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Hypertherm Inc. Etna Road, P.O. Box 5010 Hanover, NH 03755 USA


Normally, one doesn’t think to combine food processing and oil and gas into one sentence. But a trip down to Houston’s Sani-Weld quickly changes that. There you’ll find a company that fabricates items for both those industries and then some.

Sani-Weld’s claim to fame lies in its creative solutions for industries requiring sanitary equipment and a pristine manufacturing environment. This makes Sani-Weld a natural partner for the food processing industry since the smallest problem can wreck havoc with the nation’s food supply. However, food processing is just one of many industries requiring a precise and methodological manufacturing process. Industries such as oil and gas, medical, pharmaceutical, and semi-conductor industries also rely on Sani-Weld and its custom fabrication solutions.

The breadth of industries served by Sani-Weld means the company works with a wide range of different metals. Stainless steel, aluminum, and brass are used regularly. Before the company can start assembling its creations though, it needs to cut them.

Sani-Weld has long done that cutting with plasma. The company routinely uses a Hypertherm MAX40c—first manufactured in 1997—and a MAX100 from 1995. In addition, it uses a newer Powermax30 out in the field. While the Hypertherm systems do a good job and have served Sani-Weld well, the company also had a need a cut some of its material with laser.






Despite being 35-years-old, Sani-Weld actually never owned a laser cutting system. It has always relied on out-sourcing to get those parts cut. This arrangement worked well when the business was smaller; however, as Sani-Weld’s business grew, so too did the issues associated with out-sourcing.

The first problem is cost. Sani-Weld estimates it spent nearly $200,000 on out-sourcing last year alone. The second problem is turn-around time which averaged about a week, causing a delay in both delivery to the customer, and bottlenecks inside Sani-Weld’s facility.

Sani-Weld started looking at options and discovered something promising at the 2011 FABTECH Show. The company was impressed by the new fiber laser system being shown by AKS Cutting Systems. The company had just unveiled its accu-kut System with a Hypertherm HyIntensity Fiber Laser.

Though Sani-Weld had always out-sourced its product to a service center using CO2 laser, it was intrigued by the fiber laser system for a number of reasons. First, it liked the fact fiber laser could cut a wide range of different materials including the polished stainless steel, mild steel, and aluminum often used in the food industry. In addition, the company was impressed with the speed and cut quality delivered by the fiber laser system. Another thing Sani-Weld liked was its price. Fiber lasers offer the speed and cut quality of more traditional CO2 lasers, but cost less. Not only is the capital cost lower, but operating costs are lower as well. Higher wall-plug efficiency is one reason why.

Tate Picard, who leads Hypertherm’s fiber laser team, explains it this way, “For every unit of power that passes through a CO2 cutting system, only 8 to 10 percent is actually used. With fiber laser, power efficiency averages 31 percent, making it 86 percent more efficient.”
The associated “chiller” used by all laser systems is also smaller and less expensive further driving down utility bills. In addition, because fiber laser beams are delivered via a cable, and do not rely on mirrors to move the light beam, fiber lasers are much more forgiving as far as the cutting table it is placed on. It is entirely possible to install a fiber laser system onto an existing plasma cutting table, provided the table has good motion capabilities.



The lack of mirrors and turbines also means fiber lasers require little to no maintenance. This is in contrast to traditional gas lasers which require regular maintenance. Mirrors need to be maintained and calibrated, resonators and turbines that move the gas need to be replaced, and the lasing gas needs to be cleaned out regularly because of its tendency to collect impurities. All of this maintenance adds up. One CO2 system can cost $40,000 per year to maintain.

Doug Manchester, Sani-Weld’s president says, “We were intrigued by fiber laser from the get-go. The more we learned about the technology, the more we became convinced it was the perfect solution for us.”

Sani-Weld worked with AKS to install the fiber laser in its Houston facility. Fiber laser systems come in a range of different power levels. For example, Hypertherm offers 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 kilowatt systems. Sani-Weld decided to go with the 2 kilowatt system and so far is very happy with its choice. “Job output with the new system is through the roof,” continues Manchester. “In the past, it took us a week to turn product around, now we can do it in less than a day.”

For Sani-Weld though the faster turn-around is just the beginning. The AKS accu-kut system is an integrated cutting solution that incorporates Hypertherm Built for Business products. The CNC, torch height control, and CAM software controlling the system were developed to work together. This tight integration means better control of all the cutting parameters and a better finished product.

Dross is non-existent so Sani-Weld can cut out a step. Holes, fine feature cutting, and marking are now possible, and Sani-Weld is able to cut an even broader range of material including nickel-cobalt, a material it has long wanted to cut but could not.