Fibre laser cutter keeps Jmar Engineering on track

Founded by Mark and Janice Hooper 22 years ago, Jmar Engineering in Shepparton, Victoria, specialises in component manufacturing and repairs across a broad range of industries including those associated with conveyor and package handling equipment.

Nearly all Jmar’s business comes from around the Goulburn Valley area within a 50 km radius of Shepparton, but ongoing diversification has seen the company achieve steady growth and increase its customer base since inception.

For example, the company now undertakes a considerable amount of ‘reverse engineering’ by fabricating many components and parts that clients may have previously bought from overseas suppliers.

The company is a long-time supplier of a product called the Christopher Dairy Bails — a retrofit product suitable for herringbone dairies that allows the farmer to feed in the bail at milking time.

In 2015 Mark spotted an opportunity to invest in a laser cutter to further grow his business and enhance the quality of the end product.

After further research a fibre laser cutter appeared to be the best choice due to a number of significant benefits including extreme accuracy and speed and consistency of cut, coupled with low operating costs.

Mark briefed Applied Machinery to supply him with a machine that would meet both his performance criteria and budget restrictions. He became Applied’s inaugural fibre laser cutter customer with the supply and installation of a Hans GS LFD-3015 1 kW Fiber Laser Cutting System.

“The new Hans fibre laser installed in late February is already paying huge dividends for us. Not only is it improving productivity and quality of our finished products, but it has also opened up new market opportunities,” Mark said.

“We’re seeing work that we would never have seen and quoting on jobs that we have previously not been able to quote on — the Hans fibre laser is really helping to expand our business.

Another benefit of the new machine is that the quality of the finished product coming out of the company’s Yawei pressbrake is now far superior, due to the huge increase in quality of the prebend parts from the fibre laser compared to their plasma.

“This new fibre laser is completely in keeping with the ethos of Jmar Engineering. It not only allows us to produce the highest quality components in a faster time, but also provides us with the opportunity to add to the diversity of products we produce,” concluded Mark.