Download Industrial Equipment-Punch Press Retrofit PDF (797 KB)
The company and products
Founded in the early 1900’s, Hauck Manufacturing’s 125 employees design, manufacture and supply a wide range of combustion equipment and systems for OEMs, installers and end users. The manufacture of these burners and their turbo blowers requires forming and fabricating a tremendous amount of mild steel, aluminum and stainless.The problem
In 1989, Hauck began to look for ways to improve their metal cutting operations. They had a Whitney Punch Press with an air plasma system which was used constantly. The unit was giving them reliability problems and growth in the business made repair downtime unacceptable. In addition, the cut quality was such that many of the work pieces needed extra finishing to remove dross and prepare the edges for welding. Finally, many of the parts Hauck produced required holes which were drilled in a time consuming separate operation. If Hauck could find a way to cut the holes with plasma, they would save considerable time and the expense of another manufacturing step.The solution
Ideally, Hauck wanted to leverage their investment in the Whitney system while improving its performance. They accomplished these goals by retrofitting the punch press with a GE control console and a Hypertherm MAX200 plasma torch. The MAX200 is a high capacity, dual gas, 200-amp system with a 1-inch (25 mm) production cut capacity on mild steel. It’s 100% duty cycle and adjustable power output provided the durability and flexibility Hauck required for its range of cutting requirements.Punch Press Retrofit Improves Cutting Operations
Manufacturer of
combustion equipment
and systems
Old plasma torch
mounted on Whitney
punch press had cut
quality and reliability
problems
Retrofit Hypertherm
MAX200 onto the
Whitney punch press
Company saw
substantial increase in
cut speed, improved
cut quality, reduced
consumable parts
expense and minimal
downtime
Payback in less than
one year
Benefits
The new system produced four important benefits.Cut speed dramatically improved.
The MAX200 cuts 1/2" (12 mm) steel at
80 inches per minute.
The MAX200 could cut holes in the plate
which the old system couldn’t. This saved
an extra drilling step.
Dross cleanup was significantly reduced vs.
the older system.
Consumable parts expenses dropped
because the genuine Hypertherm
consumable parts lasted significantly longer
than the parts on the older system.
As Hauck’s main metal cutting machine, the
MAX200 was run hard, often logging 80 hours
per week. Eight years later, the MAX200 is
still at work, primarily cutting aluminum plate.
Although it isn’t running as many hours now
(Hauck has since bought a Trumpf laser
and a Hypertherm HyDefinition® HD1070®
plasma system) the Hypertherm MAX200
still runs reliably.Hauck’s Ken Weikle states, “We’ve had the MAX200 for about 8 years now and we’ve had no trouble with it. It does a fine job. Our payback on retrofitting the Whitney system with the new console and torch was under a year – certainly a good investment for us.”
