Page 36 - MetalForming September 2015

Plasma Cutting
Leads Loveman
Loveman Steel employs a stable of plasma- and oxyfuel-cutting tables to provide unique fabrications quickly to a diverse cus- tomer base. The speed of plasma cutting, assisted by recent retrofits, over oxyfuel has won business from customers anxious for rapid turnaround.
Fabrication job shop and service center Loveman Steel relies on its array of cutting equipment, fronted by two plasma-cutting tables, to satisfy a diverse, time-sensitive customer base.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
Founded in 1939 in downtown Cleveland, OH, Loveman Steel opened its doors as primarily a steel service center to serve the city’s thriving manufacturing base. Over time, as the local factory population thinned, the company sought new ways to attract customers and grow its fabrication business.
“About 30 years ago, we evolved to focus equally on the service center as well as fabrication,” explains Robert Love- man, executive vice president of Loveman Steel and repre- senting the fourth generation of the family-owned business started by his great-grandfather David.
Growing its service-center business and finding itself pro- ducing more and more parts for its steel suppliers, company management decided to focus on ramping up its capabilities as a job-shop fabricator. Today, Loveman Steel, ISO 9001-2008- certified with its 85,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space spread across 3.5 acres, calls Bedford Heights, a Cleveland suburb, home. Here it has developed a couple of niches: taking on large and/or difficult projects that others won’t touch, and providing annealing-hardware fabrications for mills.
Plasma Cutting to the Rescue
To succeed in these sectors, the company has relied in large part on plasma-arc cutting (PAC). Two PAC machines dot the Loveman work bays, sharing space with oxyfuel-cutting tables and other fabrication and welding equipment. Love- man’s 65 employees primarily work one shift for service-cen- ter operations, while fabrication functions across two.
At Loveman, five oxyfuel tables cut chunkier carbon steel, anywhere from 4 to 24 in. thick. A 260-A combination plasma and oxyfuel table, 160 in. wide by 594 in. long, cuts stainless to 1.5 in. thick and carbon steel to 1.5 in. thick. On this table, a Hypertherm (Hanover, NH) HPR260 PAC unit installed a cou- ple of years ago replaced an old burned-up unit, according to Loveman officials, with a water table also added to accom- modate longer, wider plates.
34 MetalForming/September 2015
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