MetzFab Industries adds Waterjet Cutting to its Capabilities

When Brandon Metzger made the decision to expand MetzFab Industries’ capabilities with the addition of a waterjet, he contacted three manufacturers. He says, “One made a great waterjet, but their initial sales support wasn’t up to my expectations. Plus, they didn’t have waterjets available in the Southwest for me to go see. With the second manufacturer, I didn’t feel the machine was well built, and I wasn’t a fan of their traction drive system. I also didn’t feel the sales person was terribly knowledgeable about the benefits of their waterjet,” he said. Metzger’s third call was to Flow International at their corporate headquarters in Kent, Washington. “I didn’t know much about Flow waterjets”, he said. Flow corporate immediately put Metzger in touch with Chad Mooneyham, Regional Manager supporting Arizona customers. Mooneyham visited Metzger at the shop at his house, where the business was still operating, and Mooneyham demonstrated Flow’s software. The following week, Mooneyham returned to Arizona to bring Brandon to see some shops that had Flow waterjets. “Not only was Chad so knowledgeable on his products, I appreciated the superior customer support he demonstrated from the start. He is so much more than a sales guy.” Metzger’s decision on the manufacturer he wanted to work with for his new waterjet purchase was made. He purchased the Flow MACH 2 4020b waterjet several months ago, and it arrived at his new shop in Deer Valley. Metzger says, “Flow offers a 4 day class for 2 employees at their Kent, WA headquarters. We haven’t gone yet, but plan to in the coming months.” He added, “We did receive excellent training at our facility when the waterjet was installed.” He adds that his team’s experience operating a plasma cutter at the facility made the learning curve for waterjet cutting much simpler. MetzFab made the decision to upgrade the pump on the MACH 2 4020b. Mooneyham said, “The pump is the heart of the waterjet system. The pump pressurizes the water and delivers it continuously so that a cutting head can then turn that pressurized water into a supersonic waterjet stream.” He continued, “Two types of pump can be used for waterjet applications — an intensifier based pump and a direct drive based pump. Though direct drive pumps are used in some industrial applications, the vast majority of all ultra high-pressure pumps in the waterjet world today are intensifier based.” Metzger said, “Purchasing the Flow waterjet has helped us to grow our customer base and to expand the size of the parts we can cut — we can now cut parts up to 61/2’ by 13’. Our turnaround is even better than it was before we had the Flow waterjet — we can eliminate 2nd operations and we can cut more parts at a time, and faster.” Metzger added a benefit to the Flow waterjet over competitive machines is that the rebuild cost is lower, reliability his higher, and consumables are considerably less expensive. “We can use these benefits of the Flow waterjet to save our customers time and money”, Metzger elaborated. MetzFab Industries is a success by any measures, as it has doubled every year in revenues since opening for business. Since moving to Deer Valley less than a year ago, business has been even more explosive. “We get inquiries from 3 or more new potential customers every day. We have a high win rate, too, as not only is our turnaround and quality outstanding, but we will also beat any competitor’s price by 5%.” MetzFab’s new Flow waterjet is helping them to win new business, and Metzger says their recent acquisition of a 125 ton 10’ 7 axis press brake will increase their capabilities in forming large parts. “We do a lot of unique bending”, Metzger said. The company also recently upgraded their software with the acquisition of JobBoss. To learn more about MetzFab Industries capabilities, including waterjet cutting, contact them at 602.780.2308 or visit metzfabIndustries.com Hear From A MetzFab Customer “We have been using MetzFab Industries since they opened for business. They do all of our sheet metal work. I have used other suppliers in the past, and now we exclusively use MetzFab. They are more accurate in their fabrication, and their turnaround is much quicker. They are a pleasure to work with.” Owner, Manufacturing Company For Commercial Industry More About Flor International Corporation Flow International Corporation provides technologically advanced, environmentally sound solutions to the manufacturing and industrial cleaning markets. Flow’s roots date back to the early 1970s, when former research and development scientists from Boeing founded Flow Research. The first technology commercialized by that company was the use of an ultrahigh pressure waterjet as an industrial cutting tool. Flow later invented, patented and perfected the world’s first abrasive waterjet system to cut hard materials up to 12 inches thick. Since 1974, Flow has delivered more than 9,500 waterjet and abrasive waterjet systems to customers in more than 45 countries. Visit them at www.flowwaterjet.com.