Race Car Parts Produced in Record Time with Waterjet Cutting Technology

The Company
Elan Precision, part of Elan Motorsport Technologies Group and formerly Strictly Precision Inc., is a job and machine shop specializing in the motorsport and automotive industry. Based in Georgia, Elan Precision produces prototypes and short-run production parts for customers including Nordson, Welding Services Inc., G-Force, and Panoz Motor Sports. Recent projects include work on the ALMS prototype series, Trans Am series, and IRL series cars.

The Challenge
When Elan Precision opened its doors in 1999, they produced race car parts using CNC machines that required a great deal of set up and fixturing. The wide variety of materials cut, from 1/32 inch titanium, to 2 inch carbon fiber, to 6 inch aluminum, and the need to rotate and re-fixture parts during different stages of the cutting process, added to the complexity of operations. Accordingly, Elan was investing a lot of time and labor cost in parts production. Material property changes were also an issue. Elan found that it was wasting a great deal of material since the CNC mills produced chips that could not be salvaged and re-used. Elan needed to find a more flexible option that would allow them to better utilize material and simplify machine operations.

The Solution
Elan Precision learned about the power of ultrahigh-pressure waterjet technology and purchased a BENGAL® machine from Flow International Corporation. Since implementing waterjet technology into their operation, Elan is able to cut parts from almost any material with tighter nesting and no heataffected zone, resulting in more efficient material usage. They also found that set up and fixturing is much simpler-they simply clamp the material onto the BENGAL and let it run with minimal supervision.

The Results
Since implementing the waterjet, Elan Precision has realized numerous benefits. With tight nesting capabilities, they are now saving on raw material, and produce more parts per sheet. Whether they are making control arms, uprights, sheer plates, motor mounts, carbon inserts, or throttle bodies, Elan can cut parts precisely, quickly, and with no deformation or property changes to the material. Elan is realizing improved productivity by decreasing saw time, material waste, and set-up time, and through their ability to rough and hog material on the waterjet.

"With tolerances of 0.002 to 0.003 inch for materials 1/2 inch thick or less, and tolerances of 0.007 to 0.008 inch for materials 1/2 inch and thicker, the BENGAL gives us the flexibility in our machining process that we didn't have before," says Elan owner Kevin Keys. "We can now cut an odd shape perimeter with an 8 inch hole in the center, and 1 inch triangles with 1/16 inch radius in corners set around the 8 inch hole, out of 2 inch thick 4130 steel, all in one shot. No flipping, turning, or complicated CNC tooling is required, and when we're done, we have an 8 inch round piece of 4130 left from which to make another part."

Elan can also cut a variety of part sizes out of a wide range of materials. Recently, they found that by stacking plastic, they were able to produce four hundred 1 inch by 1 inch parts in just one hour. They also produced a 14 inch by 37 inch part with holes out of 3/4 inch thick aluminum in two hours. Overall project time was much shorter than with the CNC mill since they would have had to stop the mill to change the tooling and fixturing. Elan is also benefiting from the waterjet's cold-cutting process, allowing them to produce small parts with no heat-affected zone and no stress risers, eliminating the need for machining and hogging on the CNCs.

"What the waterjet does that really is most important to me as a small business, is save wear and tear on our CNCs. Hogging 4130 on the CNC took a lot of load, torque, and tooling. Now it takes water and garnet.

"Our customers have also been pleased with the quality of parts and impressed with the ability of the waterjet machine to hold tolerances. Now they want to know when we're getting a bigger machine!"

Story used with permission from www.flowcorp.com