Alabama manufacturer does just about everything, given enough material and power.
Above: Plasma cutting, such as with the Kjellberg Smart Focus 300, is a prominent machining operation at Snowhill Engineering.
November 2022- Some manufacturers perform fabrication. Some build machine tools. Some design, produce and assemble parts. Some develop automation lines. Snowhill Engineering does all that and more.
“We’ll do anything,” says Riley Wicker, owner of the Ozark, Alabama, manufacturing company, noting that an exception is civil engineering projects. “We can actually produce everything that we come up with. We have done a lot of silly projects because I wanted to do them because they’re cool.”
For example, last year Snowhill built a static model for NASA at Cape Canaveral, Florida, of the last Navaho missile, which must withstand the challenging oceanside environment. “I always wanted to build a rocket. It just won’t fly.”
The company employs a dozen workers in its two buildings that total 35,000 sq. ft ., with one dedicated to fabrication and the other for assembly. Snowhill’s machine offerings include fiber laser, abrasive waterjet and plasma cutting systems.
HURDLING OBSTACLES
To manufacture products, he says Snowhill uses a variety of machining processes, with plasma cutting being a prominent one. For many years, the company used, and still uses, plasma cutting products from a major brand and had no qualms about the performance of the equipment, but it ran into an availability problem. “Getting product was the hard part during the past year. We’ve been on waiting lists for certain power supplies.”
To find a solution, Snowhill turned to Kjellberg Cutting Inc. in Lewisville, Texas, and purchased a Kjellberg Smart Focus 300 plasma cutting unit, Wicker says. The system features an automatic gas panel, which minimizes operator interaction with the plasma unit other than putting the correct consumables into the torch head.
“Everything happens from the controller,” he says. “We use a FlashCut control, and we have a material database, so once we select a material and tell the control what we’re trying to do with it, you know what amperage of consumable we want to use, it automatically sends all that stuff back to the power supply of the gas panel and sets all the gas pressures and amperages for that.”
The Kjellberg Smart Focus 300 plasma cutting unit automatically mixes the proper gas proportions and sends the mix to the torch head.
Kjellberg’s optimized gas control units and torches protect the consumables, reduce gas consumption and the costs per cutting meter. In addition, its Silent Cut technology reduces the sound pressure level by up to 15 dB during cutting.
A variety of plasma gases can be used for cutting with the Smart Focus 300.
Most steel is cut with air/air or air/oxygen, Wicker notes, but Snowhill has the full array of gases. “We have nitrogen, hydrogen, argon and F5 plasma gas.” The latter is a mix of 5 percent hydrogen and 95 percent nitrogen, which is primarily used for cutting stainless steel. “We have the ability to cut with all the gases.”
He adds that the plasma system automatically mixes the proper gas proportions and sends the mix to the torch head.
The Smart Focus 400 is another plasma cutting unit from Kjellberg. Like the 300, the gas control units and torches protect the consumables and reduce gas consumption.
RETROFIT TO THE RESCUE
Prior to purchasing the Kjellberg plasma equipment for in-house cutting applications, Wicker says Snowhill was familiar with the Smart Focus. For over two years, Snowhill has used the Smart Focus for its new and retrofitted plasma machines.
“Our retrofit side has been pretty heavy,” he says. “We’ve been averaging a retrofit about every two weeks.”
Wicker explains that when a customer brings in an old plasma cutting table for retrofitting, Snowhill will strip it down, install a new power supply with new controllers “and get it up to date and get them cutting better.”
That is because the quality of an edge cut with the Kjellberg plasma equipment is “just phenomenal,” according to Wicker. “When I was shown a sample of a piece of 3/8-inch plate that was cut, that is the only time I’ve ever been fooled. I thought a laser had done it, but it was a Kjellberg. It has almost eliminated any secondary operations.”
Snowhill does not need to remove dross from cut parts as the dross level is minimal, Wicker says. “What little bit will be on there will usually fall off by the time you remove it from the table.” Rounding the edges with a flat wheel or in a tumbler is the only additional process that is required, he adds. “We can take a ¼-inch plate and it will stand up on edge as it comes off the table because it is so square.”
Edge rounding is needed for parts that Snowhill powder coats or paints, Wicker explains, because paint or powder coating does not adhere properly to a sharp corner. Typically, parts are powder coated in the company’s 30-ft.-long oven but they are painted if they are too large for the oven. “All the machines we build are powder coated.”
To control quality and turnaround times, Wicker says Snowhill tries to produce everything that goes into a plasma table in house, except for components such as linear bearings and rails. “When we build a plasma table, it is cut on our plasma table.”
CUTTING RANGE
The versatile Kjellberg power supply enables Snowhill to cut steel from 26-gauge to 2½-inch plate.
To cut thinner material, Wicker recommends using torch height control. “14-gauge would be the thinnest I’d cut. If you want to cut thinner, then we’d put a floating head on it.”
Tolerances range from ±0.003 to ±0.005 inches.
When it comes to plasma maintenance, Wicker says he appreciates that Kjellberg did not overcomplicate the machine. For example, if a relay needs replacement, it’s an off-the-shelf item that can be sourced wherever a manufacturer sources its electronic parts. “It’s a very robust system and very easy to maintain.”
He adds that Snowhill takes that approach when building its own machines.
Wicker says he will assist customers over the phone for no charge and will only make a service call if the issue cannot be solved remotely. “I don’t like charging people for something they don’t need, and I don’t like being treated that way myself.”
Despite the challenge of hiring and retaining workers from a labor pool that “has just dried up,” Wicker says Snowhill Engineering continues to produce a steady stream of parts and products. “We are wide open. I keep saying I hope I can catch up, but I don’t think that day will ever come.” -FFJ
