Hythe-based HV Wooding — a sub-contract supplier of metal components — has brought laser cutting in-house by acquiring a 4kW TruLaser 3030 fibre laser from Trumpf.

Established in 1967, the family-owned business employs 98 people and has a turnover of about £12 million. It serves customers in a wide variety of sectors, and it provides a design-to-manufacture service to help them reduce their costs.

Technical director John Wooding says: “We found ourselves sub-contracting a lot of profiling work in recent years and had been thinking about buying a machine for some time. We cut a lot of copper, so a CO2 laser would not be suitable, but then solid-state laser technology arrived.

“Once we heard of others using solid-state laser-based cutters without problems, we began researching the ideal machine for our needs; high definition of product is crucial for our customers, along with high accuracy to the DXF file.

“The Trumpf machine was installed in April, and we were cutting parts on the first day. It’s our biggest investment in a single piece of equipment, and we view it as vital to the future of the business (www.uk.trumpf.com).

“We were probably subbing out around £100,000-worth of laser profiling work per annum previously, and that’s with us supplying free-issue material, so we will recoup that immediately.

“In addition, there are all the hidden costs, such as transport to and from the sub-contractors, which we will also save. However, the biggest benefit is that we can now take on projects that demand the application of many different technologies, including laser cutting.”