Established in 2010 by Dave Mawer and Mike Barratt, D&M Design & Fabrication Ltd has seen dramatic progression since the joint owners started running the business from the former’s bedroom and the latter’s garage.

At the time, neither thought that seven years later they would buy one of the most advanced fibre laser cutting centres (with automated sheet handling) on the market.

In May 2017, the machine — a Bystronic 10kW ByStar Fiber from Coventry-based Bystronic UK Ltd (www.bystronic.com) — was installed in one of D&M’s factory units in Kirkby Malzeard, which is in the Yorkshire Dales near Ripon.

Capable of processing 3 x 1.5m sheets, the ByStar features the highest-power fibre laser currently available on a cutting machine.

Indeed, Mr Barratt says it is about 10-times faster at processing 10mm-thick material than D&M’s previous Bystronic 3.3kW CO₂ fibre laser machine (bought five years ago), typically completing the profiling of a sheet in less than 40min rather than 6hr.

Mr Barratt said: “We were previously struggling to keep up with laser-profiling our material, despite running the CO2 machine round-the-clock six days a week.

“The speed of fibre technology means that we are easily processing more material per day in a single shift — and we now only work five days a week.

“The fibre machine currently stands idle for some of the time, as it finishes all the work going through the shop so quickly.”

Mr Mawer added: “With an eye to the future, we specified the machine with a ByTrans Extended handling system to automate the supply of material to the machine and the return of laser-cut sheets.

“We have proved the cell’s reliability during ‘lights out’ running a few times. This is not needed at the moment, but it will be invaluable as volumes build in the future.”

Increasing turnover

Between 2014 and 2016, D&M’s annual growth in turnover was 10%, jumping to 20% in 2017 due to the efficiency of fibre laser cutting; moreover, this rate of increase is continuing through 2018.

Work is flowing in from a variety of sectors — including automotive, construction and food — and involves cutting mainly stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.

Furthermore, fibre laser technology allows reflective materials like copper and brass to be cut without damaging the machine’s optics — unlike with CO₂ — thereby expanding the range of work that D&M can take on.

For the same reason, fibre also helps when cutting aluminium.

D&M’s two directors had access to a lot of advice before they bought their first laser cutting machine in May 2012; until then, they had been putting this work out to sub-contractors.

Visits to their factories revealed the makes of laser cutting equipment commonly in use, and one of the most popular was that supplied by the Swiss manufacturer Bystronic.

At the time, there was not much to choose technically between the different CO2 offerings, but Bystronic tilted the balance with its more-personal sales approach service — hence the purchase of the ByStar Fiber 3015.

Mr Mawer was at the machine’s launch at the BLECH 2016 exhibition in Germany and subsequently visited the Bystronic factory in Niederönz to see these machines being built.

He was finally convinced to buy one with the 10kW laser source (it can cut material up to 30mm thick).

Both D&M partners say that the BySoft 7 software supplied with the machine is efficient for nesting and is easy to use, especially when transferring designs from their SolidWorks CAD/CAM system to the Bystronic control when creating cutting routines.

Cut pieces are invariably folded on D&M’s six press brakes and powder-coated on site before delivery to customers.

The success of D&M is such that expansion plans are already under way. The unit housing the fibre laser machine is being extended, and it will soon include a deburring facility.

Later in 2018, the shop containing the company’s press brakes will also be enlarged to accommodate a new powder coating plant. Overall, the factory area will increase from 20,000 to 28,000ft².