Customer: Protectolite Composites Inc. — Toronto, ON; 60+ years supplying composite materials and machined components
Sector: Composites manufacturing (electrical utilities, TTC, transformer manufacturers, SMC molders)
Machine: Apex 1R CNC router, 5×10
Replaced: waterjet cutting of fiberglass profiles
The problem
Protectolite’s waterjet was the bottleneck: costly to run and slow against a growing order book of fiberglass profile work. Sixty years into the business, they needed more capacity without the waterjet’s cost per hour.
The result
The router cuts the same fiberglass profiles faster and at a significantly lower operating cost per hour, opening production capacity for their utility and transit customers. In their words:
“For accurate, 2D cutting of fiberglass profiles to precision sizes, it is hard to beat a CNC router with a vacuum table.”
Why it worked
Composites are an abrasion problem. The system was delivered as a package: precision coated-carbide tooling with wear-resistant coatings matched to fiberglass, integrated dust collection specified for composite dust, and full operator and maintenance training from our technicians. The machine is the headline; the tooling, extraction and parameters are why it kept working. That package thinking is exactly what we now supply through CNC Router Store for every composites customer.
Cutting composites?
See CNC cutting for foam and composites, or send a layup sample for a free test cut. (905) 738-7954 — one business day.