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| Winter 2015 |
| CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT |
| AUTOMATED PLASMA HELPS CANADIAN COMPANY COMPLETE WEEK-LONG JOBS IN MERE HOURS From its main headquarters, a good 10 hour drive north of Toronto, Gorf Manufacturing and Contracting Ltd. brings projects for the mining, lumber and power generation industries to life. The company’s work speaks for itself. Whether conducting engineering studies, heading underground to install a network of pipes, erecting pre-engineered buildings, or fabricating pressure vessels, Gorf projects are impressive. When undertaking such projects, coordination is key. It helps that some team members at this 55 person strong company are 45 year veterans, while others are second and third generation employees. Though a lot of work is done at the build-site, typically it all starts at the plant. Situated on 27 acres, a newly expanded 30,000 square foot facility offers Gorf the space and equipment it needs to get any size project off the ground.  The facilities which include a full machine shop, fabrication area, steel blasting space, and paint room allow Gorf to make any part it needs. Often the first step involves cutting metal—usually carbon steel between a quarter and half an inch in thickness—down to size. In the past, a skilled employee would make the cuts using plate shears or an oxy torch. But as projects became larger and jobs more complex, the company realized the old way was no longer working. Gorf’s owners and managers knew they needed an alternative to this entirely manual approach if they wanted to remain competitive. After extensive research that included visiting various end user sites, Gorf decided to purchase an automated plasma system from Quebec’s Machitech Automation. It chose Machitech’s Platinum Cut for its size and ability to handle heavy plate. With a 10 by 40 foot cutting bed and a five axis bevel cutting head, the system more than meets Gorf’s needs. “The five axis head is great for weld preparation. Especially when fabricating tanks, where a beveled edge is required.” explains Jeremy McCoy, the health and safety, quality assurance and control manager at Gorf. “It automatically squares to the plate so it’s definitely advantageous.”  The Machitech system is engineered for a Hypertherm Built for Business Integrated Cutting Solution. It comes with high definition plasma—in this case a Hypertherm HyPerformance 400XD—along with a CNC, THC, and ProNest CAM software. All are optimized to work together. Thousands of parameters determined by engineers in Hypertherm’s cutting laboratories are inputted into the system allowing for precise, repeatable cuts with minimal operator intervention. Though Gorf did have a learning curve when moving to the new system, it discovered that curve wasn’t as difficult as expected. The company says it found the Hypertherm software surprisingly easy to use. The other surprise: cut quality. “The cut quality and tolerances were better than what we expected,” says McCoy. “There’s no dross and very minimal grinding is required. Parts are coming off the table with no film on the cut edges, and the cuts are square with no rounded edges which our welders and fitters like.” In addition to very good cut quality, the Built for Business Integrated Cutting Solutions package Gorf uses comes with a number of other benefits. These benefits include the ability to make bolt-ready holes, easier set-up and cutting of beveled edges, and the ability to double the number of parts cut per hour. “The holes are great. There’s no divot on the hole anymore so we can actually drop a bolt in. We no longer have to punch. Our punching and shearing is very minimal now.” McCoy adds that the beveling capability is also as promised. “The bevel is consistent for the entire edge which again is great for fitting and welding. We’re very happy with that.” Gorf is also impressed with the material savings it is seeing from the ProNest software. “It’s definitely noticeable and very efficient. Our layout time is cut in half.” Instead of manually cutting metal, today Gorf takes a DXF file, adds it to ProNest and cuts right from there. “It’s straight from the computer so there are no more errors,” McCoy says material handling is also down. “Everyone is surprised. Jobs that would take us a week are now done in a few hours. Everyone knew the potential but no one thought it was going to happen.” Learn more about Gorf at www.gorfcontracting.com. |
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21 Great Hollow Rd, PO Box 5010, Hanover, NH 03755 USA
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