Components minimize on EXP Fabrication’s laser reducing machine match snugly collectively. No postprocessing is required. Photos: EXP Fabrication
Go to EXP Fabrication and also you’ll discover an automatic welding setup that means these of us aren’t completely reliant on outsiders for technological help.
Within the 25,000-sq.-ft. store in Justin, Texas, a welding robotic sits on a 60-ft. observe, with eight uniquely configured weld stations arrange in a linear vogue. All the stations are designed to accommodate quite a lot of merchandise relying on their geometry. Additionally, some stations accommodate particular merchandise as a result of these components greatest match that station’s capabilities.
For instance, one station that’s greater than 10 ft. lengthy with air locks that maintain the weldment down helps decrease warmth distortion on lengthy weldments. One other station rotates for very huge assemblies that exceed the robotic’s attain; after the robotic welds half the meeting, the desk spins so it will probably weld the opposite half.
EXP Fabrication additionally has two different welding cells which can be extra automated. One cell has a robotic that may weld components as they’re rotated. Each cells have rotating tables to enhance throughput.
“Everytime you begin to get into 1,000- or 2,000-part orders, relying on how sophisticated the assemblies are, in fact, that’s the place we actually slot in. It’s the place we will help our prospects get their lead occasions and prices down,” stated Ethan Blankenship, a mission supervisor at EXP Fabrication. “We additionally will help our prospects with repeatability as a result of we’ve got the robots do lots of that work.”
That have with welding robots isn’t any shock. The corporate’s founders, John Hart and Les Porter, initially began the enterprise to function a robotics integrator for different producers. After years of touring to maintain these robotic installations working and getting calls in any respect hours of the day, the duo determined to use their robotics data for their very own steel fabricating operation.
For a few guys with “get-it-done-any-way-you-can” backgrounds, as Blankenship described them, the transition from automation consultants to a job store with in-house robotics data was fairly seamless. They may determine methods for robots to sort out difficult-to-automate welding jobs that others merely couldn’t replicate.
The problem, nevertheless, was that robots like correct components and fixtures. Blankenship stated that as a result of the plasma desk routinely produced inconsistent fixtures, the design staff needed to deliberately oversize the jigs, which then made repeatability an issue. The CNC mills and lathes might have been used to provide extra correct fixtures, however they often had been busy producing components.
That improved through the years as new tools was bought. However jobs with actually tight tolerances nonetheless needed to be farmed out, which added to guide occasions and elevated prices for purchasers.
EXP Fabrication ultimately noticed the sunshine on the way to acquire greater tolerances on the blanking aspect of the enterprise. It occurred to be the sunshine of a laser reducing machine.
The laser delivers way more exact cuts than the plasma reducing system might, permitting for extra exact fit-up in downstream processes.
Give attention to Course of, not Reducing Time
“We had been working a high-definition plasma desk for about 10 years, as a result of that was reasonably priced and will minimize what we would have liked all day lengthy,” Blankenship stated. “It wasn’t till about three years in the past that we severely began speaking about laser reducing.”
At first, the staff thought it was too costly, particularly in comparison with new plasma reducing methods. However then it thought of the potential price financial savings that may include laser reducing.
Blankenship stated that the corporate took on jobs that concerned laser reducing, however all of that work needed to be outsourced. Clearly, bringing the work in-house supplied a very good monetary basis for an funding in new blanking expertise, however it wasn’t the only real motivator.
When it got here right down to it, the elimination of secondary processes actually helped justify the laser reducing machine buy. Components would get out the door quicker, and EXP Fabrication would receives a commission sooner.
Take into account how the store flooring needed to deal with postcutting duties for one plasma job. As a result of this job required that the clear aspect of the panel be dealing with up when it entered the press brake, every giant panel, ranging in dimension from 80 to 110 lbs., needed to be faraway from the desk after plasma reducing, flipped to the soiled aspect to wash the dross (about 4 to eight hours of labor), after which flipped again in order that it will be within the appropriate orientation for the press brake. The aspect that dross accrued on, even when cleaned, was not as interesting because the clear aspect of the panel, in keeping with Blankenship.
“Our guys hated turning dozens of heavy panels over simply to show them proper again over to begin breaking out the components,” Blankenship stated.
With the deal with decreasing manufacturing prices and tightening up lead occasions, EXP Fabrication was prepared to enhance its blanking capabilities. That coincided with Hart Machine Device, a distributor of Cutlite laser reducing machines, reaching out to test on the corporate’s fabricating operations.
The Proper Match for the Store Ground
Blankenship stated the conversations with the Hart Machine Device representatives centered on the realities of EXP Fabrication’s operations. For a corporation representing Cutlite, a model recognized for demonstrating a 50-kW machine at FABTECH 2025, which may shock some.
“We wished to a minimum of meet what we had been able to reducing on our plasma unit, and we might comfortably minimize 1 in. with that,” Blankenship stated. “There additionally had been occasions that we might minimize on 1.5 in., however in direction of the tip of its life, the plasma system didn’t do the perfect job with that thickness.”
A 30-kW machine sounds thrilling, whipping by way of 1-in. materials prefer it was thin-gauge sheet, however that additional energy added to the machine’s price ticket. EXP Fabrication didn’t want that a lot energy because it was solely reducing actually thick stuff, like 2-in. materials, a few occasions per 12 months.
The 12-kW fiber laser reducing machine is appropriate for many of EXP Fabrication’s work, which typically falls between 10 ga. and 1.25 in.
The fab store ultimately bought a 12-kW Cutlite with a 2,000-mm (roughly 6.5-ft.) by 4,000-mm (simply over 13-ft.) reducing desk, excellent for processing 6- by 12-ft. sheets. Put in in mid-2025, it’s confirmed to be the precise match for the store.
“Footprint was a giant factor that we had been , as a result of our store is just not ginormous,” Blankenship stated. “We couldn’t afford to surrender an excessive amount of house.”
A 60-ft. desk with a transferring gantry for the laser reducing exercise wasn’t going to work. That’s why the store determined so as to add a shuttle desk with the laser reducing machine; it will unload components from the skeleton that sat on one shuttle desk whereas components had been being minimize on the opposite shuttle desk.
Studying Laser Reducing
With the machine in place, Blankenship and the staff needed to learn to get the machine to run and produce high quality components. They had been skilled on the Cutlite America facility, however that coated the fundamentals, such because the introduction to the controls and upkeep suggestions. EXP Fabrication was embarking on a brand new journey, and studying on the job was a part of the curriculum.
“We nonetheless have a plasma desk, a bit of bit smaller than the one the laser changed, and I might train anyone the way to use that in in all probability 20 minutes. After that, they’ll be off to the races reducing components,” Blankenship stated.
“It’d take anyone per week and a half to get a brand new operator on a laser to be considerably proficient with it.”
Blankenship added that as operators be taught extra concerning the science of laser reducing, they’ll develop into key contributors in serving to to keep up high quality and growing throughput.
“Having a robust understanding of the physics behind kerf formation, focus place, fuel conduct, and warmth switch is crucial for diagnosing minimize high quality points,” he stated. “With out that foundational understanding, an operator could acknowledge {that a} minimize is poor however wrestle to determine which variables want adjustment to appropriate the issue.”
After a number of months with the machine, the staff at EXP Fabrication is experiencing some very constructive advantages:
- Throughput has elevated – Laser reducing has not solely eradicated the necessity to take away dross from minimize components; it’s additionally delivered a stage of tolerance on cuts, like holes, that eliminates postmachining processes. Blankenship estimates that roughly 75% of the roles that used to require some machining after plasma reducing now could be minimize on the laser with out the necessity for added processing. Now, components go straight from the reducing mattress to forming, powder coating, welding, and even delivery, saving hours in general lead time.
- Laser-cut components are good for fixturing – When fixtures for robots had been minimize with plasma, the elements needed to be floor right down to the precise dimension after which machined in order that they may maintain the workpiece in an correct place for the welder. The laser-cut elements keep away from that additional processing, typically prepared for fixturing after leaving the laser. Additionally, keys and keyholes could be minimize precisely to help with fixture setup. “It makes an enormous distinction to have the ability to ship all of these components to the welder and simply inform him, ‘Hey, simply slide this down in that little slot, let the important thing discover the keyhole, and get the precise match.’ That’s been extraordinarily useful for us,” Blankenship stated.
- Etching simplifies multiple-part jobs – It’d take the laser reducing machine a bit of additional time to etch numbers on components, however the payoff is available in welding, particularly with jobs which have lots of similar-looking components. The welder is now not strolling round questioning if he’s discovered the precise half and asking the supervisor for affirmation. Laser-etched half numbers take the guesswork out of those giant meeting duties, preserving the deal with finishing the job.
Laser Units the Basis
The arrival of the laser reducing machine at EXP Fabrication has already had an influence, and now the corporate thinks it may be able to extra work outdoors of the unique 10-ga. to 1.25-in.-thick materials.
“We now know we will minimize 16, 18, or 20 ga. actually precisely, and we will do electrical cupboards and issues like that, which beforehand we wouldn’t have been capable of do,” Blankenship stated.
Laser reducing has elevated throughput at EXP Fabrication. Components don’t must be floor to take away dross, which might usually occur after plasma reducing, and the laser-cut holes are exact sufficient that they don’t must be despatched to machining.
That’s now put the deal with bending. EXP Fabrication’s two press brakes, 200 and 250 tons, are helpful for the heavy fab work, however they’re not the perfect instruments for high-precision bends in smaller fabrications product of thin-gauge steel.
So the evolution continues for EXP Fabrication. Happily, the corporate already has the automation a part of the journey nailed down.
