Page 38 - MetalForming August 2014

Solid-State Lasers
Take onThick-Plate Cutting
The applications for high- power solid-state lasers (fiber and other) are expanding beyond the realm of thin-gauge sheetmetal and into heavier plate. Read here how one metalformer leverages that ability to expand into new markets and gain new customers.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Shorter lead times and the need to turn product faster have driven the leadership at Sureway Tool & Engineering Co., Franklin Park, IL, to invest mightily in new sheetmetal-fab- rication technology—laser cutting, CNC punching, electric press-brake forming, and resistance and arc weld- ing. While company vice president Julian Burnley and director of opera- tions Tim Berger are quick to point out that the company’s once-shrinking stamping operations have rebounded nicely in recent years, it’s the flexibili- ty and quick response it can achieve with fabrication that fuel its ability to satisfy customer requirements. Specif- ically, laser cutting, CNC punching and press-brake forming enable the firm
to efficiently produce small lot sizes of parts and meet lead times as tight as a couple of weeks or less.
An overwhelming majority of Sure- way’s work goes to the point-of-pur- chase (POP) industry, manufacturing displays, shelving and other store fix- tures primarily from powder-coated mild steel, with a bit of stainless steel, aluminum and copper alloys thrown into the mix. From its launch in 1962 until the mid-1980s, high-volume metal stamping satisfied its existing client base, “until much of that work started to head overseas,” says Burnley. “We began our transition into more of a low-volume higher-mix shop in the mid to late 1990s when, under new ownership, we moved into a larger
In December 2013, Sureway added this Trumpf TruLaser 5030 5-kW solid-state laser-cutting machine to its stable, in part to allow it to take on thicker work and expand into new markets.
36 MetalForming/August 2014 www.metalformingmagazine.com