Custom Manufacturing
Ontario fabrication shop succeeds through innovation, hard work, and, believe it or not, luck
September 1, 2009
While it’s often the large, multinational corporations that grab the headlines, smaller, family-run businesses are the backbone of Canadian manufacturing.
Innovation is necessary at this grassroots level. It’s necessary to keep the lights on, keep the family and its staff employed, and it’s necessary to drive change in an industry that has been known for its stagnation.
At TRI-V Custom Manufacturing, Concord, Ont., status quo operating and doing things the way everyone else does them are never options.
Even during the early years the company focused much of its energy on learning about new technology and installing it on the shop floor. In fact, it was only six months after the company opened its doors that it purchased its first CNC machine, a new punch press, and since that time more new technology has followed.
This desire to reinvest profits in new technology also led to TRI-V’s most dramatic and risky purchase. A few years ago the company added an Adige automated laser tube cutting system from the BLM Group in a move that has taken the company into the world of 3-D part production.
With no work for the new, high-priced equipment, the company took a leap of faith but quickly realized the benefits in production and quality that laser tube cutting could provide. This addition to the shop floor allowed the company to create tubular components that were previously impossible.
“We initially imagined that this purchase would not only help us in the current work we were doing in the store fixture and architectural metalworking markets, but also allow us to enter the automotive parts supply chain in a major way,” said Janez Vincec, who co-founded the company in 1996 with his brother and father. “Unfortunately, the auto sector has been very slow to adopt new thinking in this area.”
Nevertheless, the addition of this laser cutting system fits perfectly into the way the Vincecs run their business. And, the work that they hoped would be there, was. Today the laser accounts for approximately 50 percent of the company’s business.
“We went into this purchase with absolutely no work for the laser, but at the time, we were thinking ahead to the future,” said Vincec. “We had done an analysis of our competition and of the markets that we wanted to enter. We rolled the dice and took a big risk, but it definitely has become a huge part of our business.”
Able to cut 1/4-in. steel and up to 3/16-in. stainless the laser cutter can create parts that are limited only by the designer’s imagination, added Vincec. The multiaxis head enables tilted cutting of parts, and the system also came with a weld sensing option.
“We didn’t want to pass on an option and then realize that we wanted it later during production,” he explained. “We are a first-generation, family-run business. We want to continually go after new markets, reinvest in the business, and use new technology to do so.”
The tube laser cutter has replaced multiple processes on TRI-V’s shop floor. Saw cutting, deburring, and punching all have been replaced in the production of certain parts. Adding value early in the production process and having a predictable production schedule allow the company to create its custom work in a highly efficient manner, eliminating waste wherever possible.
“In these times we have to work in a lean manner,” he said. “When you are building assemblies that are one-offs like we are, you can’t afford to make mistakes and you have to do it with ever-decreasing lead-times. The laser is one of the reasons we can work like this. We wouldn’t be in business today if we hadn’t made the choice to move into the 3-D laser cutting market.”
While admitting that the company’s leap into the automotive market has yet to pan out, Vincec has not lost hope that this will one day occur.
“I think the auto sector needs to rethink the way parts are produced and replace the old way of doing business,” he said. “There is a huge market potential for 3-D laser cutting in this industry, but it has to migrate from the existing markets to the auto sector. It starts with the engineers. They need to be able to design parts that take the tube laser into consideration. We need to show them what it can do so they can design with it in mind.”
In addition to the laser cutting work, TRI-V also performs shearing, punching, bending, various types of welding, and even multiaxis turning. The company’s work mainly heads across the border to destinations in the U.S., but clients as far away as Abu Dhabi are sourcing their work here.
“We produce quality products at TRI-V using the Adige laser. It takes a lot of hard work and a commitment to technology to maintain a successful manufacturing business in today’s market,” said Vincec.
For more information, e-mail sales@trivgroup.com.
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