Above: One of the two Mazak ber lasers that Kinninger Custom Fabrication purchased to increase throughput.
February, 2025- Kinninger Custom Fabrication is a manufacturer on the move. The New Bremen, Ohio, job shop gained about 44,000 square feet of facility space and 5 acres of land when it acquired a manufacturer in October that was literally across the street, says Ryan Heckman, sales. The company has a total of 150,000 square feet and is in the process of adding 7,000 square feet of office space. He adds that the acquisition enables Kinninger to offer stamping and additional machining capabilities.
In addition to stamping and CNC machining, Kinninger’s manufacturing services include robotic and manual welding, CNC forming, trimming and sewing, powder coating and assembly, and waterjet and laser cutting.
For the latter service, laser cutting machine tool builder Mazak Optonics Corp. in Elgin, Illinois, has played a central role, says Kevin Thobe, owner of Kinninger Custom Fabrication. The shop purchased a Mazak 2,000-watt CO2 laser in the late 1990s and later acquired a 6,000-watt Optiflex 3015 fiber laser after Mazak launched its fiber optic line, followed by a purchase of an 8,000-watt Optiflex 3015 fiber laser a couple of years later.
Because Kinninger is an early adopter of manufacturing equipment, the company installed one of the first fiber lasers in the U.S. from an Italian machine tool builder, and the shop still operates that 3,000-watt machine, which provides automated loading and unloading, according to Thobe.
Combined, the three lasers are used about 60 percent of the time to cut carbon steel, 30 percent to cut stainless steel and 10 percent to cut aluminum for a host of end use application, including fire truck, medical equipment, health care facilities and agricultural equipment. Workpiece materials range in thickness from 0.02 to 1 inch.
Nearly a year after receiving the 8,000-watt laser, Thobe says Kinninger added automation for loading and unloading worksheets and installed the Smart Cell from Mazak on the 6,000-watt laser in May 2024.
With the automation in place, Kinninger runs its ber lasers unattended throughout the night and some weekends.
The Smart Cell automated sorting system uses a 6-axis industrial robot and incorporates multiple customizable magnetic or suction cup gripper options for sorting laser cut parts, loading raw material and removing remnant material, according to Mazak.
With the automation in place, Kinninger runs its lasers lights-out throughout the night and sometimes weekends; the company no longer had to staff the second shift, Heckman says. “We always ran the lasers on our second shift and, sometimes, all we ran on the second shift were the lasers. A laser will run all week as long as we keep material in the tower and keep on loading it.”
MORE WITH LESS
Once Kinninger was able to run production without employees on the second shift, Heckman says the laser department shrunk accordingly from seven or eight employees to four. “We’re getting more operations out of them, more capacity with fewer employees.”
Part of that gain in capacity is due to employees becoming more skilled as they gain more laser cutting knowledge and capabilities, Heckman says. To move a lower level employee to a higher level requires that Kinninger retain its workers and gaining skills motivates workers to stay with the company, he notes. “Our workforce is very stable. There are a lot of hard workers in our area, so we are very fortunate.”
Kinninger Custom Fabrication uses ber lasers to quickly cut a host of components.
In addition to learning on the job, laser operators attended a week of off-site training to learn how to manipulate the Smart Cell robot and gain additional capabilities, Heckman notes.
Automation not only enables workers to gain new skills but boosts throughput as well. Prior to being automated, Thobe says the Mazak lasers were cutting about 30 to 40 percent of the time with the remaining time consumed with loading and unloading. “Now with automation we’re probably closer to 80 percent [run time].”
FLYING WITH FIBER
At the time Kinninger purchased the Mazak fiber laser cutting equipment, the shop selected the Optiplex 3015, which has a maximum width of just over 5 ft. and a maximum length of just over 10 ft., compared with a 4- by 8-ft. cutting area, Thobe says. “The fiber lasers cut so fast. With a 4 by 8 sheet, you could cut one sheet in under a minute. If you put on a 5 by 10 sheet, it might take a minute and a half.
It gives the operator a little bit more time to prepare for the next nest or to unload the sheet.”
Kinninger Custom Fabrication laser cuts workpiece materials up to 1 inch thick.
Currently, Mazak offers the Optiplex 3015 Ez and 3015 NEO lasers for blanks up to 60.04 inches wide and 120.08 inches long. The Optiplex 4220 Ez and 4220 NEO lasers will handle sheets up to 80.71 inches wide and 162.2 inches long.
Thobe says the machines’ Intelligent Setup Functions, which are a variety of tasks that improve the ease of operation and reduce setup time, have proven beneficial, including Auto Nozzle Cleaning and Auto Focus Positioning.
With the former, the machine’s cutting head moves to the nozzle cleaning brush where the brush removes spatter, or slag, that has adhered to the nozzle, Mazak reports. The combination of Auto Nozzle Changing and Auto Nozzle Cleaning reduces setup time to one minute compared to up to an hour when an operator performs the functions.
“Once you get your check tables all set, there really is no touching it. You just throw the nesting programs in and off it goes,” Thobe says. With Auto Focus Positioning, the machine automatically performs this function by adjusting the position of the laser beam diameter adjustment lens to allow for faster piercing and faster cutting. Thobe explains that every material thickness requires a different focal length for the beam, which would need to be adjusted manually without the function. “It’s just plug and play. You put the program in, and you can go from 20-gauge to 1-inchthick material, and you don’t touch anything.”
Based on the stability of the lasers Mazak builds and the customer service provided, Heckman says Kinninger Custom Fabrication will continue its relationship with Mazak Optonics.
“It almost feels like they are friends. We know a lot of the guys over there because we’ve been with them for so long. It really gives us a good source for help when we need it.”
Custom Fabrication, 419/629-3491, http://kinningerwelding.com/
Mazak Optonics Corp., 847/252-450, http://mazak.com/moc-en
