Armour Alloys adds new cut-to-length line

Images: Armour Alloys

Cambridge, Ont.-based Armour Alloys, a stainless steel and aluminum distributor, recently announced that it has introduced a cut-to-length line to its operations. Although the company offered cut-to-length products previously, the processing was outsourced. The addition of the new line will add efficiencies to delivery times and product offerings, said founder Paul De Aragon.

“We engineered it to be able to cut stainless and aluminum, and it has some great capabilities,” said De Aragon. “We added PVC coating on the line and paper interleafing to give customers the protection that they require for their processing needs.”

The company also equipped the line with padded rolls to further protect material while it is being moved to stacking. Armour also engineered a drop stacker that uses arms to deliver sheets onto one of two pallets.

In addition, the shear is on a gear, which allows the company to cut varied shapes on the line.

“A great example would be a customer that has to stamp a car door,” said De Aragon. “If you think of that shape, you don’t really want a square shape for that. Cutting a blank in more or less the shape of a door creates less waste for the customer. And with our two drop stackers, we can efficiently cut such a shape and stack them in a uniform manner without extra manipulation.”

Armour Alloys, founded in 1992 by De Aragon, has become best known for its sheet, plate, and coil processing and distribution for industries like automotive stamping, roll forming, and high-volume fabrication. The family business run by the De Aragons, including sons Adam and Andrew, sees this investment as an ideal way to become better known to a wider fabrication audience. The cut-to-length line can shear material between 0.024 in. and 0.125 in. thick and 8 in. by 72 in. wide.

The investment follows a purchase a few years ago of a new Braner slitting line.

“That slitter cuts everything between 0.01 in. to ¼-in.-thick material,” said De Aragon. “It has a turret head. What that means is that when you’re slitting a coil, you do a setup in the head of the machine—all the knives and spacers that create the desired width of material. Setting that up takes as much as an hour. This newer slitter has three heads that rotate. When one is running, an operator can build the next setup behind it so there is no wasted time between orders. In the traditional way, you’re maybe going to cut five to six coils in a day. We’ve done 12 or 13 coils in a day now, which amounts to 200,000 lbs. of material.”

The company had a third slitter when it first started running the Braner. Once it saw the efficiencies being achieved, it sold one slitter, creating room in the shop for the cut-to-length line.

De Aragon is excited by the opportunities the combination of machines offers the business.

“They can work together as well, he noted. “For instance, if you wanted to make a sign that was 3 ft by 3 ft, we could take a 4 or 5 ft wide coil, slit it on our slitting line and then blank it on this line into basically any size you want. We can go down as far as 8 in. wide to 72 in. wide.”