Whitney Portable Presses Increase Productivity
At McFarlane Manufacturing Company

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Sauk City, Wisconsin, a quaint town of around 3,000 residents, is located on the Wisconsin River in southwestern Wisconsin. Sauk City, home to McFarlane Mfg. Co., along with its neighboring town of Prairie du Sac provides the setting for "Bald Eagle Watching Days" each year in January. Large numbers of America's national bird, congregate in the Sauk City area because the strong current below the Prairie du Sac dam keeps the river from freezing and allows access to fish, the eagles favorite food. The areas bluffs and valleys provide natural roosting areas at night.

It's in this picturesque setting that McFarlane began in 1919. They started by manufacturing a farm tractor under the trade name of "the Wisconsin Tractor." McFarlane continued to build this tractor through the 1920's and in 1933 began to manufacture a line of farm harrows. Over the years they have developed an enviable reputation through constant product improvement and today they produce large state-of-the-art farm harrows which arelabeled as "America's Finest Harrows."

Structural Steel Operation Started

Around fourteen years ago McFarlanedeveloped their structural steel operation. Stan McFarlane comments "that this diversification has been good because it helps balance the overall business, when farm equipment may be down, structural fabricating kind of takes up the slack and vice versa."

The structural steel they fabricate is mostly for steel framed buildings and consists mainly of beam and column work, as well as accessories such as clip angles, base plates, and angle bracings. The twenty-six man shop can easily fabricate upwards of 10,000 tons of steel a year with over 90 percent of it going to construction projects in the United States and a small portion going out of the country. One of their largest jobs was around 600 tons going to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Revenue in the structural steel fabricating business is primarily produced by such value added operations as sawing to length, punching connection holes, fabricating and assembling attachments such as clip angles, base plates, beam seats and bracing. Keeping this in mind, it is imperative that all of these operations be completed in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible.

A Vital Roll In Structural Operation

McFarlane has incorporated several Whitney portable hydraulic presses ranging from 20 to 100 ton capacities into their fabricating operation. These portable presses are used at many locations within their shop for producing holes in everything from beam flanges and webs to bracing angles and base plates. They commented that they had around a dozen Whitney portables. The larger 90 and 100 ton portables are used in the large structural bay for fabricating wide flange beams and columns.

Efficient and Productive

As one example of portable press punching efficiency, the punch operator using the Whitney Model 791 web press, punched eight connection holes in the web of a 21 inch, 55 pounds per foot beam in four minutes. The beam was 29 feet long and the total time of 4 minutes included placing the beam on the roller work supports, positioning the press and punching the holes. Comparing punching to drilling, the leadman commented, "You can punch five holes while you're mag drilling one. I love to punch over mag drilling any day."

Jib Crane Enhances Portability

McFarlane's beam punching cell utilizes the Whitney portable press suspended from a jib crane. Suspension springs allow the press to position easily for picking up layout points, and float for material stripping. Material support stands with rollers further facilitate beam positioning. The mobility of the presses on the jib cranes coupled with beam movement on the roller support stands facilitates quick hole punching for an efficient productive fabricating operation.

Throughout the entire McFarlane facility key pieces of W.A. Whitney equipment contribute to productivity, enhancing the success and operation excellence of their company.