For hole-cutting, a company has seen the light and switched to lasers: CNC machining centers and lasers help reduce waste and increase efficiency.

Production Cutting Services, East Moline, IL, has seen the light--the laser light. The company--PCS--began in 1985 with founder Bill Duy and two other employees. It's become a multi-million dollar operation specializing in fabricated metal processing, particularly tubing.

"We started as a saw-cutting operation, supplying cut-to-length tubes for the agricultural equipment companies," Duy said. "We soon recognized the need to add more value in order to survive."

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PCS added value by offering customers milled contours, drilled holes, and other operations with its CNC machining centers. Even with CNCs, the machining centers faced hurdles processing Production Cutting Service's tube parts.

Setup and processing time are two examples. One part was 4"x4" and made from rectangular tubing 0.25" thick. PCS had to drill holes on all four sides, held to 0.010" relative to each other.

"First we'd cut the tube to length," Duy said. "Then we'd bring the pieces to the machining center where there were two vices. Each vice held the part for two positions and the machine was programmed to drill one side for each position. After each side was finished, the operator had to stop and turn the tube to the next side.

"There were four setups per piece. The operator deburred the inside of each tube with a hand tool. If the operator rotated the part the wrong way, it was scrap," he said

Drilling also presented difficulties. When the drill made contact with the tube, its walls vibrated and flexed, causing burrs and effecting accuracy.

"I've seen a round drill cut a triangular hole in tubes because of flexing and vibration," Duy said. He said he also saw vibration ruin tooling, damaging a $500 tool in a matter of seconds.

In 2002, Production Cutting Services installed a 2,500W SG-U44 3D rotary laser from Mazak Optonics Corp., Schaumburg, IL. In 2004, it added a Mazak 4,000W Fabri-Gear 300 laser.

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"We've gone through a metamorphosis," Duy said. "We really underestimated how much setup time, part-handling, and machine idle time was costing us."

Duy said laser processing is a "lean engine" for his company because it speeds up processing, decreases operator involvement, and frees capacity for new business. "We're not walking away from CNC machining," he said. "On the contrary, with large OEMs continuing to pare down vendors, we want to keep giving our customers as wide a range of processing choices as possible."

The lasers have absorbed the majority of Duy's tube processing. With rectangular tubing work, the operator attaches the tube to the SG-U44's rotary chuck. There is no need to manually turn the part, and the laser cutting leaves no burrs. The lasers also eliminated an extra beveling step.

"We went from four setups to one, and the cycle time was reduced up to 60 percent," Duy said.

Another advantage of the lasers is that they cut off parts, so a single 10' tube loaded into the rotary chuck produces numerous parts.

During the last four years, sales have more than doubled for Production Cutting Services, and the company plans to continue expanding.

"Ag and construction equipment markets are good at present, but we see a lot of growth potential in thinner-walled tubing for office equipment, gyms, trailers, and other applications," Duy said.

PCS set up its CNC equipment cells to accommodate castings and forgings, and for processing materials ill-suited to lasers.

"We've created a company that's capable of supplying a variety of parts fabricated to customer specifications," Duy said. "And, there's room to grow." Mazak Optonics

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