Sales skyrocketed from there, hence the recent addition of the second machine.
Emphasizing that the firm aims to avoid competing with its service-center customers for fab work, much of BOM’s fab operations supports its four largest OEM customers. “Together they account for some 65% of our business,” Watkins shares. All told, the BOM fabrication operations—consuming 25,000 sq. ft. of the company’s 80,000-sq.-ft. footprint—processes a few hundred SKUs monthly for its OEM customers.
“We try to mirror their inhouse operations,” Watkins says, “so that if they need support, for any reason, we can supply their assembly lines with parts quickly and efficiently. In most cases, we already are selling our fabrication customers their material, so pulling that material into our fabrication operations to fulfill their fabrication needs is seamless and efficient.”
Metalworking Alchemy
The combination of service center and fabrication capabilities at BOM brings advantages not lost on Watkins, nor the firm’s customers. “Yes, steel, aluminum and other materials have become commodities,” he says, “but what we typically referred to as ‘value-added processing’ now also has become somewhat commoditized. The ability of service centers to cut and form parts has become more common in recent years. So, what we now find becomes truly valuable is what I refer to as ‘alchemy’—being able to combine two commoditized services and put them together to make gold. That’s in a lot of ways our secret to success, being a one-stop supplier to meet all of our OEM customer needs.”
Of course, says Watkins, cutting with 20 kW of power can be a double-edged sword, as the ability to cut ½-in.-thick mild steel (for example) at more than 300 in./min., and 16-gauge sheet at 2100 in./min. can push a lot of material onto downstream punching machines and press brakes. Ah, but here we find additional capital investments at BOM to relieve any bottlenecking, such as new servo-electric press brakes, large-capacity hydraulic press brakes, and updating existing press brakes with new controls and six-axis backgauges. “And, we’re looking to soon bring in robots to help support our press brake operations,” Watkins says.
Watkins finds that the 20-kW machines fly through ½-in.-thick steel and cut up to ¾ in. really well, and that 1-in.-thick plate is at the top end of the machines’ capabilities. A nitrogen-oxygen assist-gas mix (2.5% O2) optimizes cut quality on thicker material, reducing or eliminating any burr formation on the work.
“And, that assist-gas mix also prevents case hardening of the plate edges,” Watkins says, “so that we, or our customers, can tap holes at a less than 1:1 ratio of hole diameter to plate thickness (a ¼-in. hole in 3/4-in. plate, for example). We’ve had customers tell us that some of their other suppliers, cutting with 100% oxygen assist, provided laser-cut blanks and parts that had been edge-hardened to the point where they’d break taps.”
Operator Empowerment
With the laser cutting head flying around at speeds in excess of 2000 in./min., BOM’s cutting machines move mountains of sheet through the production shop, and the firm has no trouble keeping them busy with work. That piles a lot of pressure on the shoulders of its operators to keep the machines up and running. Yes, Watkins quickly emphasizes that the responsibility clearly does fall to BOM’s operators on the floor.
“We want our operators intimately knowledgeable about the machines—and this goes for all of our operators, not just the lasers,” he says. “We educate them so that they’re equipped to make the right choices on the floor. I believe that about all of our employees; we want them empowered so that critical decisions are made on the floor at the lowest level possible.”
Help, when needed, always is at the ready when it comes to the laser cutting machines, as Fairmont Machinery technicians, as well as Eagle Laser technicians at the firm’s headquarters in Poland, stand by to access remote diagnostics from the machines and help guide troubleshooting efforts.
“Remote diagnostics has made our operators extremely confident,” Watkins shares. “They’re very comfortable, now, picking up the phone to ask for advice and guidance. They, for example, early on were hesitant to crank the machines up and cut at those insanely high speeds. But they were instructed and quickly learned, that in many cases the higher the cutting speed the better the machines perform. Eagle’s technicians encouraged our operators to go fast.”
Cutting-Head Durability
One might express some concern, when laser cutting at such high speeds, regarding the durability of the cutting head. However, as Watkins explains, Eagle’s cutting-head design locates the cover glass very far from the nozzle, “13 in. away, while more commonly we see laser cutting heads with the cover glass only 4 to 4.5 in. away,” he notes. “That added distance helps to keep the cover glass free from contamination, particularly important when cutting pickled and oiled (P&O) steel, a big runner for us. Less lens contamination means less maintenance; compared to our previous 4-kW cutting machine, the cover glass on the Eagle machines last as much as 90 times longer when cutting P&O material.”
Per Eagle, its patented eVa cutting head provides automatic beam centering and minimal service requirements, among other unique features. For example, company officials note that the head comprises only three wearing parts: the cover slide, cover slide seal and cutting nozzle. Anti-collision protection is delivered in four levels:
- A capacitive nozzle sensor avoids low-speed collisions.
- During cutting, the head can slide to the side, giving the machine time to stop.
- In the event of a high-speed impact, the cutting head will rotate on springs, protecting the lower module.
- The lower module breaks off at full traversing speed (more than 100 m/min.) in order to avoid serious damage to the machine. After such an event, returning the machine to service only requires the installation of a new centering module.
What’s Next
… in the fabrication department at Big O Metals? For starters, Watkins looks forward to adding automation to his laser cutting machines, to further increase overall equipment effectiveness and enable lights-out cutting.
“And, as landlocked as we are, we do plan to add a new building to the property to house our service-center operations,” Watkins continues, including the firm’s massive cut-to-length line capable of leveling material to ¼ in. thick by 72 in. wide.
“That will clear out another 40,000 sq. ft. of floor space to enable us to expand our fabrication operations even more,” he concludes. “We’ve just purchased a roll forming machine, and will commission that once we clear out some floor space.” MF
View Glossary of Metalforming Terms
See also: Fairmont Machinery/Eagle Laser
Technologies: Cutting
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Friday, February 14, 2025