Laser Puts Metal Supply Business a Cut Above Rivals

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Hollywood directors often want camera shots at nearly impossible angles no small feat, considering such shots can require custom camera rigging, which can take a long time to produce.

Now, a Sun Valley metals company is making that job a whole lot faster.

Industrial Metal Supply Inc. recently purchased a $2 million machine called the FabriGear 300 that uses lasers to trim, cut and do just about anything to metal piping, from tubing for gym equipment to the rigging.

“We used to have to take our stuff overseas,” said Rick Hansen at Matthews Studio Equipment, a Burbank fabrication shop catering to Hollywood. “Now, I can buy the metal I need and IMS can drill all of the holes, cut the tubes and basically do whatever we need. And they can get it done in the same day a lot of the time, which is invaluable in this industry. Time is everything.”

The machine, made by Mazak Optonics, a division of Japanese tool giant Mazak Corp., is more than 75 feet long and combines raw laser power with sophisticated software and automated features. Working from a rotating axis, it can drill holes from any angle and takes minutes to complete a job that previously took several machine shops hours to complete.

“The machine is amazing,” said IMS President Eric Steinhauer. “It gives us capabilities we never had before. And the more we operate it and learn about it, the more possibilities we find.”

Industrial Metal Supply, which has 350 employees, operates like other metal supply companies in Los Angeles. It purchases car-sized rolls of steel and then cuts, trims and fabricates the steel into smaller pieces to be sold at retail.

However, IMS also takes orders for precise, specific cuts. That’s where it expects to get the most use out of its machine, the only one of its kind on the West Coast.

Doug Young, a Mazak spokesman, said the FabriGear 300’s greatest achievement is its automation, simplifying tasks that formerly had to be done by specialists.

“Using lasers to cut metal isn’t anything new. But we’ve finally reached a point where you don’t need to be an engineer to operate the system,” he said. “The software is finally where it needs to be so it only takes a few minutes to show someone how to use it.”

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