Staffordshire-based Ecam Engineering Ltd — a specialist in precision fabricated components for the earth-moving, construction and rail industries — has invested in a 6kW Trumpf TruLaser 3030 Fiber machine capable of cutting 25mm-thick mild steel to an accuracy of 0.05mm (www.trumpf.com).

This has allowed the company to expand the range of components it can produce, while introducing higher levels of cut quality and capacity.

Ecam Engineering has 50 years’ experience of supplying steel welded fabrications to the UK’s engineering sector.

Phil Arme, managing director and owner, said: “Being able to act as a full service provider using in-house manufacturing resources helps to keep costs down and ensures that we keep a close eye on quality.

“We quote for lots of different work here at Ecam, but the majority is for steel between 8 and 20mm thick. We’ve been using plasma and oxy-gas profiling, but we noticed more and more enquiries for a laser-cut finish.”

Installed in November 2017, the TruLaser 3030 fiber was supplied to Ecam Engineering with Trumpf’s CoolLine and BrightLine technologies and was set to work profiling steel sheet ranging from 3 to 20mm thick.

With many items produced in small or medium-size batches, the flexibility of the machine is pivotal. The company performs dynamic nesting on a weekly basis to help maximise efficiency.

Mr Arme concluded: “As laser cutting was a new process for us, we envisaged running the new machine for perhaps two days a week maximum. However, by April its capacity was full.”