WATERJET TO LASER - THE COMPANY THAT GOT IT!

WATERJET START UPS
For years I helped many shops get started or add capacity to their shape cutting needs through waterjet. Waterjet Cutting Systems where the viable ‘go-to’ technology of the early 1990’s as the process presented unlimited capability in shape cutting metals, had no limitations on what it could cut and coupled with its affordability, made it the start-up shops winner. Job shops all over North America sprang up in industrial bays and leased spaces as entrepreneurs went into the waterjet/shape cutting business. These shops quickly became successful by eliminating the waiting time for outsourced parts and as a result, began to grow into formidable fully outfitted fab shops.

SUCCESS PUSHES GROWTH
Fast forward 10-15 years and these very same shops have grown and added capabilities like bending technology (press brakes), welding, assembly and some, even powder coating and paint lines, thereby providing a complete solution for fabricating metal parts. Their customer base has grown with buyers coming to rely on their accurate product and timely produced work. They have grown their business to the “Next-Level” with increasing orders and demands their once ‘Go-To’ Waterjet was itself now booked solid. Now the very machine that helped them gain success in the beginning, became the drag holding them back from that next level. They simply couldn’t get the throughput the needed from one waterjet AND at the price point the needed to be at, to be even more competitive in the marketplace.

While just as capable as it always was, the waterjet just couldn't keep up with the increased demands for more parts, faster throughput AND at a lower operating cost. With other shape cutting processes such as punching and plasma ruled out, the logical next step was Laser Cutting. Laser Cutting could make parts faster, cheaper and just as accurate as the waterjet had before. A laser could take some of the load off of the waterjet, and quite frankly, free up waterjet time to focus on parts that were not suited well for the laser. The next step had to be a laser.

LOGICAL NEXT STEP
Growing shops reached the decision that a Laser had to be their next machine purchase if they were to grow. Other shops struggling to grow reached the age old job shop problem:

If I only had a laser I could get the work, but without the work I can’t get the laser.

Prior to 2018 the difference in costs between the laser and waterjet were simply too vast to ignore. For many, the laser remained out of reach and the interim solution was to just add another waterjet cutting system, but now there was something different. Something had changed with the technology. Where there wasn't a possibility before now there was one.

FILLING THE GAP
Laser Cutting Systems for metal cutting up until 2009 were primarily CO2 based systems. This meant that they were not only very expensive to build and maintain, but CO2 Laser Resonators required Large Power Sources, Controls, Chillers and the ever so difficult to maintain, Beam-Path-Delivery Systems. These systems were expensive, complex and required a great deal of investment in not only consumables but maintenance and service work as well. There was not only a financial "hill" to climb, but a mental one as well, with many shops not sure if they could handle the difficulty and technology a CO2 laser system brought. By 2010 the time was not only right for a better solution, the fabrication job shop market demanded one, one that not only decreased operational costs of Laser Cutting but simplified the whole process. The time was right for Solid State Fiber Lasers.

While Solid State Fiber Laser Technology did indeed greatly simplify the operating and maintenance costs, the purchase point was still well above a job shops capability without solid justification in confirmed work and cash flow. Fiber laser technology had resolved several of the hurdles needed but the large companies where only catering the technology to their existing customer bases. The price point still locked many waterjet job shops out of growing into the new Solid State Fiber Laser Capability.

MEETING THE NEED
While the major players in Laser Cutting quickly adapted the new technology of Solid State Fiber they still missed the mark that had been seen by the Waterjet Builders years ago, they missed the whole of the small and start-up job-shop market. They missed completely the base that these waterjet companies had built their successes on just a decade ago. However by missing this market it presented both a great opportunity for a visionary company able to see what the big laser companies couldn’t, or rather didn’t want to see. The opportunity opened, if there was a nimble builder willing to make an enormous commitment, they could very possibly hit the mark and crack open this whole new market of machine tool growth.

The challenges were not small. If the big builders couldn't do it, who could? Several major factors had to be considered:

• The machine had to be built locally!  Although there were cheap import offerings, support was near impossible to get consistently, design changes frequent, parts difficult to obtain, shipping and trade issues also made these far less desirable options. European designs were impressive but the exchange rates made these options just as expensive as the big players. We had all become accustomed to the “well we just can’t build it that cheap in the US” saying the big laser builders kept telling us.

• The machines had to be built with US Sourced parts - Having an affordable laser didn’t mean buyers would need to sacrifice. If a builder did it right, they could source parts locally and eliminate long waits for overseas parts shipments. They could support the very same American Manufacturers that they were themselves seeking support from. Having a US built machine with US Sourced parts was paramount to the visions success.

• These machines had to be simple! One of the greatest successes of waterjets was the ability to bypass the complex CAD/CAM systems required of many CNC‘s and through an intuitive simplified logical control system. Integrated part order, part nesting and part cut sequencing were all automated on the waterjet. This new laser would have to have that technology built in.

• These machines would have to be inexpensive! - If a machine could be designed locally, built locally AND provide the same features and capabilities of the 500K-$600K+ systems that the big laser builders were offering BUT did it for a value price of under 5K per month a whole new market would emerge.  

• Financing had to be a no brainer! - A visionary finance company needed to partner with the builder to provide a secure financing source for buyers. The finance partner needed to see the future potential in the market and not just the 'sale' today. They needed to ensure buyers that they were as equally committed to their success as the machine builder and could utilize the tools at their disposal to help them achieve their growth needs as buyers moved up into this newer technology.

A PROVEN WINNER STEPS FORWARD
In 2010 the early formation of a group of successful pioneers, innovators and leaders of the waterjet industry including mechanical engineers, software developers and machinery builders got together to speculate about this new potential. In just a few years this enterprising team formed Polaris Machinery Group. These were the guys that “Got It” in the 1990’s and now were the ones that helped grow not only the waterjet industry, but in a large part were directly responsible for the emerging growth of the Fabrication Job Shops from the mid to late 1990’s on. They recognized the need for a quality system at an affordable price. They knew the challenges presented, and surmised the Big Laser builders opposition and arguments just as they did so many years ago.

Polaris Machinery set about to design and build in North America a completely new type of laser cutting system, a system that was truly user friendly, locally sourced and affordable to the small and medium sized job shop. They sourced machined and fabricated parts locally around their factory in the Dallas-Ft Worth area. They used only the industry leader in Solid State Fiber Laser Technology - IPG Photonics®, a Connecticut based provider for their laser power sources. They found the best drive technology in South Carolina built Schneider Electric and so on. They engineered and built a totally new North American Solid State Fiber Laser Cutting System using proven technology that had worked for years on waterjet cutting systems and used the very same Solid State Fiber Laser sources the Big laser companies were using…..and they did it better!

Not only did Polaris Machinery Group design and build the first “Job-Shop” style fiber laser cutting system in North America, but they did it a a price point that no other US built machine could match. Starting at under 250K, these US Designed and Built systems have not only proven to be very capable in their own right, but also are quite capable of going toe-to-toe with the Big Laser imports. Partnered with financing from Commercial Credit Group these systems are offered starting at around $3,500 per month with as little as 1 payment in advance required.

DISCOVER MORE
Southern Fabricating Machinery Sales, Inc. is proud to be not only a distributor for the Polaris Machinery Group’s brand, but also for our shared vision. At Southern Fab we too understand the importance of US built equipment, value priced machinery, great support and the needs of the small to medium sized fabrication job shops. As such we are proud to offer the new X5 and X10 series Fiber Laser Cutting Systems, as well as the tried and true waterjet cutting systems from Polaris Machinery to shops across North America. Call us today at 813-444-4555 for more information on how a Polaris Laser Cutting System can help you make the next step from productivity to profit!

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