Page 15 - MetalForming August 2012

Stegh counts on his waterjet-cutting machines to satisfy customers looking for fabricated components from reflective alloys, such as this motorcycle foot pedal fabricated from heavily dimpled 0.045- in.-thick copper-alloy sheet. “Our lasers could never have cut this material, and would have struggled to pierce all of the holes, but waterjet cutting worked like a charm,” he says.
quality requirements. That’s as good an explanation as any as to why I have acquired as much varied equipment as I have over the years.”
Waterjet Capabilities are “Endless”
Stegh describes his company as a “metal-fabrication shop with the abil- ity to do a lot more,” a mantra that has proven itself over and over as he has grown the shop’s capabilities. That growth includes the acquisition of two waterjet-cutting machines, both from Omax Corp., Kent, WA. In 2008 it brought in a cantilever-style Model 55100 Jet-Machining Center, with work- piece capacity to 55 by 100 in. In 2010, Stegh upsized to Omax’s bridge-style 80X series JetMachining Center, with x- y travel to 165 by 80 in. Features include linear drives and a programmable motorized z-axis. With the machines at or near capacity, Stegh seems likely to purchase a third waterjet machine by the end of 2012.
“The capabilities of those Omax machines are endless,” Stegh says, “and often we can achieve better edge qual- ity than we can with our lasers. We’ve cut stainless steel to 3 in.; capacity on our lasers is 1⁄2 in.”
In addition to metal-alloy work, Stegh also waterjet-cuts nonmetals such as rubber and plastic. But he points out in particular how well the process performs on reflective alloys— copper and aluminum—where his laser-cutting machines struggle. For
example, a customer that mod- ifies motorcycles recently came to Tru-Fab in need of
copper-alloy foot-pedal cov- ers, fabricated from heavily dimpled 0.045-in.-thick sheet, and containing several small-diame-
ter holes.
“The lasers could never have cut
that material, and really would have struggled to pierce all of the holes, but waterjet cutting worked like a charm,” Stegh says. Tru-Fab fabricated more than 500 of those parts, once again proving that process flexibility is a crit- ical component to consistently satis- fying customers.
“In fact, being able to turn those motorcycle foot-pedal covers very quickly led that same customer to con- tract us for a lot more work, including laser cutting of stainless-steel speaker covers,” adds Stegh. “We’ve made thou- sands of those.”
Tru-Fab boasts some 100 active cus- tomers to which it ships parts at least monthly; most reside within a 150-mile radius of the company’s Cleveland- area home base. Key end-user indus- tries include material-handling equip- ment (conveyors, forklifts, etc.), medical, power generation and aero- space. It takes in orders nearly every day with part volumes of one or two to a few hundred. Head count ranges from 35 to 40, although Stegh can see that expanding to 45 within the next couple of years, noting that the firm has hired two new employees so far this year.
Programming at the Machines
While Stegh and a few others will occasionally program the waterjet-cut- ting machines offline, much of the jobs are programmed at the machine con- troller. Each machine control includes software add-ons to enable program creation and modification, particular- ly useful when customers come with one-off orders requiring quick turn- around.
One Omax feature Stegh particu- larly appreciates is its Tilt-A-Jet acces- sory cutting head, designed to achieve a nearly zero taper. He has it installed
Stegh particularly appreciates the Tilt-A- Jet accessory cutting head, designed to achieve a nearly zero taper. He has it installed on his Model 55100 machine. The cutting head positions the nozzle at an angle determined by the Omax Intelli- Max software—based on material type and thickness, and cutting speed—to compensate for predicted taper. This moves the tapered edge to the scrap rather than the workpiece.
Tru-Fab waterjet-cuts parts from 3⁄8-in.- thick steel plate to fabricate these assem- blies used in electrostatic precipitators.
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