Page 39 - MetalForming August 2014

building (41,000 sq. ft., four times larg- er than its original digs) and began to bring in fabrication equipment.”
The March into Fabrication
...accelerated in 1999 with a 15-sta- tion CNC punching cell, followed two years later by a second punching cell with automatic load/unload, and in 2005 by a third CNC punching cell that includes the ability to form flanges to 3 in. and tap threads in sheetmetal to 1⁄4 in. thick.
Fast forward to December 2013 and Berger boasts of the firm’s newest acqui- sition: a Trumpf TruLaser 5030 5-kW solid-state laser-cutting machine with fiberoptic beam delivery, the first such machine equipped with Trumpf ’s BrightLine fiber technology (introduced to the North American market at FABTECH 2013 in Chicago). The new machine, explains Berger, nicknamed Helena (Sureway employees assign names to all of the firm’s fabrication equipment), cuts 7-gauge cold-rolled steel at 244 in./min., significantly faster than its previous-generation 3-kW solid- state laser-cutting machine (dubbed Sabine). Also on the production floor is
an 11-yr.-old 2500-W five-axis CO2 laser-cutting machine, used for 3D cutting.
“We brought in Sabine and then Helena to cut faster and also to accom- modate thicker material,” Berger says. “Prior to that, we were outsourcing work thicker than 3⁄8 in. to local plasma- cutting shops. With the newest Trumpf machine, we no longer have to do that. And, since we now can laser-cut steel to 1.0 in. thick, we’ve been able to quote more work outside the POP industry, which has allowed us to earn work for the snow-removal industry and others.
“The domino effect is noticeable,” Berger continues. “Our newly expand- ed cutting capabilities led us to expand our forming operations by adding three new electric press brakes in the last 12 months, as well as add a Haeger inser- tion machine, four additional spot- welding machines and three new arc- welding stations, including one specifically for aluminum welding.”
That equipment-investment port- folio represents well the significant growth Sureway has experienced, from a $1.5 million company in the late 1990s to $17 million in 2013. It expanded from
its original 10,000-sq.-ft. facility to a 41,000-sq.-ft. building in 1996, and again in 2006 to its current 82,000-sq.- ft. plant—soon to be joined by an addi- tional 64,000-sq.-ft. building to house assembly and packaging operations.
Another testament to the firm’s growth: Its recent need to laser-cut lights-out, unmanned on a short third shift. Sureway Tool vp of engineering Carlos Rivera explains.
“We were making POP displays for a large retailer, to showcase its selection of tablet computers. The job required us to fabricate 5000 sheet’s worth of one part design and 4700 of another, and all of the parts had dozens of holes. We started by running the sheets (5 by 10 ft., of 16- and 18-gauge mild steel) on our turret press but needed more capacity. So, we enlisted Helena. While laser cut- ting can’t keep up with a turret press for hole-intensive parts like these, we were pleasantly surprised that, running lights out, the laser averaged 12 min. of processing time for each sheet, compared
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Equipped with Trumpf’s BrightLine fiber technology, the newest laser-cutting machine at Sureway has delivered huge improvements in cut-edge quality—“no dis- cernable burring or slag, and minimal sur- face roughness on the cut edges,” says plant manager Carlos Rivera.