GT Designs and Automation Case Study

Background

GT Design are a family owned business based on the NSW Central Coast.  The company assists a wide variety of industries with their engineering, automation and design solutions.

GT Design has been a customer of Bylaser since 2016.  Recent projects carried out by Bylaser have included the laser cutting of 10 mm drive sprockets which are ultimately used in the construction of excavators.

The Challenge

GT Design noted that the cutting of the ring-shaped sprocket produced a large disc shaped off-cut which tended to be discarded as waste.  Although essentially scrap to the company, the cost of the material was included in the cost of the finished product.

The Company were keen to improve their gross margin by identifying a way use to the cast-off waste material.   

The Solution

Understanding the need to be cost effective & competitive, GT Designs proposed using the off-cuts from a larger part to create other items regularly used in the manufacture of their various products.

Bylaser’s CAD designer and programmer collaborated with the GT Design team to identify the smartest & most efficient way to design & program the cutting in such a way as to maximise the leftover material.

This solution saw various parts old & new nested in the middle of the drive sprocket, with the total number run through the laser as a “set”.

The Result

According to GT Design’s owner, Glenn Noble:

“With Bylaser’s assistance we have found an efficient and cost-effective way to utilise material that would otherwise have been scrapped.

 As the steel was already including in the cost to produce the original excavator sprocket, the additional cost to produce the base plate is limited to the extra cutting time required.  This cutting solution minimises waste, increases our gross margin and provides us with not one by two highly functional products.”