Reducing Plasma Table Time

Cutting production time in half enables Ontario fabricator to compete in today’s market

October 28, 2011

: Cutting more metals and increasing production with plasma.

As owner of RRD Welding & Fabrication, Hamilton, Ont., Raymond Dubosq uses his nearly 30 years of steel fabrication experience on a daily basis.

RRD, which Dubosq founded in 2001, uses high-definition CNC plasma burning to complete complex jobs for its clients. However, as the business grew, its need for a piece of equipment with the potential to expand production became apparent.

After assessing the market, the company made the decision to add MultiCam’s 6000 CNC bridge and rail system to its production facility.

This machine can be set up for oxyfuel, plasma, high-definition plasma, scribing, and drilling and can also be equipped with an electrospindle, all for the processing of steel, stainless steels, aluminum, brass, bronze, and copper.

Using the plasma table’s capabilities, RRD recently was able to build a machine through a series of plate-burning cuts while still meeting the deadline and quality demands the job required. Before, a job of this type would have taken the company 16 to 20 weeks, but with the new plasma machine, it was able to complete it in 10 weeks.

“With the clearance between the bridge and tank, we can burn holes and shapes into HSS, channels, and angles, allowing us to process anything and everything [while] reducing job time tremendously,” said Dubosq.

RRD can now burn parts which previously were done by hand, a very labor-intensive and mistake-prone method, according to Dubosq. The machine creates clean, sharp cuts on different metals and thicknesses. To make things easier it is also equipped with an integrated material database.

When material type, material thickness, or arc current changes, many parameters need to be adjusted. These adjustments are simplified because all the cutting values, such as feed rate, pierce delay, and pierce height, are integrated into a menu-driven database on the hand-held controller. Once the material type, thickness, and arc current are selected, all of these settings adjust automatically.

The 6000 series offers high-speed contouring, a programmable retract between parts, and automatic initial pierce height control, as standard features.

According to Dubosq, the dual-pinion drives not only create the rapid traverse speed of 1,800 IPM, but the machine’s rigid construction combined with the precision guideways make it indispensable to his business.

When it comes to investments, every business desires a short payback period and a high rate of return.

RRD is now able to cut more metals, increase the speed of operation, meet higher product volume demands, and take on more complex work.

www.multicam.com