Page 22 - MetalForming August 2015

Weaver Fab & Finishing’s
new 2-kW fiber-laser cutting machine
cuts aluminum and other reflective materials extremely efficiently, and it will cut mild steel four to five times faster than the firm’s aging 2-kW CO2 machine.
Key to its success is the automated material-storage tower that “changes how we buy our materials,” says Jim Lauer. “We can schedule more
accurately and predictably and minimize or even eliminate deviations from our planned production schedules.”
Laser Automation
Better Planning = Better Execution
To increase capacity and stay ahead of customer demand, Weaver Fab & Finishing welcomes a new fiber-laser cutting machine. The icing on the cake: an accompanying sheet-storage tower that brings automation—and all of its benefits— to the company and allows it to restructure its front-end operations.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
With an order backlog twice what it was a year ago, Weaver Fab & Finishing owner Jim Lauer expects that the firm’s new fiber-laser cutting machine will quickly become fully loaded. The machine, installed earlier this year, is slated to come online with full force through the summer months.
We visited the Akron, OH, company late-spring as Lauer and his team not only were gearing up for the new cutting machine but also putting the finishing touches on its new company location. You see, accompanying the new machine (an Amada FLCAJ 3015, with 2-kW fiber-laser resonator) is a six-shelf automated material-handling sheet-storage tower. As it requires 20 ft. of ceiling height, it wouldn’t fit at the pre- vious Weaver Fab facility (32,000 sq. ft. spread over several buildings). Lauer, so committed to the storage tower and already on the prowl for a new manufacturing facility, stepped up his search for a new location at which to hang his hat, and the hat of his wife and company co-owner Marian Lauer.
20 MetalForming/August 2015
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