Above: The Kaltenbach SKL 450 E is used to cut and miter 80/20’s T-slotted aluminum profiles.

All grown up, industrial Erector sets let customers get creative

March 2014 - A lot of today’s engineers and designers spent their yesteryears erecting buildings from Lego blocks and fiddling with Tinkertoys. Meeting the demand from self-proclaimed gearheads, 80/20 Inc. in Columbia City, Ind., has flourished as the producer of industrial-grade Erector sets for those attempting to take a raw concept and transform it into reality in metal. 

“Our customers like to make things. So we positioned our product offerings to address the interests of gearheads,” says Don Wood, president and CEO. The company has served its customers for 25 years, beginning in a 1,000 sq. ft. facility with one employee to today’s 350,000 sq. ft. facility employing 375 workers. 

The company offers its products through engineering product distributors in the U.S. and worldwide. “We assist buyers in fulfilling their building dreams and that’s been our method of distribution right from day one,” Wood says. “When we started the company, we had 38 line items. Today we have more than 7,000 items, primarily designed by our customers to meet whatever demand criteria their project needed. We catalogued those results and have a product line that is customer-developed.”

The core of 80/20’s offerings includes aluminum T-slotted profiles made from extruded aluminum. The extrusions are produced with 10 Kaltenbach machines supplied by Columbus, Ind.-based Structural Machinery Solutions Inc. “We purchased four of those saws in 2012 and we have two more we’re in the process of ordering right now,” says Scott Boyd, custom machine manager at 80/20. 

Using the semiautomatic SKL 450 E  and automatic SKL 450 NA Kaltenbach saws, 80/20 cuts more than 250 different profiles daily ranging from 1 in. by 1 in. to 6 in. by 6 in. “We’re cutting custom orders every day and never know the exact quantities of shapes of orders until the day of,” Boyd says. “The flexibility of our saws drives that. We have a lot of pieces to churn out and with high tolerance standards.”

Reliable workhorses

Each saw has auto height set so operators can easily set height with minimum strokes on the saw blade. “We have manufacturing execution systems, which work in conjunction with our ERP system and link devices,” Boyd says. “It’s easy to lay out and change out pieces for each job. Being saws, they are straightforward machines. We need them to do anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 cuts a day. They’re workhorses and they need to be quick.” 

Each saw stems from Kaltenbach’s original design dating back to 1953—with the SKL 370, the machine that patented the upstroking circular saw where the blade rises up from the table. “These machines are extremely tough with a heavy-duty table made of nodular graphite iron. It’s a very abrasion-resistant table given aluminum is quite abrasive—we have a completely different line of machines for cutting steel,” says David McCorry, president of SMS. “The blade speed is 13,800 surface ft. per minute and all our saws are built to meet the needs of the customers.”

The SKL 450 E is particularly useful for fixture work. “We have a number of customers using our saws for things like aluminum castings,” McCorry says. “If a riser, for example, has to be trimmed off the end, a fixture can be bolted to the table and the clamp can be modified depending on the part. The blade is below the table and the top clamp rises out of the way, giving easy access for fixture jobs.”

The automatic SKL 450 NA has evolved over time from its initial chain-driven material feed design to its current ball screw feed, making it flexible, fast and reliable. “These machines are designed to hold tolerances over the long haul—they don’t waver over time,” McCorry says. Indeed the behemoth saws weigh in at 3,300 lbs. compared to other options that can weigh around half that.

The saw needs to be both strong and flexible as 80/20 holds tight tolerances for length especially in its custom shop. “Some jobs need us to go as tight as 0.005 in. on repeat jobs without blinking,” Boyd says. “We can trust the equipment and know it won’t produce a tatter or clip off corners.

“Adjusting from work holding is quick,” he continues. “We need to be able to cut parts as small as 1 in. up to 6 in. profiles. We’re a quick-turn producer.”

Quality for all quantities

For 80/20’s customers, it’s not uncommon to make different cuts on opposite ends of pieces. “Customers often want a straight cut on one end and a miter cut on the other end while the next piece needs a completely different configuration,” says Julie Eck, marketing manager at 80/20. “With each order operators need to adapt the saws to cut the bars or profiles and the ability to manipulate material with the saw is key during those times. It has to be a fast and easy process for the user.

“We don’t have minimum requirements for orders, either,” she continues. “It could be a single bar 6 in. long or hundreds of bars cut at many different configurations, so when looking at saws we had to consider the type of adaptability needed in our system.”

80/20 has used Kaltenbach saws for 10 years and the company does its due diligence when researching available sawing solutions. “We are always researching and keeping up with the other guys,” Boyd says. “There are other options out there but Kaltenbach is tried and true. There are cheaper options and a lot of smooth talking salesmen out there, but the support and quality we get from SMS is hard to walk away from.”

Quality is a strong suit of Kaltenbach, and the manufacturer believes in what it produces. “We only have a 1 percent hedge for warranty work. That tells you we hardly ever have to use it,” McCorry says. “We have saws that have been in the field working day in and day out for more than 30 years. We can service any model we’ve ever produced. The SKL may be a little more expensive than other options out there but it’s for higher volume work without sacrificing tolerances or reliability over time. As long as there is material in the machine, it works.”

80/20’s game plan is working as customer orders continue to expand. “We had a customer start with us for a $500 order with an idea for picking carts,” Wood says. “Since our first job with them that customer has since had more than 30 million parts cut with us—that’s the kind of expansion you’re looking at here and there’s great value in knowing what you can do with that potential once you get your hands on it.” FFJ