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nesting for the laser-cutting machine.) Eric’s mother (Dianne Baxley) and sis- ter (Cindy) work in the front office.
In addition to its laser-cutting machine, Baxley’s 13,000-sq.-ft. blow- pipe-manufacturing facility also stars a pair of press brakes, shears, ironworkers, a high-definition plasma-cutting machine (1.5-in. capacity, 8- by 20-ft. table), and three plate rollers. The Bax- ley manufacturing complex also is home to a 28,000-sq.-ft. facility for fabricating motorcycle trailers, which also houses a powder-coating line; a 7100-sq.-ft. shop for tank fabrication; and a 13,000-sq.-ft. warehouse where it stores more than $100,000 worth of raw material.
“Our vendors can’t believe we stock as much material as we do, but it works to our advantage,” says Baxley. “Other fabrication shops in the area offer laser- beam cutting, but they probably don’t have food-grade stainless-steel sheet in their racks. How long will it take for them to order and receive a supply of material, and how much will they have to pay?”
The firm built its inventory ware- house in 2006, in part to de-clutter its fabrication shops and clear aisle space for forklift traffic. “The inventory that was spread all over our shops also became difficult to manage and track,” says Baxley. “Now the warehouse shelves are clearly labeled and organized and material is easy to locate.”
More Nozzles Allows for Custom Setups
Back in the blowpipe shop, as the laser finishes its work on the 12-gauge stainless-steel sheet, an operator loads a completely different job on the second of the cutting machine’s two pallets. Since firing up its new laser-cutting machine in October 2009, the plant has processed 93,000 sq. ft. of sheet, 35,000 sq. ft. of which required laser cutting.
“On a daily basis, we might go through 10 or more different setups on the machine, whether it is for a change in material type or thickness,” says Bax- ley. “And here is where the new tech- nology offered with the new machine really pays off. The machine can auto-
Baxley typically runs through 10 or more different setups on its new laser-cutting machine daily, so the machine’s automated changeover capabilities really pay off for the company. Because it always uses the ideal setup for each application, assist-gas consumption has gone way down, saving the company as much as $1000/month.
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matically change its torch, lens, nozzle and beam mode so it always uses the ideal setup for every application.”
Changeover of a typical laser-cut- ting machine can take several minutes, and as long as an hour if you’re cus- tomizing the entire setup for each mate- rial type and thickness. While Baxley did not do that with its older machine, its use of only two nozzles to cover its entire range of material type and thick- ness proved less than ideal.
Conversely, Baxley’s new Hyper Turbo-X 510 features an automatic noz- zle changer and is equipped with six dif- ferent nozzles (1.2 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.0 mm, 3.0 mm, 3.0 mm double and 2.0 mm double), as well as two lenses (5 and 7 in.). So not only is the machine cutting more quickly than before, the company spends much less time performing changeovers.
The nozzle changer represents one point in what Mazak calls its AO5 Point Setup: nozzle spatter removal, nozzle changeover, focal-point inspection and automatic lens replacement, nozzle inspection and replacement, and torch changer.
“Before, the operator always had a sheet or two waiting to be cut,” says Baxley. “Now he’s often waiting for material. The new machine has created
excess machine time, which we’ve been able to leverage to improve our main- tenance procedures. The operator now has more time to spend cleaning the nozzles, lenses, etc., which has improved our cut quality in some instances.”
Baxley notes that the goal is to clean the lenses after every 40 hr. of cutting time at a minimum for processing car- bon steel, and after every 20 to 25 hr. of cutting time when processing stainless steel or aluminum.
Gas Savings Galore
Lastly, Baxley points out that he’s noticed a substantial reduction in cut- ting-gas consumption since installing the new cutting machine and taking full advantage of its array of nozzles. The shop uses nitrogen assist gas when cut- ting stainless steel, aluminum and gal- vanized, and oxygen to cut carbon steel.
“We used to order three 200-liter tanks of liquid oxygen per month and now we’re averaging just less than one full tank per month,” shares Baxley. “And, our liquid-nitrogen consump- tion has dropped from as many as 20 200-liter tanks per month down to just 12 per month. All told we’re sav- ing as much as $1000/month just in gas consumption.” MF