Raymond R. Dubosq is the owner of RRD Welding & Fabrication LTD. With over 27 years of personal experience in building machinery and the steel fabrication industry, Raymond first established the business in 2001. Using CNC programming and high definition plasma burning, RRD is able to provide some of the most complex and high quality jobs for their clients. Initially, with the cost outlay for the equipment, RRD did not think a CNC plasma was essential to their business model. As the business grew, their need for a stable piece of equipment with the potential to expand production became readily apparent. After assessing the market potential, RRD made the decision to add MultiCam’s 6000 Series CNC Bridge & Rail System to their production facility.
The 6000 Series is capable of carrying many different processes such as Oxy-fuel, Plasma, High Definition Plasma, Scribe, Drill and Electrospindle. The machine is compatible for numerous applications, cutting various types of metals including Steel, Stainless Steel, Aluminum, Brass, Bronze, Copper, and more. Recently, using the plasma’s capabilities, RRD was able to build a machine through a series of plate burning while meeting the strict deadline the job required. Normally, a job of this type would take 16-20 weeks but with the machine they were able to complete it within 10 weeks. “With the clearance between the bridge and tank, we can burn holes and shapes into HSS, channels, and angles allowing us to process anything and everything by reducing job time tremendously”. RRD can now burn parts which were previously done by hand; a very labour intensive and mistake prone method. The machine allows for clean, sharp cuts on a variety of metals of different thickness. To make things easier it is also equipped with an integrated material database. When changing material type, material thickness, or arc current, many parameters need to be adjusted. This process is made simple since all of these cutting values such as feedrate, pierce delay, pierce height, etc. are integrated into a menu driven database on the handheld controller. Once the material type, thickness, and arc current are selected, all of these settings adjust automatically.
When it comes to investments, every business desires a short payback period and a high rate of return. For RRD the machine purchase was approximately a capital investment of $150k. At first glance, this may appear to be a hefty sum but in RRD’s case, two fitters at an annual expense of $110k were replaced. The machine’s installation proved to be worthwhile, accumulating labour savings in addition to their ability to better service customers. Within a year, the business was able to recover the cost of their investment not to mention the competitive advantage also gained as most of their competitors outsource parts they cannot create without a plasma. The business is now able to cut a wider range of metals, increase the speed of operation, meet higher demands, and take on more complex work.
The 6000 Series offers several standard features including high-speed contouring, fully programmable retract between parts, automatic initial pierce height, user-friendly MultiCam controller, and more. When asked which feature on the machine is most appealing, Raymond said the “dual-pinion drives” as it allows for “superior accuracy”. With a rapid traverse speed of 1,800 IPM, the rigid, heavy, all-steel construction combined with precision guide ways, the 6000P Series is one of the most accurate heavy cutting systems on the market today.
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