inMetal helps growth of Boston high-tech sector with half century of precision metal fabrication

Hands-on family business, inMetal was founded in 1946 by Mrs. Evelyn Perry Hurlbut and her late husband Charles Perry. President of the company, she stays active managing complex production planning and flexible work scheduling for the operation. Son Craig Perry serves as general manager, combining MIT engineering knowledge with Cal-Berkley MBA management skills and practical experience running shop machines starting as a teenager.

Originally the Industrial Metal Products Co., inMetal has been a foundation player for 57 years in the growth of the Boston area's high-tech industries - literally - as a fabricator of bases, chassis and other metal parts. One of the first metal fabricators to specialize in electronics components and chassis, the Sharon, MA firm has helped electronic customers implement rapid technology changes, while taking a deliberate approach to its own equipment decisions, says Craig Perry, general manager. Faced with tight tolerances and tight production schedules, the 100-employee, 53,000 sq. ft. operation carefully avoids "bleeding edge" production technologies.

However, when the time and technology finally look right, the family-owned business moves aggressively. Perry notes that inMetal waited years before purchasing its first hydraulic press brake in 1991, but has bought four more since. It looked at laser cutting systems for more than 10 years before finally buying late in 2000, then "jumped in" at the top-end in machine speed and accuracy with an ultra-fast, linear-motor-drive CL-707 from Cincinnati Incorporated. Not stopping there, it also ordered automated load/unload system to maximize the machine's throughput.

An analytical type, with a mechanical engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from the University of California-Berkeley, Perry carefully evaluated the capabilities of metal fabrication equipment from a range of manufacturers. In each case, CINCINNATI offered best-in-class performance, but it was past history, not just future advantage, that swung the decisions.

"We've had a CINCINNATI mechanical press brake and shear since 1969," he notes. "They've needed the least service of any of our shop equipment. We ran the press brake for 25 years before we even had to change out the clutch or brake linings. That reliability was a major factor in our decision to buy our first CINCINNATI hydraulic brake and later the high-speed laser. We trusted that CINCINNATI had proved out the technology."

The fabricator stayed away from hydraulic press brakes for many years because they tended to be inconsistent, varying in pressure and position as the oil heated up throughout the workday, says Perry. This was unacceptable on high precision fabrications for its electronics, instrumentation, medical and lab equipment customers. Trusting in CINCINNATI engineering, inMetal bought its first hydraulic press brake, a FormMaster II, in late 1991, with no regrets. "Every press brake we've bought since has been a CINCINNATI," says Perry. Two Autoforms, a 90 and a 230, were added in mid-1995, and two more Autoforms followed in late 2000.

Combining industry's fastest ram speeds with CNC controls, Autoform press brakes bring fast setup, quick change versatility, and easy die staging (enabling as many as 15 bends to a single part in one handling) to inMetal's varied customer mix. During the '90s, the fabricator installed five of the CNC press brakes from Cincinnati Incorporated ranging from 90 to 230 ton capacity.

The company likes the flexibility and CNC controllability of the CINCINNATI press brakes. "They set up quickly and are very easy to stage," he notes. "We do a lot of staged work - jobs where we make as many as 15 bends in one handling with six or seven sets of dies down the machine."

Fast to set-up, the CINCINNATI press brakes are also fast in operation, aiding inMetal's competitive advantage, Perry stresses. "The CINCINNATIs have the fastest ram speeds out there. The 90-ton Autoforms are particularly fast, by far the fastest to operate of anything we found on the market in that range machine."

Speed factors worked the other way to keep inMetal from converting to laser cutting systems. "We had been looking at lasers on and off since the late '80s, but didn't see a productivity advantage," says Perry. "Our products are hole-intensive and holes were relatively slow for a laser to do, compared to profiling cuts." Even laser sales people would reluctantly agree, after going through inMetal's shop, that turret presses were better suited to its mix of work.

Nearing the end of the '90s, changes in its mix of work led inMetal to reevaluate its needs against laser capabilities.

First, inMetal built a growing specialization in precision fabrication of heavier materials and frames for electronics and high-tech customers. "Most heavy fab shops can't handle the tolerances or the level of quality demanded by the electronics industry," says Perry. "We've followed that path and made a specialty of being able to do larger precision frames, chassis and weldments."

The fabricator also broadened its customer base at the heavier end of the material spectrum, particularly with stainless steel structures for the food industry, he adds.

The company's turret presses had problems processing the thicker materials. "We ran up to 1/4", but it's a fairly slow process," says Perry. "Heavy stock, especially stainless, eats up tooling - knocks the edges off the punches and galls like crazy. For a couple years before we bought the laser, we were sending out some work to a subcontractor to have it laser cut."

Finally inMetal decided it had sufficient volume of business and mix of materials to justify its own laser. "By that time, the industry - led by CINCINNATI - had increased cutting speeds and piercing speeds dramatically," says Perry. "Here was laser technology that we felt could reasonably compete with a turret press and be cost-competitive even for many of our hole-intensive parts."

The company selected CINCINNATI's super-fast CL-707 laser cutting system, the first to feature linear motor drives. Engineered and manufactured by CINCINNATI exclusively for its laser, the direct-drive system provides exceptional stiffness to enable superior processing speeds and part accuracies. The motion system delivers accelerations exceeding 2.0G and positions the CL-707 at speeds up to 10,000 inches per minute. A combination of brushless linear motors, preloaded guide bearings, linear encoders with 0.000006" resolution, and advanced CNC control achieves positioning accuracy of ñ0.001" per axis and repeatability of 0.0002" per axis.

"It's an extremely fast machine; it just stuns visitors," states Perry. He compares the experience to the early '80s when inMetal installed its first truly high-speed turret press and showed it off to customers and visitors. "When it made a fast move, they'd dance away, thinking it was going to come out and get them," he recalls. "Everybody's used to that kind of speed now. But you stand them next to the CL-707 and they nearly trip over themselves trying to get away. They think it's going to take them out. Your instinct says no large machine can move and stop that fast."

Waiting paid off for inMetal, which demanded that a laser cutting system be competitive with turret presses on its hole-intensive work. CL-707 from CINCINNATI Incorporated met the challenge with revolutionary linear motor drives delivering 10,000 in.min. speeds and 2G acceleration with +/-0.001" accuracy per axis. Maximizing in-cut time and processing flexibility, an Automatic Load and Unload System from CINCINNATI feeds the CL-707 with different kinds and thicknesses of materials from eight storage levels.

He notes that inMetal bought the laser for growth, but just about the time it was installed the economy went into a slowdown, hitting the high-tech segment particularly hard. "Our high tech business slowed dramatically, dropped about 40% if you go by our turret press utilization. The only piece of equipment in our shop we kept busy was the laser. It's been a real blessing. We've been able to bring in a lot of heavier work that we couldn't do effectively on a turret press. We're doing a lot of 3/16" and 1/4" steel and stainless that we can't process efficiently on a turret press, as well as a fair amount of 5/16" and 3/8" material that simply can't be run on our turrets. Once you get above 10 gauge, to 7 gauge or 1/4", you want to go to the laser so you don't destroy your tooling or get into slug-pulling problems."

The company is also using the CL-707 for aluminum parts requiring contouring. "Anything with contouring it can do competitively," he says.

Except on work that's hole intensive or requires forming - inMetal does lots of forming on turret presses - there's probably no part quantity where the laser can't be competitive, he feels. "On the light end, we can run the laser competitively on any volumes and on the heavy end we can only use the laser," he says. "It covers a much broader range of material thicknesses. Even on hole-intensive work, the laser is competitive up to about 150 or 250 parts."

Unlike shears and turret presses, which are most efficient producing multiple quantities of the same part, the laser allows production of many different parts and shapes at the same time, without tooling or setup requirements, so long as they share the same metal specification. CINCINNATI's nesting software optimizes material yield from each sheet of a particular material or thicknesses. The software gangs and fits parts to match common edges and minimize waste.

To optimize the laser's processing flexibility, inMetal equipped the CL-707 with CINCINNATI's Automatic Load and Unload System. The robotic unit automatically moves sheet material from any of eight different storage shelves to the open pallet of the laser's dual-pallet system. After pallet change it unloads the alternate pallet of finished parts and reloads it with appropriate material for the next run.

The automated system offers two key advantages for inMetal's mix of business, points out Perry:

	High-flex processing
	Multi-shelf capability enables quick-change, flexible processing of a variety of materials and thicknesses, while
	keeping the CL-707 cutting a high percentage of the time.
	High-volume processing
	Automated load and unload maximizes productivity and throughput on long runs, while saving on labor costs for
	material handling. This is especially important with heavier materials that can put a lot of physical strain on
	operators.

This combination of features makes the laser ideal for serving some of inMetal's best customers. "We've managed to build a fairly high-volume operation while keeping our flexibility," Perry notes. "We have programs where we'll make thousands of parts every couple of weeks, but customers also know they can come to us for anything from one part to 25 or 30. We can meet their total needs - volume work, prototyping, development work, custom designs and special projects."

Put all those factors together, he admits, "It's a scheduling challenge - balancing production of widely varying lots sizes, materials and complexity requirements - but the CL-707 laser lets us better handle the mix while keeping operator and machine productivity high."