May 2010

 Aluminum 6061 bar
stock is custom machined
on our CNC lathe ......... 2
focus
 A custom-made gift for Air
Force personnel departs from
Fedtech’s floor............ 3
 Small blocks are water-only
waterjet cut from .500” thick
poron cellular material 2
Issue 2
Volume 4
May 2010
KEEPING YOU UPD AT ED W ITH W HAT ’S NEW AND
IMPORT ANT AT OUR MANUFACT URING FACILIT Y
Waterjet Cutting Aluminum Heat Sinks
made waterjet cutting the best
choice, because of the noncontact and no HAZ (heat affected zone) benefits. When
complete, these parts are used
in a heat sink application.
The parts seen here were waterjet cut at Fedtech
from .125” thick 6061 T6
aluminum. The left side of the
photo shows the raw material
and the finished part is shown
on the right.
The amount of detail processing and tolerances required a
technique that would not cause
heat distortion. This ultimately
Precision and accuracy are always characteristics of our services.
Find out more about our quality
program at www.fedtech.com/
quality.html.
(Above) 6061 T6 aluminum
intricately waterjet cut for
custom heat sink parts.
Wood and Aluminum Make a Customized Keepsake
The fun little tidbit about
these parts is that they were
created for a wedding where
two Air Force personnel were
getting married!
Waterjet cut from wood and
then aluminum; the parts
were custom fabricated at our
shop. After all the parts had
been processed and finished,
(Left) Waterjet cut aluminum and wood
were assembled for a lovely wedding gift.
Fedtech is ISO 9001:2008 Certified
they were assembled at Fedtech as well. This project was
a lot of fun to work on, and
it’s always a joy to give back
to the armed forces that
serve our country everyday.
The final product will be a
special surprise for the
couple, and likely a gift that
they’ll have in their home for
a very long time!
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Rubber Match — Cutting Silicone Rubber
The parts seen here were
gasket, discharge chute flange
water-only (non-abrasive)
gasket, feed end tube flange
waterjet cut from 1/4" thick
gasket, feed cover gasket,
white food grade silicone rub-
trough end flange gasket, and
ber. This project consisted of
a discharge auger drive mount
many different gaskets that
gasket. All of which, were cut
were nested efficiently into
for this project.
customer supplied material.
This saved the customer
money by making the most of
At Fedtech, we frequently provide our waterjet cutting ser-
the material.
vices to other manufacturing
Parts shown above include a
manufacturing custom assem-
few of the following: dis-
blies and machinery. Gaskets,
charge tube flange face gas-
seals, and flanges are just
ket, discharge chute to barrel
some of the parts that we also
gasket, discharge chute flange
supply.
companies in the industry for
Titanium Rings
A short, but
noteworthy
story; these titanium parts
were waterjet
cut from .125”
thick GR2 Titanium. This often difficult to
(Above) Waterjet cut titanium rings.
process material is a perfect fit for waterjet cutting.
The smallest holes were .063” in diameter while the larger holes were .189” in
diameter. Waterjet was capable of processing these parts complete to tolerances of +/- .005”, eliminating secondary operations such as drilling.
Fedtech is ISO 9001:2008 Certified
(Above) .250” thick white food
grade silicone rubber that was
waterjet cut at Fedtech.
For other gasket projects,
visit our custom gaskets
page to see different gaskets that we have waterjet
and laser cut at Fedtech.
You can also visit our case
studies page to keep up
with current projects!
Custom Dashboards
The part seen here was one of many that
was processed using abrasive waterjet cutting, and were cut from .020” thick anodized
aluminum.
If you’re guessing that this
part is a product of the automotive industry, you’re
right! These
custom cut
(Above) Customized Ford Mustang
panels were
dashboard panels.
used on the
dashes of select models of Ford Mustangs in
aftermarket customization.
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Win a Free Gift!
Fedtech’s monthly drawing is coming up again, it’s time to enter to
win! You can sign up one time each month to be entered into the
drawing to win lots of cool stuff. Prizes include: T-shirts, coffee mugs,
travel totes, stationary and more. Visit the website below to enter!
http://www.fedtech.com/free
Poron Cellular Square Cutting
The cubes you see here
may appear to be rubber
but they’re actually soft
and porous. When this
poron cellular project came
in, it utilized water-only
waterjet cutting to process .500” thick material.
By using water-only waterjet
cutting, there is no abrasive
that gets caught in the material, keeping the material free
from contaminants.
The small blocks themselves
will be used as custom supports. If you look very closely,
you will see that the center of
the blocks have a very small
hole cut out of them as well.
You can visit our water-only
portion of the web-site for
(Above) Poron cellular project that was
waterjet cut from .500” thick material.
more case studies like this
and see other materials that
are a good fit for water-only
cutting.
Precision Polyethylene Foam Parts
For these 2.0” thick polyethylene foam parts, we used
non-abrasive waterjet cutting.
With a stream of water traveling at mach 3, the intricate
parts were processed precisely so that the tabs you
see near the end of the part
would not break off.
At Fedtech, we process many
different parts from various
types of foam material. Like
this project, they are used in
Fedtech is ISO 9001:2008 Certified
packaging delicate parts or
on the insides of cases to
keep items from moving in
transit.
Similar materials include:
Nylon foam
Neoprene foam
Polyurethane foam
EVA foam
Corrugated plastic
HDPE, UHMW & more.
(Above) 2.0” thick polyethylene
foam that was water-only (nonabrasive) waterjet cut at Fedtech.
3
Business Wisdom
Paper-Thin Brass Shims
These custom waterjet cut parts were
processed from .002” thick brass. Meaning the thickness of these parts was almost half the thickness of a regular sheet
of paper (which
is .0038”
thick).
These brass
parts would ultimately be
used as custom
shims in the
food industry.
1. A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered desk
drawer.
2. Old steel makers never die, they just lose
their temper.
3. The trouble with doing something right the
first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.
4. TEAMWORK...means never having to take all
the blame yourself.
(Above) Custom waterjet
cut .002” thick brass shims.
5. There are two kinds of people: people who like
their jobs, and people who don't work here.
www.Fedtech.com
Stay connected with Fedtech on many
different levels. Follow us on Twitter,
become a fan on Facebook or follow
our blog on Blogger! There’s lots of
good information everyday that you
can enjoy!
True or False?
T
F
http://facebook.com/Fedtech
http://twitter.com/FedtechInc
http://fedtechmn.blogspot.com
Answers:
1. True 2. False, it is actually smell 3. True 4. True 5. False 6. True
7. False, when zinc is alloyed with copper, brass is made.
Stay Connected!
1. The average lifespan of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.
2. The sense of hearing is most linked to memory.
3. Approx. 380 billion plastic bags are used in the U.S. every year.
4. One gallon of used motor oil can ruin approx. one million gallons of fresh water.
5. Fedtech does custom fabrication but not assembly.
6. If unprotected pieces of metal touch in space, they stick together permanently.
7. When zinc is alloyed with brass, copper is made.
Fedtech is ISO 9001:2008 Certified
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