Back at Fabtech Donovan sits down with Chris Phillip from AKS Cutting. Chris gives us the rundown on how the show is going. Chris talks about new features and programs being offered at AKS to help with your maintenance and service on your cutting tables.
Narrator: Welcome to the Dusty Jobs podcast from Imperial Systems. Industry knowledge to make your job easier and safer.
Donovan: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dusty Job podcast. We’re sitting now with Chris from AKS. How’s it going, Chris?
Chris: Good, it’s going well. Day three of the show and we’re about wrapped up and I’m excited to get back home, honestly.
Donovan: There you go. Have you guys had a good show so far?
Chris: Yes, so far we have had almost 200 leads scanned.
Donovan: Oh, wow.
Chris: A lot of people interested in self-cleaning systems, tube systems, bevel cutting, and really I think it’s cutting out the shell and making sparks that just attracts a crowd.
Donovan: There you go, making sparks but not making any smoke.
Chris: You got that right.
Donovan: ‘Cause we’re helping you out with that.
Chris: Yeah, you got that right.
Donovan: So there you go. But, so one of the things you said people are interested in is, did you say self-cleaning system?
Chris: Yeah, so it’s a new thing that other people have had it for many years and how we’re doing it is a little bit different. On our unitized system, our Accu-Kut, we put a motor with a drive shaft on one side, some chains and some blades that are made out of angle iron. And it just slowly scrapes out the inside of the table and it keeps all that debris from building up inside of the system.
Donovan: Right, so it just kinda pulls it all down to a trough?
Chris: Yep.
Donovan: So I, well, I can say from my side as more of the dust and fume collection side, that’s gotta help with the airflow through there as that happens.
Chris: It really does. It really does. We’ve seen that often people that have tables over the years, they slowly let it fill up more and more. You know, at the end of the first month, you clean it out. And at the end of the third month, you clean it out again. And then at the end of the first year, you clean it out. And it’s way too much, right? And it’s impeding your airflow throughout the system. And by continuously having this system clean out your table, you’re optimizing the airflow throughout the whole table. And you’re not relying on the operator to take the time to pick out all that debris themselves.
Donovan: Yeah, yeah. And that can get tricky. And honestly, you wanna be paying that guy to be cutting.
Chris: Yep.
Donovan: You don’t wanna be paying him to do the cleaning.
Chris: 100%
Donovan: So the fact that the machine does the cleaning for you, just, that’s just another time saver, money saver, money maker, really in the end, isn’t it?
Chris: It’s our leading idea right now with our new Cut Everyday campaign, that idea of keeping yourself up and running and cutting all day long.
Donovan: Say this again, Cut Everyday.
Chris: Yep.
Donovan: Okay, so what’s the idea behind this?
Chris: It’s a way to try to promote the integration of service, sales, and aftermarket support to our customers, and try to showcase in particular success stories that we’ve had with our service techs over the last six to 12 months, some special projects that they’ve worked on to really keep people cutting every day.
Donovan: So Cut Everyday means let’s eliminate downtime.
Chris: Right.
Donovan: What’s, when you’re talking about service, what’s some of the things we could expect from AKS service? What’s the number one thing you see people go down because of?
Chris: Well, the number one thing that I see people go down, it would have to be gas pressure.
Donovan: Really?
Chris:Yep, gas pressure. You need to have between 115 to 125 PSI. Consistent air flow, air O2, N2, Argon, whatever gas you’re using, and it’s a 10 PSI range. You go outside of that range, the Hypertherm XPR unit starts getting a little funky, it gets a little upset. And without a doubt, whenever somebody calls in, the first thing we ask them is, what’s your gas set to? And 80% of the time, that’s the fix.
Donovan: So we have a lot of things like that too. You got some go-tos in it. So part of the Cut Everyday campaign, you might get an email or a text message that says, hey, have you checked your gas pressure lately? Is that kind of what you guys are doing?
Chris: Exactly. –
Donovan: Other tips like that to help people just maintain their table.
Chris: 100%.
Donovan: So I’d look at that, you got another tip for anybody who’s listening out there on something that can help keep you running every day?
Chris: Yep, run your consumables longer.
Donovan:Your consumables? Okay, so what do you mean by that?
Chris: All the parts that go inside of the torch body themself. There’s a stack up of your electrode, inner cap, outer cap, and a couple others. A lot of people, I walk into shops all the time and I look at their bucket of spent consumables, and half of them aren’t fully spent. And that’s money right down the drain. We actually recommend using a pit depth gauge indicator, a little gauge that will–
Donovan: Okay, say this one more time, a pit depth gauge indicator.
Chris: Yeah, pit depth gauge or pit depth indicator. I combine the two, but yeah, pit depth gauge. And what all that does is it measures the top of the electrode, there’s a little indent on the top of there. And every time you turn on the torch, it liquefies, there’s a piece of material in there called hafnium. And every time you turn on the torch, it liquefies that hafnium. And then when you turn off the torch, it solidifies. And it spits out a little drop of the hafnium. So that pit gets deeper and deeper and deeper until it’s fully spent.
Donovan: Gotcha.
Chris: Well, a lot of people, they just look at that and they go, okay, my cut quality’s gotten a little bit worse. I should go ahead and change it. That’s not the thing to do. Take it out, check it with a pit depth gauge and see if it’s truly spent or not. And you can probably increase your consumable life by 20, 30%.
Donovan: Well, and then that just helps you make more money.
Chris: 100%.
Donovan: Right, and then we’re not throwing away things that are still good. We don’t wanna be doing that. Well, that’s, those are, so if you wanna learn more stuff about that, contact AKS for the next 60 days. It could be, I don’t know when you’re listening to this, but if you missed it, you can probably still get ahold of ’em, they’ll still give you a lot of tips.
Chris: Yeah, we’ve been around for 120 years, so at least another year or two. We’ll be around.
Donovan: So, but when you’re listening to this podcast or watching us on YouTube, if it’s past 60 days, past Fabtech, you can still reach out to AKS. They’ll still give you a bunch of tips on how to keep your table running, keep it going good.
Chris: 100%.
Donovan: And then, if you’re really having some issues, you guys got service teams, right? Come out, help you out.
Chris: Yep. We have third party techs across the country, another seven out of Cleveland, Ohio. And also, we have several that are across the country as direct employees as well.
Donovan: Now, Cleveland, Ohio, that’s where you guys are based, right?
Chris: Yes.
Donovan: Now, I’ve been reading a little bit, and I guess there’s a lot of industry starting to move into Ohio.
Chris: Yeah, yeah. In particular, the Intel plant in Columbus.
Donovan: Oh yeah.
Chris: That’s a big deal.
Donovan: Yeah.
Chris: That job right there, we have several customers in the structural steel space in particular, that are prefabricating the entire modules of buildings for Intel. And they’re fabbing those up, out of structural components, welding them together. And then shipping them to the job site to be installed as a modular construction of the factory.
Donovan: Well, that’s great. I mean, that’s all that’s great. You know, that’s great for you guys. That’s great for America. It’s great for our workers. We’re bringing some of these jobs back.
Chris: Definitely.
Donovan: Which is, which is just gonna be good all around. And so, you guys are helping build some stuff. We’re trying to help you guys make sure that those guys are going home healthy and safe to their families.
Chris: You got that right. The smoke is a big deal. It’s, I see it every day, walking into a shop, but there’s little plumes of smoke coming off their table and people look at it and say, ah, what can you do? You can do something about it with good techniques, a clean table.
Donovan: Right.
Chris: And making sure that you’re a properly sized dust collector as well.
Donovan: Yeah.
Chris: That’s, that a lot of people have undersized dust collectors. That’s for sure.
Donovan: Yeah, yeah. And there’s some, yeah, if you’re having issues with your dust collector, you can reach out to AKS. We’ll help you support you guys in that. You guys have a wealth of knowledge in that field too. So if you don’t know the answer, you’d get ahold of us.
Chris: A hundred percent.
Donovan: Yeah. But, so Chris, you guys have anything, you got your cut everyday campaign coming up. You guys have, do you guys have anything else coming up down the line that we should be looking out for?
Chris: We’re always looking for new things. We’re always on the search for new products to innovate on. In the last year, we’ve released a small drill to go on our Accu-Kut and Dura-Kut.
Donovan: Oh really?
Chris: Yeah, for small holes in plate. We’ve integrated the Telesis pin stamping system.
Donovan: Wait, you’re gonna have to say that one more time.
Chris: Sure. Telesis, that’s a company.
Donovan: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris: And they have a pin stamper, a high speed pin stamper. That you position it and then it can scribe and to steel letters and numbers and lines. It’s a good way for, especially if you have to keep track of heat numbers or something by the part. It’s a really good way to make sure that you can do that effectively.
Donovan: So the machine will just do it for you there so you don’t have to rely on somebody else to do it after the fact.
Chris: Exactly.
Donovan: Oh, that’s great.
Chris: It can be right on the program, right on a scribe layer in the program. And it’ll operate the Telesis and mark your parts for you.
Donovan: Oh, that’s awesome. So you guys have been around for a long time, innovating for a long time, you’re still doing it. And yeah, like you said, you guys aren’t going anywhere. So, and we’re gonna be here to help you out. Keep partnering with AKS to make sure everybody goes home healthier and safer. And I’ll tell you what, I don’t know if we have anything else to talk about right now. I can’t think.
Chris: Yeah, I think we’re good.
Donovan: It’s been a long show. It’s been a good time.
Chris: Yeah.
Donovan: We’re glad to have you guys as partners.
Chris: Definitely.
Donovan: And if you have a question about tips, need a table, you can check out AKS.com. You guys have a YouTube page. You guys have LinkedIn and all that, right?
Chris: Yep.
Donovan: Yeah. And same with us, come check us out on our social media, on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook. And until the next time we get to talk to you guys, stay healthy and stay safe out there.
Chris: You got it. Thank you, Donovan.
Donovan: Yep.
Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Dusty Drops podcast. Breathe Better, Work Safer. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]
