While researching the possibility of bringing laser cutting in house, U.S. Bottlers Machinery Co discovered that waterjet cutting offered the greatest flexibility. This led to a decision to purchase a waterjet cutting machine from Flow Int'l Corp.

For more than 90 years, family-owned U.S. Bottlers Machinery Co, based in Charlotte, NC, has been a leader in the innovative design and manufacturing of filling, capping, and cleaning machines for the liquid bottling industry. The company also designs custom equipment for pharmaceutical, automotive, and liquor industry packaging applications. U.S. Bottlers produces a wide range of parts, from low- and high-speed rotary capping systems to filler and cleaning systems.

To produce parts for its machines, U.S. Bottlers had been outsourcing jobs to laser shops -- a practice that led to many problems with part quality, on-time delivery, and high costs. Probably the biggest challenge, however, was that U.S. Bottlers was limited in being able to create custom parts needed by many of its customers.

"Since we provide custom work to meet the needs of our customers, we also need flexible technology," said Tom Risser, president of U.S. Bottlers. "Additionally, we were spending about $35-50,000 per year outsourcing jobs, including $50 an hour cutting P.O.'s for laser shop jobs. The laser shops we were spending so much money on also struggled with delivery of quality parts. Many jobs were not to spec, meaning we had to send parts back, adding time to jobs and affecting our ability to deliver parts to our customers. Due to cost, quality control, and the laser shops' inability to get us parts in a timely manner, we decided to bring the work in house."

The company sought out a laser cutter to bring into its operations. During their research, however, they also learned about other cutting technologies such as EDM, CNC -- and waterjet cutting, which proved to offer the greatest flexibility. They decided to purchase a 12 x 12 ft waterjet cutting machine from Flow Int'l Corp.

"Our customers have very unique needs for their packaging equipment," said Risser. "It only made sense to invest in a technology that would offer us the greatest flexibility."

What Is Waterjet Cutting?

Abrasive waterjet cutting uses water pressurized to 60,000 psi, with a garnet abrasive entrained in the jet stream. The water is forced through a precision orifice up to 0.013 in. diameter. The water-and-abrasive mixture quickly and precisely cuts materials with accuracies of up to 0.001 in. Since it is a cold-cutting tool, abrasive waterjet leaves a surface free of a heat-affected zone. Waterjets can also be a more cost-effective alternative because jobs that may normally take several hours to complete can be cut in just minutes.

Initially, there was internal debate as to whether they could keep the machine busy enough.

"That debate quickly went away once we saw how much work we could cut on the machine," said Risser. "We're able to cut anything from ¼-3 in. thick steel and stainless steel plate to 2-3 in. plastics. And, we now run double shifts on the machine."

With minimal setup and fixturing, the Flow waterjets are ideal for creating short-run jobs -- a majority of U.S. Bottlers' business. Plus, Flow's software allows for greater ease in coming up with innovative designs required by U.S. Bottlers' customers.

"Most of our parts are one of a kind, meaning we do not run mass production," said Keith Blackwell, waterjet operator at U.S. Bottlers. "I like the ease of drawing and path ordering using the software, since it allows splines, text, and more entities."

The waterjet also better serves the needs of the bottled foods industry, according to Risser:

"The juice industry in particular -- which is a huge customer segment of ours -- requires stainless steel in all its parts since rust can be an issue. The waterjet is better at cutting thicker stainless steel with greater accuracy. Plus, we had ongoing challenges with laser shops over part quality, since the laser left rough, burnt edges that required secondary finishing to rough out the edges. We couldn't deliver parts with burnt edges to our customers, especially our food customers. And the laser could not cut plastics because it would melt the material. Since the waterjet is a cold-cutting process, we're able to cut plastics, especially 1 in. polypropylene parts used in our monoblock models, which are used to enhance the bottle transfer process, reducing atmospheric exposure of filled product, eliminating deadplates, and significantly reducing feedscrew spills."

Time Savings Equals Customer Cost Savings

In the packaging industry, machine downtime can cost a company a tremendous amount of money -- in one case as much as $250,000 a shift, said Risser. Waterjets enable U.S. Bottlers to have better control over cost, quality, and delivery of parts to customers since they are able to produce parts fast and get customers back up and running within a few days instead of weeks.

"Overhead, part quality, and time waiting for parts to come back from the laser shop were huge concerns," said Risser. "We also had quality issues in which parts were not produced to the right specs, meaning we had to send the part back -- all of this resulting in delays in getting parts to our customers, who, in the meantime, were losing money with their machines being down. With the waterjets, these challenges have all been eliminated since we now have complete control over jobs."

Risser said the company is also saving in plate purchases through its ability to better utilize material.

"With the waterjets' tight nesting abilities and no blanking out required, we're saving thousands of dollars per year in material. With the high cost of stainless steel, the waterjet is a great asset for us to contain those costs."

The waterjet's ability to cut a variety of shapes and materials, which is opening up new design possibilities and allowing U.S. Bottlers to produce the customized work required by its customers, is another huge benefit cited by Risser.

"The waterjet machine is really influencing our product designs; we're using the waterjets to create part designs we never would have thought about before," said Risser. "One example is producing rubber liners. The waterjets can cut jigsaw shapes out of rubber and plastic, whereas the lasers would have melted the material."

They can also cut parts out of large steel plates to replace plain castings and eliminate welding or gluing together of parts.

Unleashing Creativity

Beyond using the waterjets as a replacement for laser cutting, Risser said they are able to create any 2D object that comes through the door.

"We can buy 4 x 8 plate and cut out the shapes we need, and it's great for roughing out parts. If we can dream up and draw it, we can cut it on the waterjet."

Overall, the waterjet has been a tremendous asset to U.S. Bottlers' operations.

"The waterjet immediately paid for itself and has really helped shape the way we do business," said Risser. "The flexibility of the machine and its ability to cut any shape and material is improving our ability to produce custom work for customers by allowing us to think outside the box in coming up with creative solutions.

"Time and cost savings are huge benefits in our ability to meet our customers' needs," he added. "Our business model is providing customers with unique packaging equipment. The waterjet is allowing us to meet our business objective and has become the most important tool in the company. Implementing waterjet technology is a key part of our operational success."