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Active Machinery Upgrades Tanaka System with PRC Williamston, MI - Active Machinery, Inc. (Apex, NC) is a well known used machinery dealer that strives to make sure each machine they sell operates like new. When they acquired a 1993 Tanaka LMX cutting system they were concerned that they wouldn't be able to keep the 14-year old 3500 Watt laser running to their satisfaction. While reviewing possible solutions Active consulted with PRC about a laser retrofit. A few months later Active Machinery found a buyer for the Tanaka system. Demmer Corporation in Williamston, MI was the satisfied owner a 2004 Tanaka cutting system with a 4kW laser and was in need of more laser cutting capacity for the high volume of armored plate they were processing. The large format of Tanaka's design was a great fit for the sheet size and volume of parts they cut but the idea of investing in another new Tanaka left them cold. Active Machinery had the solution for Demmer Corp, they would re-furbish the machine tool themselves and work with PRC to integrate a new PL 5000 laser to the Fanuc 16L controlled machine. Active took great care in making the machine tool operate and even look like new, cleaning everything and re-painting all the sheet metal. At first glance PRC could easily see how much care and effort went into re-furbishing the machine and we knew we had to do a first class job in integrating the laser to the machine tool. In order to fit the customer's need to be producing parts quickly Active Machinery decided to install the machine tool and retrofit the laser on site in Demmer Corp's facility rather than staging it in their facility first. Thanks to excellent planning and mechanical design work on Active's part the laser's mechanical installation and alignment was perfect. The electrical integration of brand new laser with a 14 year old Fanuc control was a challenging task for PRC though one that had been performed successfuly in the past. This time thanks to some great ideas from Active Machinery on how to interface the control without having to change it's functionality, the Fanuc - PRC integration was totally seamless and every bit of Fanuc's proprietary laser cutting technology was maintained. Demmer Corp now has a cutting system with a modern, low maintenance 5kW laser and is extremely satisfied with their purchase from Active Machinery and with the results of the PRC laser retrofit.

Hygrade Metals retrofits 13 lasers to welding line Excerpt from Industrial Laser Solutions February 2006 Bethlehem, PA - Hygrade Metal Moulding Manufacturing Corporation, known as Hygrade Components, is a leading manufacturer of insulating glass and window components and custom roll-formed products. Based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the company was founded in 1939 and began working in the window and door industry in 1955. It manufactures laser welded air spacers, warm edge air spacers, traditional and contoured muntin bars, insect screen frames, stainless steel patio door track covers, and steel reinforcements for vinyl windows and patio doors. In 1998, the company, which was originally based in Farmingdale, NY, diversified its operations by moving its manufacturing operations to Mount Pleasant, Tennessee and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. About a year ago, Vince Pagano, company chairman, was looking for a way to increase productivity of the company's welding lines without incurring the expense and downtime associated with purchasing and installing new machinery. For Hygrade, the solution was a product just being introduced by PRC Laser. At the time PRC, a manufacturer of industrial CO2 lasers in Landing, NJ, was bringing its XL series to market. The XL 1000 and 1500 Watt lasers were designed for use in thin-metal and non-metal processing, and the latter was a perfect match for Hygrade's needs. The XL series was created to bridge the gap between sealed laser sources that stop at the 500W level and more costly 2- and 2.5kW laser sources," says Greg Hewett, OEM account manager for PRC Laser. "These lasers offer up to 1500 Watts in a compact enclosure that gives a much better dollar-per-Watt ratio than lower powered sealed lasers and still represent a smaller investment than a 2- or 2.5kW laser. For companies like Hygrade who were looking for cost efficiency and power, the XL offered them the 1500 Watts at a price they would normally pay for a 500-Watt sealed product." Hygrade immediately took delivery of five 1500 Watt units at its Pennsylvania plant and six units at the Tennessee plant, and the beneficial results were almost instantaneous. The new lasers replaced 1500W and 1750W lasers that had been installed in the 1980s. It didn't take long to get the revamped systems up and running. The company pulled out the old lasers in a single day and PRC was able to install five units in Pennsylvania in one week and six in Tennessee in four days. Hygrade uses the lasers to seam weld progressive roll-formed flat coil steel that is made into square tubes known as spacers. The spacers are used inside double paned windows to hold the two panes apart equidistantly to allow a thin layer of inert gas to be placed between the panes for insulation. The company's laser welding expertise allows it to weld pre-painted material without requiring any post weld cleaning or touch up. According to Mark Gabowitz, Hygrade production manager, the primary reason for replacing the older lasers was their downtime. "The old lasers required up to an hour of warm-up time and needed constant adjustments and maintenance. Just finding replacement parts for them was becoming a major headache as well. With the new lasers we're up and running in around five minutes, they don't require constant tweaking, and we don't need to factor downtime into our delivery schedules." Because the XL series offers a high beam quality with a choice of either a low M squared TEM 00 mode or a TEM 01 "D" mode beam, Hygrade opted for the "D" mode beam, which would provide a slightly wider weld bead, but later decided to try the deeper penetration and narrower weld provided by the TEM 00 mode. Finally after finding that Hygrade was running but not completely satisfied, PRC created a custom optical configuration that offered welding characteristics in between the two standard modes. The new "semi-custom" laser suited the application well. "In addition to solving our downtime problem, thanks to the new lasers we were able to speed up our welding lines" Gabowitz adds. "When we found that the new lasers were capable of welding at much higher speeds, we actually had to go back and increase the number of passes, or tooling steps on our roll forming lines to keep up with the lasers. We were able to increase our welding rates by about 33 percent to 100 feet per minute." "Another thing that impressed us was the ease of the retrofit. They were installed using the same machine controls and run exactly the same as our old ones. The only training we had to do was to show our people how to turn the laser on and off." The consistency of welding is excellent and the results were so good that even with the modifications to the roll-forming lines the company runs the lasers below rated power because the lines can't keep up. Hygrade is pleased with the performance of these new lasers, the improved uptime, increased weld speeds, and reduced operating costs. They have greatly improved the company's manufacturing efficiency, helping to keep out the cold draft of competition.

Reading Body Works Retrofit Cincinnati CL707 This retrofit on an Cincinnati machine replaced an RS2000 with a PRC 2200. Our retrofit team was able to maintain all the advanced features of this sophisticated machine while providing more power and better uptime! For Reading Body Works of Reading, Pennsylvania, reliability was the issue. Although their Cincinnati CL707 laser cutting system was less than three years old and is still one of the faster and more advanced machines on the market, the manufacturer of standard and custom truck bodies experienced constant problems with the RS2000 laser resonator that came on the machine. According to Vice President of Manufacturing Dan Pearleman, the optical bed of the original resonator was not totally flat, so the optics kept losing alignment, requiring realignment every month. The resonator was replaced under the warranty, but the company continued to experience power losses and frequent need for realignment, and they were using too many consumables. Then the resonator blower unit began to fail, and oil from the blower was destroying the optics. By this time, the resonator was no longer covered under warranty, and Pearleman faced a $70,000 cost to rebuild the resonator. At the same time, Reading Body Works also owned a Prima Laser with a PRC resonator. This machine had run 24 hours per day, five or six days per week, for almost five years without any resonator problems. On a routine maintenance call, a PRC representative offered to help realign the failing Rofin Sinar laser. The fact that PRC would offer to help fix a machine that wasn't even their responsibility impressed Pearleman with their top-notch service attitude. The company decided to spend $120,000 to retrofit the Cincinnati machine with a PRC 2200 Watt resonator rather than try to fix the ailing resonator. The retrofit took one week, but the lost time was quickly made up with the immediate increase in productivity. "The machine now runs all the time," Pearleman says. "That alone was all it took to increase productivity." The company also now had a more powerful laser and one that produced consistent quality parts. "PRC worked very well with us," he adds, noting that PRC handled all the details to coordinate the retrofit and ensure that it happened smoothly and with a minimum of interference with the rest of Reading Body Work's production schedule. PRC's retrofit staff was able to maintain all the advanced features on the Cincinnati cutting system and Reading was very pleased with the process and the results. "We would definitely go with PRC again," Pearleman notes. Back to Retrofit Page

NTC TLM System

This retrofit on an NTC 5-Axis machine replaced an RS1200 with a PRC 2200. The electrical interfacing is seamless and the only mechanical changes required were some simple spacers underneath the laser!

Maintenance Manager Pete Justice first considered a retrofit about a year ago. Magni Power had one of the first Rofin Sinar RS lasers installed in the United States. The RS1200 DC combination laser/punching machine had been operating since 1988. While the punch portion of the machine still worked great, the laser had become "finicky," with optics fogging up, glassware cracking, vacuum leaks and a shutter assembly that just kept wearing out. "We couldn't run three days without having to stop and work on the laser," Justice says.

Faced with the prospect of buying a new combination machine at $750,000 or retrofitting the laser for $130,000, Justice chose to go with the retrofit. The company had recently purchased a Strippit Helios laser cutting system featuring a PRC laser. Justice was pleased with the way this machine performed and how trouble-free it was to maintain, so he contacted PRC Laser in Landing, New Jersey, about the possibility of retrofitting his Rofin Sinar machine with a PRC STS 2200 laser. "We worked on the project for almost a year," Justice says. "We did our homework and worked with PRC for a long time to make sure this was the right choice." When it came time for the actual retrofit, the machine was down for just three days. When it was back up and running on the third day, Magni Power had a higher power laser system that required almost no maintenance. "We were changing optics on the old machine almost every week," Justice says. "We've had the new laser almost a year and haven't changed the optics yet. This machine went from being the worst machine in the shop to the best." 

The higher power laser also ran faster. The old machine had been running 50 percent under capacity. With the laser retrofit, they easily made up that difference and gained another 25 to 30 percent in production, despite the fact that the older servos on this machine cannot keep up with the full power of the laser. Justice also found some added benefits in new capabilities that the company has not yet begun to explore. They now have a pulsing capability and the ability to cut stainless steel. This could open some new avenues of business in the future. Justice's overall perception of the retrofit process was very positive on both the process and the end result. "We're very pleased with it," he says.

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Lasertron Prima Retrofit

Gary Geller, president of Lasertron in Sunrise, Florida, had a different reason for his retrofit. Lasertron is a contract laser shop that cuts all types of steel and organic materials and provides laser engraving services. One day, they might be cutting aircraft engine components, the next day rubber gaskets, and another day 1/2" stainless steel. They had a four-year-old Prima Industries Laserwork 1530 using a 3500 Watt PRC laser. When PRC recently released their 6000-Watt laser, Geller wanted to upgrade to get the extra power to maintain his competitive edge. Since they were replacing one model of PRC laser with another, the retrofit was extremely easy and completed in just a day. "All the connectors fit together the same way, so this was very easy," Geller says. "There were some minor software changes." Geller got the higher power he was looking for, expanding the company's capability in stainless steel cutting from 3/4" to 1-1/2" thickness. As an added benefit, he got greater cutting speed, enhancing his productivity.

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Grain Handlers Wiedeman Punch/Plasma Retrofit

Grain Handlers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, had yet another reason to retrofit. This manufacturer of grain dryers and handling equipment had an old Weideman punch press from 1971 equipped with a plasma cutting system that had seen better days. "We were noticing a difference between the parts cut in the morning and the parts cut in the afternoon, as the consumables wore out," says General Manager Eric Heim. "The plasma cutter wasn't giving us the consistency we needed. And we were spending $60 to $80 per day on consumables."
Heim wanted the accurate cutting ability of a laser, but the company could not afford the $500,000 price tag of a stand-alone laser system. Plus, he liked having the ability to punch and cut on the same machine. So, the $200,000 investment in a retrofit seemed the much better option. He also chose a PRC 2200-Watt laser, in part because "PRC is pushing to retrofit older machines more than any other company."
This retrofit was a little more complicated, taking about a week to complete. Heim decided to also change some other things on the machine at the same time, so the machine was down for two weeks. He prepared for the downtime by running cut parts ahead of time. He has two other punching machines to handle the punching work.
Heim says the retrofit was "absolutely successful." The laser produces consistent parts, with no change from morning to night. The laser also gives Grain Handlers the capability to cut finer detailed work without having to purchase special tools. "We're doing much more intricate work, like radiusing of corners, and generally getting a more professional part with the laser," Heim says. And, as an added bonus, they've also increased production. "If I had to do it over again, I would definitely buy another PRC laser," he says.

Greater reliability, increased productivity, lower capital investment with quick return, and expanded capabilities are just a few reasons to consider a laser retrofit. In a tightening economy, retrofitting may provide the answer to improving your process capabilities without breaking your budget.

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