Steel King News

King Manufacturing Increases Capabilities with New Equipment January 2nd, 2008: King Manufacturing will kick off 2008 with a new HyPerformance Plasma HPR260. This high definition table can pierce thru up to 1.25" and cut (edge start) up to 2.5" of mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum with up to a powerful 260 amps of current. An infinitely wider variety of intricate shapes can be drawn in CAD and completed by the plasma cutter with speed and precision, allowing King to continue handling nearly all of its own canopy manufacturing while also helping other businesses with their custom cutting. King can now create a database of standard parts and offer its customers flexibility in designing a truly unique or ornamental look to their products. Several steps were required in order to prepare King's facilities for the new equipment's arrival. Oxygen, nitrogen, and the proper electrical supply are necessary to run the machine. Ductwork needed to be installed to connect the plasma table's spark trap to a dust collector. Once filtered, the warm air will reach a butterfly valve where it can exit the plant in the summer or be routed back indoors to replenish the lost heated air in the winter. Finally, a CAT5e cable was installed from the office to the back of the adjacent sheet metal plant where it reaches a wireless internet connection to the machine's location in the structural steel plant, a separate building on the property. This allows programmers on the network to use AutoCAD and OmniCAD to develop parts that can be brought to fruition by the operator of the plasma table. In addition to the equipment required to run the machine in the plant, programmers and operators attended a 2-day training course on December 6th and 7th on how to manage and maintain the plasma table. Programmers will include President and Owner Warren Baley, Vice President of Operations Sarah Wienke and Draftsperson Joe Barnes. Operators will include the foreman of the structural steel plant, Wrap Vis, who may train others at a later date. Upon its December 13th delivery, the new machine was allotted a few more days of set up by its supplier, Messer MG Systems and Welding located in Menomonee Falls, WI. The final steps of the installation manual were completed to hook up the gas hoses and ductwork, and set up the program. It's been a huge coordinated effort, and King Manufacturing is excited to execute its plans for the new equipment. Owner Warren Baley predicts that this machine will be one that "a few years down the road when we look back, we'll wonder how we lived without it." Currently, King Manufacturing incorporates quite a few capabilities in the 33,280 square foot sheet metal shop and 18,880 structural steel shop, including shearing, forming, punching, welding, priming, and painting. On the list of equipment are two shears, one for lighter gage coils and the other for sheet metal. There are also 5 different break presses in a variety of sizes - two routinely incorporate punching capabilities. There are 8 tig welders, a stick welder, a hand-held plasma torch, a notcher, 2 band saws (one only 2 months old with an 18" throat), a punch press, and now a plasma table.