While the Kristian team has grown steadily throughout 2019, an audience formed recently in Calgary when our newest addition to the shop was brought in: our very own CNC plasma table! Acquired to strengthen our own hands-on knowledge and provide in-house demonstrations to our customers, Welder Service Lead Hand, Gerry Davidson, and his team have been busy setting up and testing ‘Helga’!
We sat down with Gerry to get the 411 on Helga and everything she brings to the TABLE at Kristian Calgary.
“Helga is a 3x5 CNC cutting table; perfectly sized for her location right now in our induction bay and for transport around the shop as needed,” said Gerry. “We are running it right now with our Hypertherm Powermax45 XP – one of Hypertherm’s newest cutters. The Powermax45 XP is an excellent machine for this table: lightweight, small, powerful, with the ability to cut up to 5/8” if required.”
Gerry and his team mounted the Powermax45 XP on a rolling table hooked up to our CNC Shape Cutting Controller – a Hypertherm Automation Edge Ti running Hypertherm’s Phoenix™ CNC software. After automatic basic tasks using Hypertherm’s CutPro Wizard, Gerry and his team played around with automated torch height controls to see everything Helga has to offer!
But what is Gerry’s favourite thing about Helga joining the Kristian Calgary team?
“It’s going to be great to host demos and demonstrate everything a CNC cutting table can do with Hypertherm cutters, consumables, and software,” he said. “Having Helga in the shop for our technicians to test, practice, and troubleshoot is really helpful too. Everyone can gain the knowledge of working with every part of cutting so when we are selling, repairing, or finding consumables for our customers, we are speaking from our own hands-on experience!”
So what is next for Helga and the Kristian Calgary team’s cutting adventures?
“We are looking forward to acquiring Hypertherm’s ProNest CAD/CAM software to create our own fun designs. With its increased customization and nesting capabilities, ProNest is the next step to help us eliminate waste and set up multiple shape parts at once.”
Helga will soon be available for demos at Kristian Calgary for all those interested in seeing how Hypertherm’s powerful line of products, consumables, and software can come to life.
In the meantime, all three Kristian Electric branches have technicians certified to troubleshoot and repair CNC cutting tables and the entire Hypertherm line!