Page 20 - MetalForming November 2010

Lean
A Baxley Blowpipe operator prepares to load a 5- by 10-ft. blank onto the firm’s 4000-W laser-cutting machine.
When I recently caught up with Eric Baxley, shop foreman and part owner of Baxley Blowpipe Co. in Dothan, AL, his company’s new laser- cutting machine was busy churning through 12-gauge Type 316L stainless- steel sheet for a food-processing-plant customer. Compared to plasma-arc cut- ting the stainless material, which the firm did for some 10 years, laser cutting allows the firm to move material through to its welding booths with a 50- percent improvement in throughput, says Baxley.
“There’s no grinding needed on cut edges prior to welding,” he says, “a job our operators were happy to give up. And, I’d much rather see our guys build- ing assemblies than grinding off slag left over from the cutting process. On some of our work, we endured as much as 30 min. of grinding before we could move the parts over to welding.”
Laser cutting’s not new to the shop— it’s been relying on the process to carve stainless, carbon and galvanized steel, as well as aluminum-alloy sheet and light plate, for 10 years. But what is new is Baxley’s 4000-W laser-cutting machine (a Hyper Turbo-X 510 5-by-10-ft.
Laser Cutting
An Alabama contract fabricator of pneumatic conveying systems, ductwork and other sheetmetal and plate products trades up to the state-of-the-art in laser cutting and has increased throughput and significant cost savings to show for it.
18 METALFORMING / NOVEMBER 2010
www.metalformingmagazine.com
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
model from Mazak Optonics Corp., Elgin, IL), a significant upgrade from its previous 2500-W machine. Why the move to more power?
“When I attended a Mazak open house at its new facility (in Elgin) in 2008, I went with no intention of pur- chasing a new machine,” says Baxley. “However, when I learned how the addi- tional power, as well as a few addition- al new features on the machine, could help us, the investment seemed easy to justify.
“First, we’ve been taking on more and more heavy-gauge sheet and light plate,” explains Baxley, noting that the com- pany still claims as its bread and butter fabrication of custom pneumatic con-
veying systems for processing plants— collection systems for moving materials like sawdust and peanut hulls. “The 4000-W laser can cut 1-in. mild steel, and the added power allows us to increase cutting speed without sacrificing qual- ity—parts come off of the laser so quickly now that we don’t have to work as much overtime as we used to.”
Material Inventory Ready and Waiting
Baxley Blowpipe has been family owned and operated since 1946 and employs 27, including Eric’s father Jerome (president and majority owner) and brother David (who runs the shop and performs programming and parts