f one step in a process falls out of line with the rest, bottlenecks can build at any point. Top Coat Fabrication’s Jason Hayes likens the production floor to a performance.
“The bottleneck is always moving and, as a result, we have to dance around while maneuvering and changing up processes depending on the job order, so we can be more efficient today than we were yesterday,” he says. “We needed a machine that would free up workers to cut or perform other processes when not cutting.”
As the Jones Creek, Texas-based fabricator saw an increase in work from oil and gas/petrochemical customers, the need to fabricate pipe also increased. Faster turnaround required an investment in new equipment.
As a first step, says Hayes, “We leased a machine that could cut and bevel up to 24-in.-diameter pipe. We immediately saw the value because of what this machine could simplify.”
Projects vary, with some lasting three hours and others spanning a period of six months. “The W-364 cuts extremely fast. It can cut pipe in hours that would otherwise take one of our guys over two to three days to complete,” Hayes says.
Top Coat Fabrication
The W-364 computer-controlled pipe-cutting machine conveys and rotates pipe from 1.9 in. to 36 in. OD with 20- to 50-ft. machine beds capable of supporting 500 lbs. per ft. to a maximum of 20,000 lbs.
“Our projects right now will carry us over the next two to three months. After that, I don’t know what’s to come,” Hayes continues. “Some customers are stopping or postponing projects as our clients find their workers working from home or not able to be out in the field working. We’re not sure what the future holds exactly but we have faith and know we’re going to survive.”