Waterjets Cut Costs, Expand New Business Opportunities for Charleston Rubber & Gasket
Manufacturer realizing as much as 40% savings in operation costs using waterjet cutting technology
Since 1976, Charleston Rubber & Gasket, Hanahan, S.C., has specialized in providing a variety of industrial parts including gaskets, industrial hoses, couplings, fittings, adapters, clamps, packing, hydraulics and rubber products to its customers.
To produce gaskets, the company had solely relied on hand-driven cutting machines, shear/nibbler electric knives, utility hand knives, and stamp and press machines.
However, cutting by hand was time consuming and limiting in their ability to cut diverse shapes. The company knew that to grow the business, it needed the capability to cut more diverse gaskets containing more ribs, angles and curves – tasks that none of their existing tools were capable of producing.
“Using the hand tools was very time consuming – we were spending as much as 3 – 5 hours on a single gasket,” said Charlie Lane, vice president of purchasing, Charleston Rubber & Gasket.
As a member of RAGCO, an association of rubber and gasket suppliers, Charleston Rubber & Gasket has known about ultrahigh-pressure waterjet cutting for some time. “During one of RAGCO’s annual meetings, Flow International gave a presentation on waterjet cutting,” said Lane. “We had been outsourcing jobs to a local waterjet job shop, but outsourcing was becoming too costly.” Lane then learned about the new WaterjetPRO™ line of cutting machines that Flow is distributing and decided to purchase the waterjet for their own operations.
Waterjets reduce operating costs, open new markets
Since implementing the waterjet in late 2005, Charleston Rubber & Gasket has realized tremendous benefits.
“Outsourcing, we were spending on average about $3.00 per gasket – by bringing the waterjet in-house, we’ve reduced our production cost to about $1.00 per gasket,” said Lane.
Charleston Rubber & Gasket also has realized tremendous time savings. “Turnaround time was about one week when we outsourced jobs, whereas now we can complete a job within a day,” said Lane. “In fact, using the waterjet, we’ve reduced production time from 3 - 5 hours to 20 - 45 minutes in some cases.”
Lane says that as a result of the company’s ability to turn parts around faster as well as cut more diverse gaskets, they have seen an increase in sales that is having a positive impact on their bottom line.
“Since we are able to turn more parts around faster – and are able to cut more customized gaskets, we have opened our business to entirely new markets,” said Lane. “We’ve also been able to expand our capabilities for existing customers.”
Stacking, tight nesting of parts mean faster production and greater material utilization
Lane cites the advantage of stacking material which enables the cutting of multiple parts at one time, as well as the ability to tightly nest the parts, reduces material usage contributing to a reduction in operating costs.
“Stacking materials allows us to cut multiple gaskets at a time. Before, it was one gasket that could take us an hour to produce – now we can cut 4 – 6 at a time in just minutes.
“The tight nesting of the waterjets has been a tremendous benefit in material utilization,” Lane continued.
Using the waterjets, Charleston Rubber & Gasket can cut up to 3” thick sheet rubber and ¼” thick compressed sheet material. “Before the waterjet, the thickest we could cut was ¼” thick standard shapes of compressed sheet,” said Lane.
Overall, Lane is ecstatic about the waterjet machine and how it has helped not only increase their business, but the impact it has had on operating costs.
“Though we’ve only had the machine for a short period of time, I’m estimating we’ll realize 30% - 40% cost savings through the year as a result of improved material usage. The Flow WaterjetPRO is becoming a huge success, and benefit to our company.”
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