Order of the day

the near £400,000 machines, to Allfabs – a specialist in architectural fabrications, based in Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

“The interest in the new machine has been phenomenal since our VIP launch day and now we are seeing that interest translate into hard orders,” says World Machinery's managing director, Wayne Hipkiss. “Customers can see how the speed, quality and low running cost advantages of the Mitsubishi machine can benefit their businesses, enabling them to deliver faster and more efficiently in existing business sectors and move into new profitable markets with the enhanced capabilities the machine provides.”

Allfabs manufactures architectural fabrications – mainly in aluminium but also mild and stainless steel and sees the purchase of the Mitsubishi machine as a means of expanding this capability into other key market sectors, such as automotive and telecommunications.

"We looked at several manufacturers but chose the Mitsubishi machine because the laser technology was more advanced than any other makers of fast axial flow lasers and it provided higher capacity than fibre lasers – with 30% lower running costs and longer service intervals,” reveals Allfabs' managing director Mark Duggan.

“After our initial enquiry, we were shown a video of the Mitsubishi LVPlus 11 and I was surprised just how easily and quickly the machine setting can be altered to suit all kinds of materials. A subsequent demonstration proved all the claims of speed and quality of cut. We also decided to install Lantek Expert 2, which ensures that our customer enquiries are handled through to production as well as looking after our materials and controlling all the business processes. All of this was provided by World Machinery via an attractive finance package that the company put together for us.”

The laser machine purchased by Allfabs, an ML30l5 LVP model, can cut mild steel up to 25mm thick, stainless steel up to l2mm, aluminium up to l5mm and copper up to 6mm.
“The Mitsubishi machine, with its 4.5kW resonator and 3m by 1.5m bed provides us with an operational range above our current needs – however this also allows a greater scope for future requirements,” adds Rhiddian Billingham, Allfab's laser product manager. “The improved edge cutting capability and high speed cutting ability has increased our throughput far greater than we could ever achieve with our punch presses.”

“He continues: “Components now produced on the laser machine are much cleaner and easier to weld, saving production time in our fabrication department. In addition, we save on tooling costs over the punch presses and also setting time – we can lay the sheet on the machine bed and leave the machine to find its own datum, further optimising our production cycle.”

One feature on the Mitsubishi machine that is particularly important for our business is corner control. When the laser beam recognises a sharp point for cutting, it intelligently controls the power to ensure that the corner does not distort or fall away due to excessive heat in the material. As the beam leaves the corner, it powers up again and continues its normal high speed power cut.
“The purchase of the Mitsubishi machine is opening up a whole new spectrum of subcontract business and bringing in many new customers,” Mr Billingham concludes. “The machine, coupled with Lantek software means customer drawings are fed direct into the machine which provides a right first time quality component.”

Summing up World Machinery's latest success story, Wayne Hipkiss observes: “We have specialised in supplying a huge range of laser cutting machines, punch presses, and other CNCs for many years so we offer the Mitsubishi machines with a very balanced attitude towards satisfying our customer's needs. In many instances they are proving to be the best machine for the application: the low running costs, plus a favourable finance package is proving very hard to compete with.”

World Machinery
www.worldmc.co.uk