Page 32 - MetalForming November 2011

Fiber-Laser
Technology
Lights Metalformer’s Bright Future
Ultra Tool & Manufacturing’s new fabrication department features a fiber-laser cutting machine that not only supports low-volume production requirements of its existing customers but also allows the company to expand its customer base in nontraditional markets.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
When Terry Hansen, president of precision metalforming company Ultra Tool & Manu- facturing, Inc., committed to fitting a sheetmetal-fabrication department into his 73,000-sq.-ft. operation in Menomonee Falls, WI, investing in old technology did not fit into the equation. What’s “old technology,” according to Hansen?
“For me,” says Hansen, “CO2-based laser-cutting systems, which we’ve run
here since the mid-’80s, represents old
technology. You’re forced to deal with
the cost of the lasing gases, relatively inefficient operation, the nuisance of beam-alignment and other maintenance issues, etc. And, while CO2 lasers do perform well when cutting ferrous alloys, I wanted to grow our core customer base by expanding out of mild-steel and stainless-steel production and fabricate reflective metal alloys like brass and aluminum—difficult to do with CO2 lasers.”
That philosophy led Hansen and the Ultra Tool engineering team to, in March
An Ultra Tool operator carefully removes delicate aluminum discs from the worktable of the firm’s new fiber-laser cutting machine. Fiber lasers, like all solid-state lasers, do a great job cutting highly reflective materials such as these 0.037-in.-thick discs, which will soon decorate the walls of a Las Vegas casino. Says Ultra Tool president Terry Hansen: “This is not what I would call our typical customer. I’m extremely excited to bring this type of new business to Ultra Tool.”
30 MetalForming/November 2011
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