Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Consort Adds to Waterjet Machining Capability

     Consort is pleased to announce the newest addition to our family. No, it’s not a baby! It’s an OMAX 80X WaterJet Machining Center. This amazing machine has a cutting bed of 13 feet long by 6.5 feet wide and will cut virtually any material including aluminum, steel, iron, titanium and high-tech composites as well as marble, granite, glass, tile, stone, wood and plastics.

     This new machine joins our smaller version, the OMAX 55100, that we’ve had for the past five years. Both machining centers are under the care of our in-house waterjet expert, Bryan Lepley, who attended the OMAX training center in Kent, Washington and who supervises the operation and maintenance. Also, our in-house design staff has been integral in joining Bryan with designing and programming for the machine.
     We purchased the first machine to assist us with manufacturing our own products but word spread that we possessed this capability and now we are pleased to be doing subcontract work for many Michigan-based manufacturing companies. Due to increased demand, we felt it necessary to increase our capability and this new machine is just the ticket! It’s an amazing device and we invite you to contact us for a tour.
     Some of the more unusual custom projects have been aircraft parts, huge steel tank parts and gaskets, many prototype components for local manufacturers, parts for Stanley Steamer automobile reproductions, granite and stone landscaping pieces and many others.
     For our own product lines, we’ve shown our restaurant-oriented line of hostess stands, chalk boards and logo wall signs at the past three National Restaurant Shows in Chicago in May and have enjoyed designing many projects for restaurants and  hotels around the US and Canada.
     In further explanation, a waterjet machine is simple in concept but, of course, the machine is an extremely complex, high-tech machine. It’s basically a very fine stream of water under pressure of up to 55,000 psi (your kitchen faucet is probably 50 to 100 psi, for example). And, garnet abrasive, a powdery sand-type material is streamed along with the water. The high pressure water combined with the abrasive will cut up to 6” thick solid steel. And, it cuts the material slightly underwater to minimize splashing. You need to see it to believe it!
     Please check out our custom waterjet site and let us know if we can interest you in using this amazing technology.
Roger Lepley