Conveyor and elevator maker improves edge quality with plasma and waterjet

Situation

Newell Machinery, Hiawatha, Iowa, has more than 100 years of millwrighting experience, completing thousands of projects with custom millwright products and services. The company serves a variety of agricultural industries, including animal food, powerhouses and boilers, food processing, industrial, chemical, precision machine setting, robotic packaging, mining and quarries, and steel mills.

The firm has serviced and installed floor and overhead conveyors for more than 40 years, offering project work, preventive maintenance, ongoing maintenance contracts, and emergency breakdown service. It manufactures conveyors of various types, steel bucket elevators, associated platforms, staircases, ladders, and safety cages.

Newell’s plasma table did not have enough capacity for the material sizes and thicknesses that the company needed to process, and the cut edge quality it produced was subpar.

Resolution

Newell purchased a dura-kut 10- by 20-ft. plasma cutting system with a Hypertherm HPR800XD plasma power supply and a robo-kut 5-axis bevel head from AKS Cutting Systems, with the help of Iowa-based dealer Greenway & Associates. Newell now can plasma severance cut carbon steel up to 3 in., stainless steel up to 6 in., and aluminum up to 6 in. With the HPR-XD Hy-Definition arc cutting process, the edge quality finish of the plasma cut parts is far superior than the old technology, according to the company.

Each day, Newell cuts hundreds of different parts for the fabrication of its conveyor and elevator products. Although many parts are mild carbon steel, an increasing number of parts are stainless steel for grain and food transport applications. Most of the parts go directly into paint applications after plasma cutting, with no secondary processes or treatment required.

Complementing the plasma cutting system is a Mitsubishi MC Machinery X4-612 waterjet cutting system with KMT Waterjet PRO 125-HP, 90,000-PSI pump and taper control system. Newell uses the waterjet to cut titanium, aluminum, and nonmetallic materials at fast speeds without having to consume high amounts of abrasives.

AKS Cutting Systems

www.akscutting.com