Laser Metal Profiles cuts into market niche with TRUMPF lasers
by Jerry Cook When Carlo Buffone and David Moore, co-owners of Laser Metal Profiles Ltd., started the company in 2002, they felt that there was a niche for sub-contract laser cutting services in the Cambridge, ON area that wasn’t being fully exploited.
“We looked at the market here in Cambridge and we knew that there were
only two or three other laser cutting companies in the city at the
time. We just knew that there was a need for laser cutting in this
market and we were right,” says Buffone, vice president and operations
manager with Laser Metal Profiles.
Company President Moore agrees with Buffone and also cites his
experience in the metals sector and Buffone’s experience in laser
cutting as being critical to the company’s success. “Both Carlo and I
had considerable experience in both the metals and laser cutting
markets. It wasn’t a matter of, ‘If you build it, they will come.’
Instead, we knew the suppliers for materials and had extensive contacts
within a sound customer base in the area as well. Our timing was good
and the demand was high for laser cutting in the early 2000s.
“Our whole idea was to (supply) laser cutting services better than our
competitors in the area. We wanted to provide quality laser cutting
with superior service. A piece of cut steel is a piece of cut steel but
to do it at a high level of quality and on a timely basis is what
helped us,” says Moore.
Given the firm’s continuing success and growing workload, the plan
worked. Today, Laser Metal Profiles (www.lasermetalprofiles.com) has 25
employees at its 15,000 sq. ft. facility in Cambridge. The company
specializes in high precision, laser cutting for customers in a variety
of sectors including parts for assemblies, tractor and agricultural
handling and hydraulic equipment, food industry equipment, and more.
The company also offers bending, fabricating, welding, and CNC
machining services. Laser Metal Profiles is ISO 9001-2000 certified.
The firm works with a variety of materials including aluminum,
stainless steel, and various carbon steels.
Both Buffone and Moore knew that in order to provide high quality laser
cutting services, the firm needed high quality laser cutting systems.
Prior to opening the company’s doors for business, Buffone and Moore
compared a number of competing laser systems before selecting the
TRUMPF TRUMATIC L3030 (since renamed the TruLaser 3030) laser cutting
system.
Buffone singles out a number of features of TRUMPF lasers which
contributed to the firm’s decision to install the first L3030 laser
cutting system. “With the TRUMPF lasers, it is the way that the entire
assembly of the system is manufactured including the quality of the
components. I liked the fact that TRUMPF is involved not just with the
cavity of the laser but with the resonator itself. In particular, the
laser resonator is what impressed me the most. I also went down to see
(TRUMPF’s) facility in Farmington, CT and TRUMPF just stood out from
the other manufacturers in how the machine was designed and built,”
says Buffone.
Adds Moore, “At the time, we had determined that TRUMPF was the
Mercedes of laser cutting systems. We were looking at factors such as
capability, low maintenance, and the fact that TRUMPF is always
improving the technologies it employs. Those were all things that we
considered. In our business, we are selling machine hours and if we
have any downtime that is lost revenue right off the top. We decided
that (because of the reliability of TRUMPF equipment) the TRUMPF lasers
would help us avoid downtime and run at the highest capacity that we
possibly could.”
According to Moore, the capacity on the first laser system was filled
so rapidly that the company had to install a second TRUMPF TRUMATIC
L3030 laser system approximately nine months later. Today, Laser Metal
Profiles has three TRUMPF TRUMATIC L3030 laser cutting systems and a
TRUMPF TrumaBend V1300 (since renamed the TruBend 5130) press brake.
All of the machines were supplied by Advanced Fabricating Machinery
Inc., Mississauga, ON (www.afmcanada.com).
The installation of the third TRUMPF laser cutting system was also
prompted by the company’s rapidly expanding workload, says Moore. “When
the second TRUMPF laser was fully loaded with work, we didn’t have any
room for emergency requirements from our customers or if a machine did
break down. You always want to have some spare capacity and we
installed the third TRUMPF laser to give us that additional room.”
In 2005, the company installed the TrumaBend V1300 press brake in order
to expand the services that it offered to customers, says Moore. “We
had more and more customers asking us to do bending and forming on
parts that we were laser cutting. At that point, we were farming out
that function to a third party. It got to the point where we decided we
could justify doing this work inhouse.”
The TRUMATIC L3030 laser cutting system employs a 4,000 watt laser and
a 5 ft. x 10 ft. table. The TRUMATIC L3030 is capable of cutting up to
3/4 in. in steel, 9/16 in. stainless steel, and 7/16 in. aluminum while
maintaining tolerances of plus or minus .004 in. The TRUMPF TrumaBend
V1300 press brake provides a bending force of 1,300 tons. The press
brake features .0004 in. ram accuracy, a four cylinder design which
ensures optimum power, an innovative crowning system, and machine
springback compensation.
Given Buffone’s experience with laser cutting, training on the TRUMPF
lasers was a relatively straightforward process, he says. “It was very
simple in terms of training on the TRUMPF lasers. It was just a matter
of passing the training onto the other operators. I basically did all
of the training internally here.”
Laser Metal Profiles’ business doesn’t show signs of slowing down
anytime soon and, in fact, could lead to an expansion in the near
future. “We’re at a crossroads right now because we have some
limitations with the building that we are currently in. We are
exploring a number of possibilities right now but for us to take our
business to the next level we would want to install a more powerful
5,000 watt or 6,000 watt machine with larger tables that would allow us
to laser cut larger parts. That essentially would mean a new, larger
facility with different handling equipment such as overhead cranes.
“Also, our customers are asking us to take it the next step and start
doing welding inhouse. Currently, we have a welding partner that we
work with that does our welding in his own facility. We’re in the midst
of investigating installing a more powerful laser with larger tables
and adding machining and welding operations all under one roof. We are
optimistic that this expansion will add to our success,” he says. us.trumpf.com
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