The PeddiLaser Effect at NAFCO

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North Alabama Fabricating Company (NAFCO) has built its reputation on taking on steel projects that others wouldn’t touch, and executing them flawlessly. The PeddiLaser became their secret weapon for pushing precision even further, making intricate cuts faster and cleaner without disrupting their already impressive workflow.

NAFCO is a full-service structural steel fabricator, and we do all types of structural and miscellaneous. We work in the commercial market, in the industrial market. We have the capacity to handle a lot of projects. We do a lot of truss fabrication. We do a lot of complex fabrication.

I feel like we're a one-stop-shop. With Peddinghaus' help, we keep just bumping up our capacities. The equipment that Peddinghaus has provided us has kept us on the leading edge of fabrication equipment.

In the last five years, we have grown in a lot of ways as a company. We've invested heavily in our shop and kind of started with implementation of robotic fabrication equipment. We've also, as we've gone through that, added about 50 more people to our fabrication process.

On our 40 kW PeddiLaser, we have cut material all the way from 16-22 gauge plate all the way up to 4 inch.

So the laser was able to give us all the capabilities we need. Basically, anything that you can think of, we can cut it out.

The one advantage over that of our plasma is the kerf is so small, we can get into minute designs that allow us to be very close to the other cut without warping or damaging the material.

The consumables compared to plasma, the lasers, the future, and it just outperforms in so many ways.

So you may see, on the same table, we've got, 16 gauge shims being cut right next to 3-1/2 inch base plate. So it's a versatile piece of equipment that really met all of our different needs. It was pretty easy to learn. It's a totally enclosed cutting area, 40'x10'. Pretty immediately, we saw the results coming off the machine, the speed at which it was cutting and the precision and cleanliness and just how how good the cut was.

When I first saw the laser running, I was just shocked at the speed. And then the next thing that amazed me was the quality of the cut, especially up to 4 inch. I even took a square and put on the side of the 4 inch and could see no daylight from top to bottom. It was a perfect cut.

So you end up being able to put the parts closer together, less waste of material, and that produces more product so you have less downtime downstream waiting on the parts.

Right now, we are finishing up a nine mile overland conveyor belt. It's the longest continuous conveyor in the United States in North America.

We used all the machines on that project. There were over 600 box trusses and the overall that conveyor had to be aligned within two millimeters. You think about something that had to be aligned within two millimeters over 8.8 miles, the fabrication was pretty good.

We came in three months ahead of schedule and the client was very happy.

But we're also able to do a lot of really good things with what we make and to contribute to other organizations and to make an impact that goes beyond just fabricating steel on a day to day basis, but we're able to make eternal impacts in what we support and give to. It's much more than just a place to come and collect a paycheck.