For our inaugural post under the equipment part of our blog, we figured we should talk about the newest (and biggest) addition to our manufacturing equipment fleet. We recently purchased and implemented two (2) brand new H-22A-120 Hydmech automatic dual post horizontal band saws. These saws quadrupled the amount of output during cutting than compared with our old band saws. Our significant investment was not only to improve upon our current processes and shorten lead times, but we are also able to get into the production saw cutting market.

In Production Saw Cutting – Time Equals Money

This mantra was the main reason we decided to upgrade our saws. Of course, we wanted to cut down on time spent processing material to improve margins. However, a big focus is to transfer some of that savings onto our customers. The improvements we make with the saws gives us the ability to continue to meet our mission statement of providing quality products, at a fair price.

Types of saws we investigated

1. Automatic Fed Circular Saw

   1. We investigated an automatically fed circular saw made by Tsune. This saw is quick and flexible with the types of material it can cut while still holding tight tolerances. The saw performed using an automatic bar feeding system. It would load individual lengths of steel from a bundle one at a time for processing. The memory of the PLC was extensive and has programmed intelligence to help an operator make the correct choice for blade speed, down feed rate, etc. based on the type of material being cut. For our specific application we were unable to choose this particular type of saw:
      1. The saw can only cut one piece of steel from a bundle at a time. Running thousands of parts per day and the constant change over would prove to be cumbersome for our operators.
      2. Loading of the circular saw is not ergonomically friendly when cutting a bundle. The Tsune circular saw is a wonderful product for companies who focus on non-bundle pipe and tubing cuts.

   2. Hydmech dual column automatic band saw

      1. Since we already were using a Hydmech single column miter band saw, we knew we had to upgrade.
         1. These saws have a ½ inch wider blade that increases our cut tolerance on a bundle to 1/32 of an inch. This increase in tolerance increases the quality and output of our robotic welding cells. This increased the welding speed of each weld cell and in turn increased our output.
      2. Automatic 10-foot bar feed
         1. We chose the 10-foot bar feed because of the variety of our product sizes. For saws, the larger the stroke of your bar feed, the tighter the tolerance you can hold per cut.
      3. Blade deviation monitoring
         1. Our customers know we are watching to make sure that each cut is perfect. The blade deviation monitor helps us by watching for any deviation outside of the 1/32” tolerance we have set for the blade. If for any reason the saw blade deviates, the machine will automatically slow down the cut to readjust. If the machine cannot readjust, it will stop, return to its zero point, and wait for the operator to make an adjustment.

Key takeaways

1. American Manufacturing builds quality products, at a fair price. All our improvements are meant to increase productivity, decrease lead time, and provide a higher quality part for all of our customers at a price they can afford.
2. Making incremental improvements to support our customer’s needs. We have put in the time and effort to research and procure machinery that provides a benefit to our customers. We now can process material for ourselves and others who may not have the time or resources to do so efficiently.

We hope this has been an informative way to dive deep into our processing equipment and to help make the purchasing process easier. If you are interested in a quote, click the Contact Us link at the top of the page. Please leave a comment below so we can continuously improve our blogs to give you the most information possible!