Outdoor equipment manufacturer Toro Co. regularly sends out bids for parts, forcing its own manufacturing plants to compete with outside vendors. Toro's manufacturing plants face the same competitive pressures as any other manufacturer, so its plant in Shakopee, Minn., analyzed its forming operations and decided to replace its press brakes and upgrade its tooling.

By optimizing the performance of each of the plasma cutting system's components, a fabricator can quickly and consistently create high quality parts. The plasma power supply, torch, and lead assembly comprise a plasma cutting system. Robust cutting applications require a mechanized system with an integrated computer numerical control (CNC) and a three-axis configuration with the plasma torch and a torch height control.

Proper selection of the shielding gas for gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) processes can dramatically improve speed, quality, and deposition rate of a given weldment.

Automotive Tier II supplier of ride control parts Tennessee Stampings makes extensive use of sensors to mistake-proof its stamping, and clear the way for its 23 percent annual growth. Before the dies ever hit the presses, they are properly sensored so you don't incur downtime associated with troubleshooting the sensor in the press.

The new Indianapolis International Airport terminal is one of the first airport buildings to be designed, fabricated, and built to survive the type of attack inflicted on the World Trade Center on Sept.11, 2001. The heart of the new terminal is designed to be a circular space—a civic plaza dominated by its great, arched roof. Fabricating the specialty sloping barrel joists, serpentine structural trusses, and torpedo columns for the curvilinear rolling roof presented unique challenges.

Arcadia, Albany, N.Y., transitions from a metal supplier to a waterjet cutting shop to a laser cutting shop to a metal bender. Future plans call for the shop to evolve into a full-scale contract manufacturer.

Operating a leveler requires training and skill, but computers are making the task much easier. A computer can quickly set the machine to a good starting point and allow very fine adjustment of the back-ups. Once the leveler is delivering good results on a particular coil, the settings can be saved and called up later. That saves setup time when coils are partially run and then sent back to stock.

Sign-makers have long sought a way to improve durability and aesthetics and reduce the labor-intensive steps associated with welding, taping, and fastening. Today's adhesives can structurally bond metals to plastics with unique design, production and costs benefits, thereby making them an alternative to welding and mechanical fasteners for sign industry fabrication.

Using a machine to remove burrs from and put a surface finish on sheet metal and plate, also known as deburring and graining, is more complicated than it seems. The factors that go into selecting and setting up a deburring and graining machine are almost as numerous as the factors that cause burrs in the first place. Some of the important factors you have to consider are machine type (wet or dry), setup (the arrangement of sanding belts and deburring brushes), sanding drum hardness and diameter, brush type, and feed rate.