Page 25 - MetalForming August 2013

Award for Exporting.
From 2010 through
2012, Schramm tripled
export revenues, open-
ing new markets in three
continents. It also
received the Manufac-
turer of the Year Award
for 2012 from the
Greater Philadelphia
Chamber of Commerce.
All of that comes not
long after the company’s 30,000-sq.-ft. metal-
forming and weld shop
installed, in June 2010,
a new 20- by 40-ft. CNC plasma-cutting machine.
The accu-kut machine,
from Advanced Kiffer
Industries, Cleveland, OH, is outfitted with Hypertherm (Hanover, NH) state- of-the-art 400-A PAC equipment. While no one directly relates the new PAC machine to the company’s award-win- ning prowess, its benefits are obvious to Kerstetter.
“We’re building custom rigs with countless new part designs coming into the shop—the epitome of low pro- duction and high variability,” says Ker- stetter. Fabricated assemblies range to 50 ft. long and weigh as much as 20,000 lb. “To date we’ve created more than 6000 programs for the accu-kut machine, used to burn part profiles, bevel edges for welding and to also burn bolt holes and other internal shapes.”
Schramm’s PAC machine replaced shearing and oxyfuel cutting for profile cutting, and use of an ironworker to punch holes. As a result, productivity and throughput have soared. Kerstetter offers an example.
“We burn a lot of gussets,” he says, noting production runs of as many as 200 gussets cut from 1⁄2-in.-thick steel plate. “That size job would take 16 hr. to complete on our previous oxyfuel machine; we get it done on the accu- kut in 1 hr.”
In addition, some 50 percent of the plasma-cutting work completed on the accu-kut features a beveled edge for
“We must have as close to perfectly round bolt holes as possible,” stresses Kerstetter, “to ensure nice, tight fitup in the field. Our rigs drill to a depth of up to 15,000 ft., and can experience a lot of vibration. Bolts can- not rattle loose.”
Last but not least, Ker- stetter pours praise on the ability of the PAC sys- tem to etch parts with identification tags and other messages—often safety-related phrases for rig operators to heed. To etch with the accu-kut, the machine operator
quickly switches out the machine’s 400-A cutting head with a 130-A head. (Hypertherm literature says that its system can changeover from cutting with oxygen to marking with argon in 2.4 sec.)
Summarizing the impact made on his shop by the accu-kut/Hypertherm combo, Kerstetter notes that “with our old burn table, we were always two weeks behind. Now we’re never behind —never. In one 8-hr. shift we can run as much production that used to require two weeks of two-shift operation. The machine paid for itself in less than one year.”
Is there an Echo in Here?
Curt Renaud, namesake of Curtis Welding, Atlantic, IA, begins our dis- cussion by echoing Kerstetter’s com- ments related to etching with his new accu-kut/Hypertherm PAC setup. “I couldn’t imagine buying a plasma machine without the ability to etch,” says Renaud.
Renaud’s fab-and-weld shop employs 10, having more than dou- bled in size since 2004. He’s expanded the shop several times in recent years, to keep up with increased demand from large customers in the waste- water, precast concrete and wind-tower industries. That’s quite an impressive customer list compared to the local
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MetalForming/August 2013 23
This 8.5- by 25-.ft. PAC machine landed on the Curtis Welding shop floor in March 2012, after owner Curt Renaud researched the technology at the Fabtech 2011 tradeshow in Chicago. It allows the shop to work with 8- by 20-ft. plates and avoid weld-splicing smaller sections, saving hundreds of hours of production time while improving accuracy.
weld prep. Here’s where Kerstetter’s homework on PAC technology has real- ly paid off, by opting to include Hyper- therm’s True Bevel technology. True Bevel automates cutter-path and parameter programming (such as gas type and pressure) based on the desired bevel profile. It reduces or eliminates trial-and-error time, increasing pro- ductivity and minimizing waste.
“We used to spend as much as 2 hr. setting up our oxyfuel table for bevel- ing,” says Kerstetter. “That process has completely disappeared. And, edge quality is weld-ready—we take parts right from the accu-kut to the weld booths, with no secondary edge grind- ing needed.”
True Bevel serves as a perfect com- plement to another Hypertherm devel- opment—True Hole technology, also used profusely in the Schramm fab shop. True Hole, according to Hyper- therm, automatically adjusts several parameters to optimize hole circulari- ty and edge finish based on material type and thickness and hole diameter. Those critical parameters:
• Process gas type
• Gas flow
• Amperage
• Piercing technique
• Lead-in and lead-out technique • Cutting speed
• Timing