Recent Projects & Case Studies

News from Fedtech

• Our new website is set to launch soon! Are you excited? You should be. The new design is going to be incredible, and we're eagerly anticipating our chance to show it off! Watch for the official announcement and then check it out. You'll definitely be pleasantly surprised!!
• As of today, you have 22 days left to enter our drawing for some freebies! Click here: http://www.fedtech.com/free to enter your email to win this month's prize! We draw a winner on July 1st, so watch your inbox!
• Did you know that we send you free stuff just for sending people our way? It's true. We appreciate the fact that word of mouth is a great way for customers to find us. We've sent out T-shirts, hats, and mugs to some great people who referred us to their friends. So go ahead and do the same and make sure they let us know you sent them! :)

Now, onto some neat projects and case studies that you may have been missing, due to http://www.fedtech.com/ being down for updates. So, get your fill here instead. See the following case studies and simply enjoy!  

1. WATERJET CUTTING 7.5" THICK CARBON STEEL
Take one look at these parts featured here and it won't take long for you to notice that this material is incredibly thick. How thick? Well these parts were cut from 7.5" thick carbon steel (A36). The best way to cut this thick of carbon steel is to use abrasive waterjet cutting. We were able to cut through the material using multiple cutting heads (cutting down turnaround times) and waterjet cutting efficiently lacks heat affected zones (HAZ) as well.

2. LASER CUT 310 STAINLESS STEEL

These bite-sized parts here fit right in the palm of my hand as you can see in the photo at the right. These 3" in diameter, circular, perforated steel parts were laser cut at Fedtech from 310 stainless steel. Each part featured 241 holes, at .098" in diameter each. The material itself, was .098" (2.5mm) thick.

SIDEBAR: Are you wondering about waterjet cutting or laser cutting and what they are, or which is better for your project? Find more on those processes on our company website, click here for waterjet cutting, and here for laser cutting.

That's all I have for this morning. Stay posted for updates!

Sarah

Fabulous Fedtech Feels like Florida

It's been so warm here in Minnesota, it may just get confused for Florida... We've been loving the weather and it finally feels like Spring time is here! Most snow is melted and if you ignore the otherwise constant rain we've been getting, it's kind of nice!

Things inside the shop have been moving right along. The new press brake has been working wonders with armor plating and with it, we've been pressin on. (pun intended) The waterjets have been busy with mostly gaskets and flanges (both large and small) these days. The lasers have been pretty focused on thin aluminum projects along with some stainless steel work. Most of the mind-boggling work comes off the waterjets, since they can cut through a variety of material types and thicknesses.

I've been pretty busy designing the new website and putting the finishing touches on it before it goes into production. I can't give any secrets out, but let's just say that it will look like a whole new website... I'm VERY excited - the makeover is long past due.

View our website 5 years ago   -   View our current website


QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Q) I have 1/2" stainless steel, should I use laser or waterjet?
A) It depends on when you'd need the parts. Sometimes lead times vary depending on how busy the waterjets or lasers are. However, if the lead times are equal, you might opt to use laser cutting as it often times costs less. At the same time, laser cutting does entail heat affected zones, so depending on the application, you may want to look into weighing the pro's and con's of each here.

Q) Can aluminum be cut with water-only waterjet?
A) Although tempting, you're not going to want to proceed with that idea. Water-only waterjet would leave rough edges on aluminum and is not able to cut through the material like abrasive waterjet can. Aluminum is better left for abrasive waterjet or laser cutting (depending on the thickness).

Q) I have a retail design that I'd like to cut from glass, can I do this with waterjet?
A) Absolutely. We've cut glass with abrasive waterjet before and can definitely look at your prints to see if your project is another success story waiting to happen.

Q) What are the odds of warping material when using waterjet vs. laser cutting?
A) Waterjet will not warp the material, and seldom does laser cutting warp material.


That's all the time that I have this week for questions. Now I have to end this here, but check back for more updates soon!

Ta ta for now,

Sarah

Manufacturing for Smarties

Today is going to be short and sweet. Straight to the questions, with no dilly-dallying!

First question, please!

Where can I find a Bystronic laser slat cleaner?
Depending on how much time and money you want to put into your slat cleaner, you have a few different options. First one (and the cheapest option) is to purchase one from http://www.lasergrating.com/ for $89.95 this tool is built for one person to manually remove the slag. See the video on youtube to see how it's done.

Another option is to purchase Bystronic's automatic copper grid cleaner. This is also a one-person product and can be found on their website (http://www.bystronicservice.com/files/Gratecleaner/GrateCleaner.zip)

Can you waterjet FR4?
Yes. FR-4 stands for 'flame retardant 4' and is used on certain circuit boards. This composite material is actually best for waterjet, and not laser.

Is Fedtech a large contract waterjet cutter?
Yes.

Where is that link to the movie theater decor that you guys made?
You can see that case study here on Fedtech's website. We made the ticket windows from brass and fabricated the angel as well. They turned out great!

Where can I waterjet cut G10?
G-10 is related to FR-4, in that FR-4 is the flame retardant version of G-10. And to answer your question, Fedtech can definitely waterjet cut G-10.

Well that's all the questions that I can answer for today. Thanks for stopping by!!

Sarah

Custom this, Custom that...

Well the joys of being able to manufacture custom parts never fade away. I talked about the trumpet art sculpture in the last entry, and I might have talked about the custom retail display pieces we did (if not, here's the link) Oh, and of course the custom tile work, for the school in St. Paul... we waterjet cut tile from three different colors to create their school mascot (here's the link for that one too).

But what I can't figure out, is how these awesome projects find us. I mean, yes, I've been trying to improve our website, and update our case studies and project lists, but is there something more? I don't know... Is there something I'm missing that you guys want to see? If so, you should let me know and I'll be sure to get right on it!

Also, today I'm going to get all of our Fedtech gear up on the website, and available for whoever wants a piece or two... it's all pretty cheap prices too, so be sure to check it out. Should be up around lunch time, I would hope...

Let's see, what else here... Oh, as I mentioned last time about the John Deere award, it's now all over google, so be sure to check out all the places it's showing up! Yesterday I googled, "Fedtech John Deere Partner" and lots of results came up in places I didn't even expect! So it was pretty fun :)

I'll be back later this week with the "Ask Fedtech" portion of the blog, so don't fret! And be sure to send in your questions by Wednesday for a shot at being answered! (sarahw@fedtech.com) I'll be waiting!

Enjoy the day and make it count,

Sarah

Okay so it was less than a week...

But I see so many questions popping up already so I thought I should probably get on the ball and answer some questions. Not to mention, it's Friday and it only seemed fitting to blog it up!


The question I wanted to answer today is this;

"How do I cut ceramic tile?"


Depending on the quantity, size and detail you want your tile cut, your options can vary. If you're cutting a few tiles or just have a mild cut you'd like to do, then they do make tile cutters for that.. just make sure to practice first. If you have an intricate design and/or quite a few tiles to cut, then another option would be waterjet cutting in this case.


Abrasive waterjet cutting, to be exact... (depending on the type of tile though, I guess water-only waterjet has been used before as well.


Here is a case study for VCT tile (like linoleum)


and one for custom slat tile as well


Both turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself :)

Laser Cutting of Sculptures at Fedtech

So we have a couple sweet projects we've done this week so I wanted to focus on those in an entry this week, after all it's been a little while since I updated our blog!

Sooooo first, I will start with this trumpet sculpture because, c'mon, it's really cool lookin! The company who did this is pretty well-known in the Twin Cities area. The sculpture they designed here will go in a park where the pieces of steel are to be spaced equally apart from each other. When you look at the sculpture from different angles, it's equally interesting. But when you look at it from straight on, it looks amazing. Isn't it crazy what some people can come up with? I'm just glad we could help out on such a cool project! I can't wait to see it outside where it belongs in the park!

Technical notes: To complete this project, these pieces were laser cut from 1/2" 304 Stainless Steel.

Stay tuned for my next post, I'll talk about another cool project :)

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

Sarah

Where can I learn about waterjet cutting?

Learning about waterjet cutting is very easy. It's getting up-to-date, quality information that is the hard part. Be critical when reviewing information online. It's difficult to research accurate information as capabilities are continuously changing and improving.

A good rule of thumb is to check the credibility of the source you are referrencing. Though this might be a given, alot of the time people tend to forget this when they are desperate to find information on a certain topic.

I know while I've been doing research on what other manufacturing shops are doing, I've come across different statistics and capabilities that might very well be true, but could also be very false. Do your research, and you'll find the information you need.

Some good resources for learning about waterjet cutting include:
Wikipedia
ThomasNet (This is also a good resource for finding a service provider near you)
Wardjet (A leader in sales of waterjet machines)
The Fabricator (Top magazine for fabricating/manufacturing industries)
Fedtech (An established manufacturing shop in Minnesota)

When it comes to laser cutting, you often hear: Where can I learn more about laser cutting?
Well, here are some excellent resources for laser cutting:
Fedtech
Global Spec
CNC Information
Wikipedia
ThomasNet

Another great source that you can take with you is an informational podcast about manufacturing. Each episode features a different manufacturing process and serves as an educational learning tool for listeners interesting in finding out more about waterjet cutting, laser cutting, finishing, forming, welding, drilling, tapping, and more. You can find that podcast at www.modernmanufacturing.mypodcast.com or search for "Modern Manufacturing" in iTunes.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions feel free to send me a message at sarahw@fedtech.com and I will do my best to answer them in my next posts!

As always, thanks for reading!!! Have a good day :)

How do I cut this stuff??

A familiar question to me now is; How do I cut steel?

(Other versions of this question include; How can I cut stainless steel? How can I cut through copper? How can I cut stuff from thick aluminum? etc.)

The obvious answer is; Superman. But when he's not available the next best thing is waterjet cutting (or laser cutting) depending on the thickness of the metal that you want to process.

Typically stainless steel that is over 3/4" thick should be cut using abrasive waterjet. But anything less than that is fair game for laser. Unless you really do want to use waterjet cutting, you can go that route too. Waterjet cuts materials as thin as .001" and as thick as 12" which is pretty amazing in itself.

Now I know what you're thinking, what if I'm not cutting stainless steel? What if I'm trying to cut thick aluminum, or copper, or a cheese pizza?? Well... in that case, aluminum can be cut using waterjet (not so much the choice project for laser, but it could be I guess) and for copper, that is straight up an abrasive waterjet cutting job. And cheese pizza? You could opt for water-only cutting, as this video demonstrates... But that's besides the point.

To see a chart demonstrating the difference between waterjet and laser cutting, you can visit Fedtech's website and compare the two.

Either way... good luck with that! At least you know what you're doing now :)

Wonderful World of Waterjet (www)

Well it's as if I can't explain how wonderful waterjet cutting is. Before taking this job here (you can see our full homepage at Fedtech.com), I always thought of the manufacturing world as a very dirty, hard-pressed territory (and elsewhere it might be) but boy have I proven that to be so wrong.

I think the neatest thing here is that these waterjets can cut through materials never even thought possible before. The first project I took pictures of was abrasive waterjet cutting through 10" thick copper rounds without any taper or edges... and sure enough when all was said and done, there it was. (You can see more about this story here...)

And then the next day they cut 9.25" aluminum blocks... leaving the drop in one clean piece that was both much cleaner but even more important, had the ability to be recycled or reused (saving a lot of money). This was equally impressive, if you want to see pictures of that one, you can see the case study here...

I think my favorite project yet though, was processing these tiny titanium strips (.025" thick) that would be used for a conducting electricity in a line of vacuum cleaners. This was so cool because 13,200 pieces were cut in a matter of a day (obviously it takes a bit longer in the process of things though since we had to make the CAD file, order the material, and then figure it into the schedule of the waterjets) but it was very cool to see these parts cut. The coolest part of it, was that when waterjet cuts through titanium, sparks just fly! It's really cool to see, but kind of scary when you see it for your first time... I was definitely worried for the waterjet operator's fingers but he laughed and assured me not to worry they do it every day... I guess! (You can see pictures of that project here!)

Anyways, I just had to share the details. I'm sure I'll have more fun things to say as time goes on, so I'll keep you all posted. Until then, keep on cuttin on! (Get it, waterjet cutting? Haha...)