Page 28 - MetalForming April 2015

Laser-Cutting
fabrication capacity, leading to excessive overtime. A quick decision by the Czer- winskis, following a trip to FABTECH 2013 in Chicago, led to the purchase order for the Amada armada of fabri- cating equipment. That equipment landed at the firm’s original 33,000- sq.-ft. plant in Mt. Vernon, IL; the rest of the company works out of a nearby, brand-new, $13 million 128,000-sq.-ft. facility that includes an expansive machine shop, paint room and multi- ple welding stations.
At the center of the expansion into lighter-gauge work is the CO2 laser- cutting machine. “This is evidence that despite the popularity of fiber- laser cutting machines,” says Amada special project manager
Alain Porro, “there remain plenty of opportunities for fabricators to take advan- tage of the capabilities of CO2 lasers.”
Opportunities, indeed— in just six months, Magnum Steel’s laser-cutting machine is operating at nearly full capacity, two shifts per day. It’s an FOM2 RI (rotary index) 3015 model with a six-shelf sheet-storage tower, twin pal- lets to efficiently move cut nests and fresh sheets in and out of the laser-processing cavity, and—via a mere 2-min.- or-less changeover process— the ability to process round, square and rectangular tube
and pipe, as well as C-channel and angle iron. The machine arrange- ment, says Porro, is the first of its kind combining a sheet-storage tower and rotary index, specially engineered and developed by Amada engineers and technicians at the request of the Czerwinskis.
“I see a growing niche for fabricators taking on tube- and shape-cutting work with their lasers,” Porro adds, “with an 80-20 ratio typical (80 percent sheet, 20 percent tube and pipe). Sheetmetal- fabricating companies that do not process tube and shapes, in many cases, are potentially leaving 20 percent of the laser market behind for other companies to pick up.”
Also Nice for Kitting
Another terrific opportunity fabricators can cash in on, by com- bining sheet-and-tube cutting capabilities with their laser, is kit- ting. With the ability to cut every part needed for complete assem- blies ordered by a customer, a fabricator need not turn away a job or be forced to outsource part of a job—presumably the tube- cutting portion. That’s an advantage already realized more than once by Magnum Steel. Says field-service rep-
resentative Shane Sawyers:
“While initially the laser took over
lighter-gauge work that had been run- ning on the waterjet table, we recently took in a big project for a manufactur- er of truck trailers. It had been plasma- cutting, inhouse, all of the stainless- steel products it needed for a particular project. We recently took over the com- plete kitted project, which includes 220 different parts per kit. We’re cutting 10 kits/month totaling 25,000 to 30,000 lb. of stainless-steel sheet, from 1⁄4-in. thick to 10 gauge.”
Included in the kit is a sec- tion of 13⁄8-in.-dia. round tube, 0.083-in. wall thickness, that Magnum Steel’s laser cuts to length and then slices at a 45-deg. angle on one side. After cutting, the pipe is bent to a 90-deg. angle and placed in a jig for welding.
“The ability to cut the pipe to allow the welding opera- tion is a big time-saver for us,” says Johnny Czerwinski. “Otherwise, we’d have to weld two pipe sections together.
“On another tube job,” Czerwinski continues, “we’re cutting notches in 2- by 4-in. rectangular tube sections to enable the insertion of mat- ing tube sections. We then
A selection of parts processed on the new laser-cutting machine includes (left) a section of tubing that is first laser-cut to length and then notched on one side. After cutting, the pipe is bent and placed in a jig for welding. Laser-cutting the notches, compared to machining, proves to be con- siderably faster, more accurate and more repeatable in terms of weld fitup.
26 MetalForming/April 2015
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Following a trip to FABTECH 2013 in Chicago, Magnum Steel placed a purchase order for an armada of Amada fabricating equipment, including three new press brakes (one shown here). The Model HG 2204 brake is equipped with a 19-in. multi-touch LCD control panel and user-friendly screen designed, say Amada officials, for intuitive operation regardless of operator experience.