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When Should You Upgrade Your Shop?

Jan 16, 2024 - Eric St. James

Identifying older equipment and any equity left in it is the first step. Then have your supplier run some sample parts to quantify the advantage of ne...

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Improving Tube Cutting Efficiency with Nesting

Oct 04, 2023 - Eric St. James

Tube cutting has come a long way and Fiber lasers are largely responsible for that. Laser tube cutting machines have improved cutting efficiencies and...

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False Barriers to Upgrade (And How to Overcome Them)

Sep 18, 2023 - Eric St. James

The fabrication industry is fast-moving with increasing pressure to surpass previous standards of speed, quality, flexibility, costs, and service. In ...

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High Powered Fiber Laser Advantages

May 31, 2023 - Eric St. James

High-powered Fiber Lasers (10kW and higher for the purposes of this article) are making their way into the market and quite rightly demanding attentio...

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How Tube Lasers Reduce Costs

Feb 02, 2023 - Eric St. James

Laser tube-cutting is growing rapidly in the metal fabrication industry as the technology evolves and equipment costs decrease. Compared to the tradit...

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What is Laser Tube Cutting Today

Oct 26, 2022 - Eric St. James

Evolution in the Laser cutting industry has been significant in the past two decades. While many fabricators are enjoying the perks of flat sheet meta...

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Building a Customer Focused Fab Shop

Sep 07, 2022 - Eric St. James

Recent developments are compelling fab shops to do more. Just delivering products is not going to cut it anymore. Rising input costs, supply chain dis...

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Why Move to Fiber Laser Tube Cutting Systems

Aug 04, 2022 - Eric St. James

Recent years have seen fiber laser cutting technology fast replacing traditional CO2 laser metal-cutting processes. New development of high powered so...

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Assist Gas Options & Rising Popularity of HPAS

Jun 28, 2022 - Eric St. James

An assist gas is required with any laser-cutting process. Primarily, assist gas is used to blow molten metal away from the beam kerf, but it also help...

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Why You Should Embrace New Technologies in your Shop

Jun 16, 2022 - Eric St. James

Adopting new technology is crucial for any shop that aims to be competitive and profitable. Manufacturing equipment life cycles are no different than ...

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Benefits of Software As A Service (SaaS) for Metal Fabrication

May 18, 2022 - Eric St. James

Cloud-based software applications using the SaaS model (software as a service) have been a growing trend. This model allows you to access software onl...

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Equipment Maintenance: The Most Overlooked Competitive Edge

May 04, 2022 - Eric St. James

Machine acquisition is undoubtedly a significant investment for all fabrication shops. Often overlooked, equipment maintenance offers a great competit...

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Advances in CAM Software Offer New Possibilities for Metal Shops

Apr 20, 2022 - Eric St. James

We have seen amazing growth and innovation in the CAM software industry. With increased demand in manufacturing, fabricators are looking for more soph...

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Six Ways to Improve Efficiency in your Shop

Mar 17, 2022 - Eric St. James

Achieving maximum efficiency is critical for any business in today’s competitive environment. In manufacturing it’s considered an integral part of pro...

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Bringing Automation to your Shop? What You Need to do

Feb 09, 2022 - Eric St. James

The landscape is competitive in today’s manufacturing world. Demand may be up, but material costs are at an all-time high and the skilled labour short...

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Supply Chain Disruptions for Manufacturing: What the Pandemic is Teaching Us

Jan 13, 2022 - Eric St. James

Global supply chains have been a defining news topic in 2020 and 2021. We are facing shortages of raw materials around the world. Manufacturers strugg...

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Increasing Popularity of High-Performance Compressed Air Systems in Fiber Laser Cutting

Nov 30, 2021 - Eric St. James

Assist gas is essential for all laser cutting processes. Its core job is to blow molten metal away from the beam kerf. This is necessary for all types...

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Steel Supply Disruptions Impact on Metal Fabrication in 2020-2021

Jul 14, 2021 - Eric St. James

When COVID-19 hit North America in 2020, we had no idea what to expect. Who knew we’d be stuck in lockdown after lockdown as vaccine manufacturers and...

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Using CAM for 5 and 6-axis Cutting Applications

May 26, 2021 - Eric St. James

The art of 5 and 6-axis machining in metal fabrication has evolved over recent years. Using a CNC machine tool to cut along 5 or 6 axes simultaneously...

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Metal Cutting Methods and Their Impact on Environment

Apr 14, 2021 - Eric St. James

As people around the world become increasingly concerned about pollution, the environmental impact of manufacturing cannot be ignored. Like many indus...

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Impact of COVID-19 on Metal Shops and Recovery in 2021

Feb 22, 2021 - Eric St. James

In 2020, COVID-19 impacted people and businesses around the world in an unprecedented way. Looking back, if there was a word to describe the outlook f...

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Nesting Software - The Smart Fabricators Automation Tool

Jan 21, 2021 - Eric St. James

The metal fabrication industry has come a long way thanks to technology and innovation. From advancements in machine tools to software, metal fabricat...

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The Importance of Appreciation for your Metal Fabrication Business

Dec 24, 2020 - Eric St. James

2020 has been a challenging year for everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unparalleled uncertainty and stress. Growing health concerns, soaring ...

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Is Plasma Cutting right for your shop

Oct 08, 2020 - Eric St. James

There are many equipment and technology options in the metal fabrication industry. When it comes to cutting metal, options include Fiber Lasers, CO2 l...

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Nitrogen Gas Generation for Laser Cutting

Aug 06, 2020 - Eric St. James

Managing operating costs for laser cutting machines is a key factor in your shop’s success. Aside from initial equipment investment, one of the major ...

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Nitrogen: Its Role in Laser Cutting

Jul 24, 2020 - Eric St. James

In metal fabrication, all laser machines – including C02 and fiber lasers – use some sort of assist gas in the cutting process. It is an essential com...

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What is Plasma Cutting & How Does it Work?

Jul 10, 2020 - Eric St. James

Plasma cutting is a popular sheet-metal cutting process that many metal fabricators employ across North America – from large-scale industrial fabricat...

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Benefits of Plasma Cutting

May 27, 2020 - Eric St. James

For the past few years, fiber lasers have been the talk of the metal fabrication industry. It can be easy to get caught up in what’s new and powerful,...

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3 Ways Machine Inspection could save your Fabrication Shop Big

May 14, 2020 - Eric St. James

Preventative maintenance is a core activity for any shop, big or small. No matter the number of machines or volume of work, proper upkeep is crucial t...

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CAM Software - Drive Productivity from the Front Office to the Shop Floor

Jan 16, 2019 - Eric St. James

The Role of Cam Software We often talk about how innovations in machinery, like fiber lasers, can boost productivity for fabricators. But what about a...

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How Fiber Lasers compare with CO2

Nov 07, 2018 - Eric St. James

Fiber Lasers And CO2 Fiber lasers are all the rage right now and the metal fabrication industry is buzzing over each new innovation. Fabricators are q...

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Leveraging Technology & Integrations for Growing your Metal Shop

May 24, 2018 - Eric St. James

Technological advances have been at the forefront of the manufacturing industry, causing dramatic shifts in productivity decade over decade since the ...

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6 Benefits to Lease Financing for Fabrication Machinery

Aug 24, 2017 - Eric St. James

Purchasing new machinery is a big decision for many metal fabricators. While the introduction of new fiber lasers or other machinery can mean substant...

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Top 5 metal fabrication shop tips to continue in 2017

Jan 12, 2017 - Eric St. James

2016 has been a great year for metal fabrication. In 2017 we are hoping the industry continues to build on the innovations and progress made this...

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Chiller maintenance in water-cooled systems

Dec 04, 2015 - Eric St. James

Fabrication equipment like lasers and punching machines with large hydraulic circuits generate heat and need to be cooled. This is where the water chi...

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Increasing Productivity from your Engineering Department

Jul 06, 2015 - Eric St. James

For any metal fabrication shop the engineering department is the brains of the operation. As in most industries – from construction to high tech – wit...

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The 3 T’s of cross-training your fabrication shop technicians

Feb 26, 2015 - Eric St. James

One of the biggest metal fabrication shop ‘hacks’ for productivity is cross-training employees.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: inves...

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5 ways to show your metal fabrication shop love (and boost productivity)

Feb 09, 2015 - Eric St. James

As a metal fabrication shop owner, it goes without saying that your shop is a major part of your life. Like with any relationship, the shop-owner rapp...

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Are You Limiting Your Fabrication Shop’s Growth?

Jan 19, 2015 - Eric St. James

     Many fabrication shops today are in the position of going from job to job, contract to contract. Managers at these companies may ...

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FABTECH Canada 2014.

May 16, 2014 - Eric St. James

Paramount Machinery Inc.  recently exhibited at FABTECH Canada , a trade show dedicated to the metal fabrication industry. Attendance was up in c...

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FabTech 2013

Dec 10, 2013 - Eric St. James

FABTECH CHICAGO 2013 FABTECH 2013, held in Chicago this past November, was a resounding success for Paramount Machinery. With 1500 exhibitors and an e...

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Tax break gives much needed boost to manufacturers

Nov 21, 2013 - Eric St. James

Here’s some good news for Canadian manufacturers: the government recently announced the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance Program has been extended b...

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