At FABTECH, What’s Old Is New Again

It’s November and we all know what that means.

Well, yeah, Thanksgiving. There’s that.

But for those of us at Feed Lease, it means that FABTECH is quickly approaching. November 16th-18th, to be exact. And for that, we’re thankful. So we’ll soon be packing our bags and heading to Las Vegas for a good time. Metal forming style.

FABTECH is one of PMA’s biggest shows of the year. In essence, it’s the place to be noticed. It’s also NOT the place to be noticed for being absent. Not cool. But we have many other reasons for attending, including reconnecting with old friends, making new friends and meeting prospective clients. Staying in the know with (and ideally out ahead of) new technology is also big on our list of reasons.

Still, in these days of rapidly advancing technology, there’s something to be said for “older” technology that continues to stand the test of time. (Like the bread slicer. One of the greatest things since… sliced bread.)

Take our Gemini 30K with heat shield technology, for example. Maybe you’ve heard of it? The Gemini 30K is a complete line built specifically for heat shield applications. The advantage of this line is its ability to run two layers of different materials simultaneously. Before the Gemini 30K, manufacturing double layered heat shields was more challenging, not to mention expensive. It was simply not cost effective to produce single layers and then put them together after the fact.

So our engineers and designers came up with an effective way to deal with problem. They designed the line with two coil reels at the back end that hold the separate coils and each one is pulled off the straightener and then fed into the press at the same time. But it’s also versatile enough to run as a single reel.

This is where the new technology comes in.

When a company in the automotive industry came to us with the request for a design that had triple layering capability, we said, “Yeah. Okay.” (The encounter was more elaborate than that, but you get the point: Feed Lease was ready to take it on.)

Our solution was a servo grip feed that acts as a component of the Gemini 30K. The option and ability to add that third layer was revolutionary in the field of heat shield technology. It was also essential to the automotive industry in the evolution of their own technology. The company has found so much success with this new line that we’re already busy building the next one they’ve ordered. And they’ve got plans for a couple more next year. (Twins!). They’re even in negotiations for additional duplicate lines for other facilities internationally.

So it looks like we’re going to be busy. That’s the way we like it, though. Because at Feed Lease, we’ll always pursue the best solution, not just the easiest.  And we’ll continue to do it with success.

Visit us at our booth at FABTECH to see how we’re making the old new again with our latest servo grip feed.