Band saws help sawing service provider increase productivity cutting demanding materials

Situation

For City of Industry, Calif.-based sawing service provider Metal Cutting Service (MCS), offering a variety of cutting abilities is an integral part of its business model. Founded in 1956 as a manufacturer of aluminum window frames, the company decided to specialize in cutting various materials exactly to customer specifications, especially for those that did not have their own sawing capabilities.

Today the company is a partner and supplier for manufacturers in the aerospace, defense, aluminum and steel distribution, and semiconductor industries. The customers supply the materials to be cut—from titanium and superalloys to steel and aluminum—and get them back to their ordered specifications.

The company handles complex geometries and large dimensions, sawing plate, bar, forging, and extrusions up to 50 in. thick and 700 in. long. To achieve these capabilities, MCS needs powerful and robust sawing machines that can easily be adapted to varying requirements, suitable for operation with carbide blades to ensure high productivity.

“In the past we mainly worked with multipurpose saws, so every machine basically did every job,” recalled Plant Manager Curt Steen, who has been with the firm since 1996. “As the requirements of our customers and the variety of their orders increased, however, we had to become more technically specialized, so we purchased different types of saws for the wide range of tasks we had to tackle.

“We work up to six days a week, all year ’round in two shifts, and we have to process large and heavy parts,” said Steen. “So, I definitely say we are not known for being easy on our machines!”

Resolution

Steen had worked with Kasto saws earlier in his career, so at MCS, where he plays a decisive role in driving technological progress, he has purchased a number of them since 2004. The company now has six Kasto saws, the latest additions being three band saws from the Kastowin line with cutting capacities of 18 and 22 in.

The Kastowin saws are designed for the serial and production sawing of solid materials, pipes, and sections. With their variety of standard equipment, the machines are suitable for numerous tasks, and they are strong enough to stand up to a tough working life at MCS. In addition, available accessories enable the company to adapt the machines to their specific needs.

The saws’ control system allows several orders to be created intuitively, then processed automatically, one after the other. “We can individually adjust all the parameters, such as cutting times,” Steen explained. This allows the saws to be optimally integrated into the company’s process chain.

The Kasto BandControl built-in saw blade monitoring system also has been very useful. “The display gives us real-time information on the operating times and wear of the saw blades,” Steen said. “This helps us to achieve better results and virtually eliminate scrap.” The saw blades are easily accessible for quick replacement, and the built-in safety functions make the replacement procedure safe for employees.

The purchase of the three saws has enabled MCS to increase its productivity and the quality of the sawed parts. Throughput has gone up, the scrap rate is reduced to almost zero, and the saws’ reliability has resulted in virtually no downtime.