Metcam Achieves Record Sales Growth

The sheet metal fabricator adopts new technologies, reconfigures its plant layout and expands production capacity to handle new demand.

Metcam Inc. (Alpharetta, GA), a fabricator of sheet metal components and assemblies for OEMs, recently announced it has completed implementation of a number of improvements, from plant configuration changes and floor space expansion to installation of more than $2 million in new equipment.

These enhancements, accompanied by continued diversification of its customer base and expansion of customer relationships, enabled Metcam to achieve record sales in 2012.

“As a fabricator dedicated to lean processes, we are constantly redesigning our shop floor and production lines for process automation and optimal output,” said company president Bruce Hagenau. “A few years ago, we increased production space with new plant configurations, and that space was immediately consumed by new orders. In the past year, we have expanded our capacity yet again — and added new staff and a new enterprise resource planning system—to keep pace with continued, escalating demand for our components and assemblies.”

Specific improvements Metcam has implemented include:

• New Robotic Press Break: The shop’s new robotic press brake simultaneously uses two robots. One robot positions blanks for forming and unloads formed parts, while the other robot forms the part in combination with the press brake.
• Automated Hager Press: One of the shop’s new Hager presses enables personnel to auto-select up to four different types of hardware. The press provides a view of the part and shows the operator which hole will have hardware pressed into it on the next stroke. If tooling is different from one piece of hardware to the next, the tooling is automatically changed as well, further streamlining the hardware-insertion process.
• New Aluminum Robotic Welder: In addition its robotic steel-welding capabilities, the shop can now robotically weld aluminum as well.
• New Paint Line: The shop has added a second paint line, which uses state-of-the art lean-painting technologies, such as a modular fiberglass wash system (95 ft long) and two powder booths with paint reclamation capabilities.
• New Turret Punch: The shop has added a seventh operational turret punch.

“While many of our improvements help to increase automation, we have also added staff this year,” added Hagenau. “That is a testament to our growth and expanding customer base, which includes a new OEM and an expanded relationship with one of the world’s largest producers of office components.”

Metcam is a fabricator of precision sheet metal components and assemblies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) representing a wide variety of industries including telecommunications, electronics and HVAC.

The company’s advanced metalworking capabilities include laser cutting, punching, forming, hardware insertion, welding (including robotics), powder painting, silkscreen and parts assembly. Metcam also assists clients with product design and manufacturability to reduce their total cost of production. www.metcam.com