MD&M West and Expo Manufactura 2014

We had a good experience at MD&M West this year. The convention lasted 3 days and we had a lot of prospects stop by our booth. Everyone was interested in our wide range of capabilities in cutting and forming sheet metal. The show itself had over 2,000 exhibitors and over 30,000 attendees. We are anticipating a lot of job opportunities for Faspro Technologies over the next year due to this convention, many of them involving our laser capabilities.

Highlights from this convention include the new Speed Networking event. It’s like speed dating, but with other businesses. This year, only attendees were invited to participate in the event. We are hoping that exhibitors will be included next year. Another highlight of this year’s event were the Solidworks and AutoCAD booths, ironically placed next to each other. Solidworks is continuing to expand its capabilities to include more complex simulations and abilities that will soon make designing and displaying even the most complicated system very easy. Meanwhile, AutoCAD has improved its 3D modeling software to rival Solidworks. An amusing part of this convention was seeing speakers from both companies doing presentations at the same time while trying to outshout each other.

Our next convention will be an international one. We are going to Monterrey in Mexico on March 4-6 for the Expo Manufactura as part of the Illinois pavilion. We’re even bringing our own translator along, one of our production managers. This will be our first time exhibiting at a convention outside the US. We’re hoping to attract higher level contract manufacturers to our business. So catch us in a month in Mexico!

Faspro’s Upgrades in 2014

In the last blog post of 2013, we laid out what future exhibitions Faspro will be attending and what we plan to focus on over the next year. In the first blog post of 2014, we will showcase the new upgrades, equipment and improvements that Faspro will have this year. Our management has implemented a massive reinvestment strategy involving the purchase of new equipment.

The first piece of new equipment we purchased is an Amada LC-C1 NT Turret Punch and Laser Combo. This machine allows us to cut any materials up to ¼ inch thick. The turret portion can cut intricate openings in the parts while the laser cuts the perimeter and allows for unusual part designs as it isn’t limited to the tooling available for the turret. The turret portion also allows for minor forming operations including bending drawing and shear forming. This way, less time and operations are spent in creating a new part. This machine will drastically improve our lead times, as well as increase the amount of materials we can use and parts we can make.

 

The next piece of hardware Faspro purchased is an Amada HD 10003 ATC Brake Press. This is a 110 ton press with an impressive bending length of 120.47 inches and an open height of 24.4 inches, with a stroke of 7.9 inches. This machine is servo hydraulic and comes with an automatic tool changer with a capacity of 33 tools. This brake press’ capacity allows us to form parts with a multitude of complex bends completely in a few minutes at most. This machine drastically decreases our set-up and forming times so that we can ship out orders even faster than before.

 

The last piece of equipment we purchased is a Series 4 Pemserter. This press allows us to insert PEM studs, nuts and bolts into our parts in a very quick fashion. This machine allows us to shorten our assembly process time.

 

With these 3 new machines, Faspro Technologies expands its capabilities to encompass laser turret cutting, the forming of thicker gauge sheet metal, and sheet metal insertions. This year, Faspro is insourcing most of the sheet metal cutting, forming and assembly process to both decrease our lead times and to greater control the quality of the parts we make.

Faspro's Past and Future Trade Shows

This blog post is a trade show special. Since the last post, we have been to three shows around the country and are preparing to attend at a fourth. Going to trade shows is a great way to find both vendors and potential prospects. Even in small shows, there can potentially be thousands of people walking through from all manner of businesses: suppliers, consumers, consultants, government officials, manufacturers’ reps, and more.

Exhibiting at a trade show can be more profitable than simply walking through one for a variety of reasons:

•  The opportunity to speak to many more potential clients rather than only the ones who are exhibiting.
•  The advertising potential from exposure in trade show magazines and other advertising media.
• The opportunity to make a brand name for the company in markets where you can choose what association people make with your company.

For these reasons, Faspro Technologies has been attending trade shows since we opened our doors. We have only as of this year begun exhibiting at shows.  This decision has been highly beneficial to us and we will continue to exhibit at industry focused trade shows and events in the future.

The following is a list of our future appearances and of our recently attended shows where we exhibited or attended:

Near Future Exhibitions

Fabtech                                    Nov. 18-21, 2013         (Chicago, IL)

MD&M West                             Feb. 10-13, 2014          (Anaheim, CA)

MD&M East                               June 10-12, 2014         (New York, NY)

Previously Attended Conventions

MD&M East                                             (Philadelphia, PA)

MD&M Chicago                                      (Chicago, IL)

Milwaukee Manufacturers’ Expo            (Milwaukee, WI)

SMTA Trade Show                                 (Fort Worth, TX)

Made in Elk Grove                                 (Elk Grove Village, IL)

Welcome to Faspro Technologies

Faspro Technologies began as a small fabrication company in 1995. After getting a start in the telecom industry, Faspro expanded to multiple industries including; medical, aerospace, automotive, and electronics. Now we focus in the fabrication of thin gauge metals, as well as small to medium duty assemblies.

Our management team has over 100 years of combined experience in the manufacturing industry which contributes greatly to providing a fast cycle time for our customer’s projects. Our senior production staff has been with Faspro Technologies for over 15 years and has developed the techniques for speed and accuracy in our products.

I entered this company in the summer of 2005 as a Set-up Operator. Since then, I am proud to say that not only has Faspro expanded its operations to service corporations on an international scale. I was fortunate enough to grow with the company during this time.

We set this blog up to provide our community with news and updates to what’s going on at Faspro. We would like to share with you our new ideas and capabilities, as well as receive comments and feedback from you all in hopes that we can improve our business even more.

Vadim Shkarovsky

Marketing Associate