With TRUMPF high speed laser cutting and combination processing of exotic materials, LoDolce Machine Company supports the US military industry with crucial components.

A few years ago Michel Gagnon, a TRUMPF service engineer, travelled to Saugerties, New York to install a TruMatic 600 combination punch laser machine at LoDolce Machine Company. The shop’s president, Michael LoDolce, recalls the day very well. He remembers Michel saying he could not believe he was installing a combination machine in such a small shop. Michael’s response? “You’ll be putting another one in here some day.” His premonition was right. Five years later Michel was back in Saugerties, New York, installing another combination, and LoDolce has grown to 7 buildings with 100,000 square feet of production and warehouse space.

A Journey into the World of Exotic Materials
At first glance, LoDolce Manufacturing may appear to be your traditional job shop specialising in high end high precision production of steels and aluminum. However, if you take a closer look you will find some of their major projects, particularly in the aerospace and military industries, are anything but traditional. The TruMatic 600 machine that the TRUMPF service tech installed in 1999 was their first step into the world of fabricating exotic materials. Pratt & Whitney had just begun the production of the F-22. They needed to produce tight tolerance parts from inconel for the tail pipe exhaust system. The ideal machine for this work was a combination punch/laser, but Pratt & Whitney did not have the machine to do the work. In fact, very few companies in the area had such a machine at the time. So Pratt & Whitney called upon LoDolce to do the work for them.
“We’ve been making the parts ever since,” comments Michael. “The ongoing work for the F-22 project is why we bought our second combination machine.”

Protecting the Troops
LoDolce Machine Company’s journey into the world of exotic materials recently led them to high speed processing of titanium. They were selected to provide titanium parts for the military’s M1 Abrams tanks being used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. These tanks traditionally have heavy shielding on the front and back, but no protection on the sides making them vulnerable to IEDs. To address this situation, reactive armor tiles were developed to protect the sides of the Abrams tanks. Should the tank suffer an attack from either side, the tiles would pre-ignite the missile before impact, redirect accompanying shrapnel and prevent it from penetrating the tank and injuring the soldiers inside. With approximately 160 tiles measuring about 14 by 13 inches in size mounted on each tank, the military needed a lot of them and fast.

Laser Cutting Their Way to Success
Given a weekly quota for parts, speed and accuracy were crucial to their success. This essentially eliminated more traditional methods of processing titanium, such as waterjet cutting. It was quickly determined that laser cutting was the only option. Not only was it approximately 10 times faster to cut with a laser, waterjet machines could not hold the required tolerances. To meet the weekly quota demands LoDolce needed the fastest laser they could get. “We compared the 5 and 6kW machines and found that even though the processing time per part with a 6kW resonator was only a few seconds faster, the time savings still added up. The 6kW was the way to go,” says Michael.
Armed with their TruLaser 5030 6kW machine, purchased specifically for this project, LoDolce took on the challenge of extremely high volume production of the titanium panels. No one had ever processed such a high volume of titanium on a laser cutting machine before. Until now a typical production run might require laser cutting a total of 20 sheets of titanium. “We were running 20 sheets every five hours for hours on end,” notes Michael. “The amount of titanium dust that resulted from such high volume cutting caused problems with the scale on the machine – scratching the glass and affecting accuracy,” he explains. “We worked closely with TRUMPF service and engineering and together we came up with a solution to the problem.” Michael developed a customised exhaust system to clear away the dust more efficiently while TRUMPF improved the scale, and the situation was rectified.
 After two years of high volume production running virtually 24 hours a day, LoDolce recently completed the M1 Abrams tank project. “We cut about one million panels over the life of the project, processing a total of  8,000 4 x 8 foot sheets of titanium,” exclaims Michael. In addition to the titanium, LoDolce processed another 8,000 sheets of armoured steel for the tanks.

No Rest for the Weary
With the Abrams tank project behind him, one might think Michael would now have some extra time to spend riding his Harley Davidson Softail, but Michael admits that his true hobby is his work - and the company is always busy. Their latest major project will once again support the military, producing armour from bullet proof steel for the MRAP project, the military’s newer armoured vehicles.