The Mazak Hype Gear Champion is available in 2.5kW and 4.0kW configurations that can process from the thinnest steel up to 2.5mm mild steel. It offers a 1525 x 3050 mm bed. The HG Champion delivers integrated automated focal length analysis, nozzle standoff, and nozzle maintenance setup capabilities that facilitate unattended operation.

The Champion utilises the Preview II control and linear drives to cut at unmatched speeds with 3G of acceleration, yet with the precision to maintain corner integrity, tight dimensional accuracy and roundness on contours.

The Hyper Gear Champion is available with a large range of automated material handling systems including Load/Unload Cells and Flexible Manufacturing Systems.

For EP Draffin, an Australian owned and operated manufacturer located in Bayswater Victoria, adaptation has been the cornerstone of the company’s success. Before the company was established, their founder Mr. Eddie Draffin was involved in the manufacture of a vast range of historically significant products, often as a direct result of social or cultural circumstances. These have included the production of components for gun carriers during the Second World War and the manufacture of the first wholly owned Australian car the Holden in 1945. When Draffin commenced manufacturing in 1957, they started out making automatic windscreen wipers for cars, as well as beer taps and faucets. In 1974, Draffin played a central role as one of the main manufacturers of water pumps for the caravan and marine industries following Darwin’s Cyclone Tracy, which left thousands of people homeless.

Generally machine installations are guaranteed to have teething problems, but this machine is faultless. We are very impressed with the quality of the STX, and the integrity and technical expertise of the John Heart team. - Ian Draffin

Today, Draffin is primarily involved in the production of street, parkland and community furniture, a market that the company was keen to enter for its broader business potential. As a metal fabricating shop, Draffin produces various products used in the wider community, such as garden beds, planter boxes, shelters, bins, park benches and tables.

With large council contracts and new product lines, Draffin is busier than ever. As an OEM, almost all of the products are manufactured in-house on a diverse range of machinery including presses, turret punches, robotic welders and CNC bending machines. However, prior to the recent addition of their Mazak laser processing machine, Draffin spent a significant amount of money each year on sub-contracting laser cutting to a nearby job shop.

Based on the volume and type of work sub-contracted, the team at John Hart knew that the latest laser processing solution from Mazak, the STX 510 Champion was the right solution to their problem. The Champion can process up to 12mm mild steel, 4mm aluminium, 4mm stainless steel and 2mm brass, in one setup. This machine is the culmination of three decades of laser technology developments and refinements from Mazak. Designed to operate 24 hours a day, the highly reliable machine is small and compact with an ultra low running cost of around $5.00 to $8.00 per hour.

As a CAD designer, Ian Draffin is responsible for the design and modelling of most of Draffin’s products, including the Deluxe Modular MGB Surround bin pictured. Every component that makes up this product starts its life on the Champion, either proceeding to forming, welding or directly to finishing. Previously, parts for this product could take two to three weeks to arrive, now with the Mazak laser, the parts are cut in one to two days, with the final product lead time being reduced by more than two weeks.

According to Ian, learning to operate the STX Champion took only three days, and since day one he has been self sufficient in every aspect of the machine programming and operations. As such, Ian joked that he now fancied himself and his operators as highly skilled laser technicians. Furthermore, having the support of John Hart’s skilled, Mazak trained support team has given Ian the confidence and freedom to explore greater possibilities on the machine.

With an upbringing on and around the machine shop floor, and a healthy imagination for design, Ian has managed to combine his insight and knowledge in adapting the laser for other uses, such as prototyping parts, profile measurement and cutting of 3D formed shapes. Using the STX Champion’s accuracy and repeatability, Ian has designed and produced a vast array of laminated press-brake tools for special jobs, and also jigs and fixtures for the assembly line.

Instead of quoting anywhere up to two week lead-times on initial prototypes and up to six weeks for refinements returning from contractors, Ian can now produce a prototype on the laser in a single day. This allows Draffin to save time while keeping the dollars in house.

On top of this, thanks to the STX Champion, Draffin has been able to develop several new products for less and enhance products to appear more aesthetically pleasing, more practical and/or more ergonomic to use. Success for Draffin is a combination of imagination, experience and technology.

Ian Draffin could not be happier with the machine and it’s obvious the John Hart and Mazak partnership, coupled with Draffin’s passion for innovation and adaptation will see them continue to strive for success in the years to come. “Generally machine installations are guaranteed to have teething problems, but this machine is faultless. We are very impressed with the quality of the STX, and the integrity and technical expertise of the John Heart team” Ian said.

Key Buying Points

Ian Draffin and Nathan Hastings with the Mazak STX Champion 510

The new STX Mark III is built on the industry’s most reliable laser platform.
The Mark III has been designed utilising Mazak’s proven hybrid platform with an easy access table. It features a proprietary vibration dampening frame and integrated laser resonator that ensure stable, high accuracy cutting. The constant-beam length construction provides uniform cutting performance across the machine table.

It incorporates leading edge laser technology.
The STX Mark III utilises many features developed for Mazak’s Hyper Series machines. They include intelligent setup functions for automated nozzle spatter removal, a three station nozzle changer and focal point measurement and adjustment capability. These special features are found within the Opti-Pod described on the left. The Mark III also incorporates a new Servo Focus Torch. This servo driven system significantly reduces piercing time and increases productivity. Additional new technology includes a High Accuracy Auto

Over the years, Laser Central’s father and son team of Bob and Rob Newton have enjoyed continual business growth by providing a wide variety of accurate and cost effective job shop solutions to a large customer base.

Broadening their horizons, they travelled to the Euroblech tradeshow in Hanover Germany where they witnessed first hand the impressive Mazak Fabri Gear 300 laser processing machine. They also visited another Mazak Fabri Gear user in Chicago, as well as Calgary and Saskatoon in Canada prior to making the final decision to purchase the Mazak.

The Mazak Fabri Gear 300 cutting parts

With its unique 5 axis head, 4kW continuous laser output, 300mm cutting diameter with a maximum cutting thickness of 22mm, 12 metre material length capability with auto load and unload, the Fabri Gear offered the greatest range of processing opportunities on the market. No other laser processing machine offers true 5 axis cutting with a total of 24 controlled axes as the Fabri Gear does, and with its huge cutting area, Laser Central has a sharp edge on its competition.

Laser Central are now capable of cutting bevelled edges, pipe joints and intersections, true mitre cutting and weld preparations with previously unparalleled accuracy and flexibility. The accuracy with which the FabriGear can process parts and weld preparations has also greatly reduced the time required for further operations such as welding and assembly, and significantly reduced the need for welding jigs due to its ability to process interlocking families of parts that make up an assembly.

The Fabri Gear also has the ability to directly import solid modelled part files and create cutting programs using the Mazak FG-CAD/CAM software package, giving Laser Central another competitive edge. The Fabri Gear 300 was a significant investment for Bob and Rob Newton to make, yet with the assistance and support of John Hart and Mazak, and the proven performance, flexibility and opportunities offered by the Mazak FabriGear 300, the decision now seems easy.

2D laser cutting machines offer many benefits to manufacturers:

For Great Western Corporation, a metal fabrication, manufacturing and finishing business in Toowoomba, the absence of a 2D CNC laser cutting machine meant they were limited to what they could achieve with their existing plasma cutting machines, lathes and machining centres. As a result, their machining work shop was being held up when machining holes and slots in plates after they were plasma cut. Also, process flexibility was greatly reduced due to the need to sub-contract cutting work on a range of mild steel and odd shapes parts to outside laser shops.

After an evaluation of their existing equipment and processes, taking into consideration setup times, costs and issues of accuracy and quality, Great Western identified the need to install a 2D laser cutting system.

Looking beyond just tangible figures such as traverse speeds or cutting thicknesses, Great Western had to consider the overall process efficiency any given laser system had to offer. The time taken from raw material to finished part is far more important than any specific features alone.

Bearing all this in mind, when Great Western chose the Super Turbo X-510 II laser with pallet changer from Mazak, the goal was to reduce the bottleneck situation they were experiencing in their machining shop, while gaining the ability to turn around parts almost immediately in house and in smaller batches than had been previously viable with the other equipment.

With the new laser cutting system helping to achieve these goals, Great Western have begun to put more and more work onto the laser. Due to the flexibility of the Mazak, this has extended to include:

In the early years New Touch Laser focussed on market niches, specialising in processing long flat sheet and plate work (up to 4000mm), jigging, rotary and RHS (rectangular hollow section) work. They also invested considerable time and effort into refining and perfecting the cutting of thicker plates; 25mm mild steel, 20mm stainless steel and 12 mm aluminium. Brad and James consistently grew their business through their commitment to high quality products and quality customer service.

Left: The Mazak Space Gear U-44 at New Touch Laser. Top right: Brad Drury and James Cao. Bottom Right: The U-44 in action.

However by 2003 they realised that to take the next step as a company, they needed to gain a competitive edge. As a result Brad and James sat down with the team at John Hart and discussed the possibilities offered from Mazak’s range of world class technology. Brad and James were impressed with the capabilities and flexibility of the Mazak U44 Spacegear from the outset. With three dimensional cubic, pipe and long piece processing capabilities, the U44 Spacegear offered New Touch Laser the innovation and complex processing capability they were looking for.

In considering the machine, important to New Touch Laser was the knowledge that they could not only justify the financial commitment and quantify the returns, but also the time and personnel commitments required to prepare for, implement and fully utilise a machine of this level of technology. Being able to successfully market and sell the new capabilities and concepts to their customers also affected the decision making process. Other important considerations included:

Having invested so much time, money and research into what the Mazak U44 would bring to their business, Brad and James were confident the machine would live up to their expectations.

Features of their new Mazak U44 Spacegear include:

Currently the only one of its kind in Australia, the Mazak U44 allows Brad and James the ability to offer a diverse range of complex jobs. Some of these jobs completed at New Touch now include:

By allowing New Touch the ability to perform these processes, the Mazak U44 is also eliminating multiple, time consuming steps in job shop processing, and thus significantly reducing costs, and production times. Something that was not expected and noted by Brad was that New Touch Laser now has better utilisation of off–cuts from their larger bed machines that are ideally suited to the 4’x4’ bed on the Mazak U44.

New Touch Laser is an excellent example of a small, yet growing company that wanted to improve their capabilities and increase their profits, but were also not afraid of the new technology they required to do so. While some competition companies have not been prepared to make this change, New Touch were willing to undertake thorough research before investing in the technology.

U44 ActionWith the support and knowledge of the John Hart team, New Touch have been successful in implementing the Mazak U44 Spacegear and a new way of thinking. According to Brad and James, John Hart were instrumental in the success of the installation, with the training and support they received exceeding all expectations.

With the Mazak U44, New Touch Laser can now take on a much larger range of work, and subsequently are able to boast the tag as “Your One Stop Laser Shop”, by performing all tasks in house with the addition of their Mazak U44 Spacegear.