is like the
Swiss Army knife of metal fabrication,” says JC, “allowing us to cut all sorts of materials—metal alloys, plastics, rub- ber, glass, etc. Much of what we tradi- tionally manufacture—train-stop hous- ings and similar products—have been made of machined castings, but we see opportunities to more cost effec- tively manufacture these products by fabricating sheet and plate, and water- jet cutting helps facilitate that. Along the same line, we’ve recently added a press brake and, later this year, plan to invest in a robotic-welding cell to bol- ster our fabricating capabilities.”
90-KSI Cutting
Early this year the firm upgraded its waterjet-cutting capabilities by replacing its 60,000-PSI machine with a 90,000- PSI machine, a Mitsubishi Suprema DX510 outfitted with a KMT Waterjet Streamline Pro 60-hp 90,000-PSI pump.
22 MetalForming/July 2011
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