Page 30 - MetalForming-May-2018-issue

FABRICATION
Shop Breaks from Pack with
Waterjet Cutting
RKM Design’s plan to forego conventional processes pays off.
RPM Design’s Richie Price runs a waterjet cutter that enables his shop to successfully specialize in waterjet-cutting services for fabricators.
After spending 22 years as a CNC machinist in the Indianapolis area, Richie Price, in 2015, launched his own business...“back- wards,” he says, half-jokingly. Instead of adding waterjet capabilities after starting with mills, lathes and other conventional machining processes, Price’s carefully researched business plan called for launching RPM Design in Brownsburg, IN, with a single water- jet-cutting system.
Indy/NASCAR Experience Proves Valuable
Most of Price’s previous experience came from work that included design- ing and programming five-axis machines to produce complex con- tours in components such as high-per- formance vehicle cylinder heads. Cus- tomers included Indy and NASCAR teams, as well as top NHRA drag racers. Price had previous experience with waterjet machining and quickly rec- ognized the technology’s versatility and capability.
He also noticed fabricating and machine shops that needed the advan- tages of waterjet machining, but could not, or would not, invest in the tech- nology. Furthermore, the only other local shop using waterjets was fully contracted with large companies. “I saw people needing a waterjet-cutting specialty job shop,” he says. “I found a niche market, and I went after it.”
While exploring the prospects for a dedicated waterjet job shop, Price talked with his colleagues in manufac- turing and racing to secure waterjet work while consulting with manufac- turers of waterjet machines. Ultimately
A bridge-type machine with a 10 by 5-ft. X-Y-axis cutting area, RPM Design’s new waterjet-cutting machine features a multiaxis cutting head and programmable Z axis with 12 in. of travel to handle workpieces in stacks to nearly 1 ft. thick.
28 MetalForming/May 2018
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