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Portables Help Put Skyline Steel On Every Wisconsin Sky Line
Rod Everson, vice president, comments, “We’ve met a lot of nice people here and one of the things we stressed was that we were interested in hiring local help. In the beginning it was a little difficult because people didn’t know who we were or what we did. As time went on, word spread and people began stopping in. We’ve hired several local people without having to advertise.” Eighty Years of Experience Skyline Steel was founded in 2000 by Bill Haupt, Rod Everson and Jerry Raflik. Haupt serves as president, Everson as vice president and Raflik as vice president and secretary. The founders have nearly 80 years combined experience in structural steel fabricating. Their leadership directs a staff of highly trained office and shop employees providing complete detailing and fabricating services. Detailing Skyline Steel provides in-house detailing for customers. They prepare steel erection plans and shop drawings for fabrication using a specialized software package which runs off AutoCAD. Quality shop drawings are highly important. Fabricating Operations The fabricating operation is located in a facility with three 60' x 240' bays. Overhead cranes facilitate easy movement of structural components. One bay is used for miscellaneous steel fabricating such as stairs and railings, as well as heavy plate flame cutting. The other two bays are dedicated to heavy structural fabricating, material preparation and painting. Equipment includes a large 3/4" x 12' hydraulic shear, press brake, saws, ironworker, welders and W.A. Whitney Hydraulic Portable Presses. Skyline uses their own trucks to ship completed materials to the jobsite. Punching Advantages Punching holes plays a major roll in Skyline’s fabrication process and the Whitney Presses are at the center of their hole producing operation. “As we develop we want to do more and more punching,” says Everson. “Hole punching is faster than mag drilling and the accuracy is better. Once the punch locates and comes down on the material it doesn’t crawl like a drill. Plus, you can’t drill slotted holes!” Paul Huerth, a group leader and portable press operator, estimates that he completes a job in one third the time when he punches rather than drills. An added punching benefit according to Everson is lower tooling costs. “Punches and dies are less expensive and longer lasting than drill bits.” Whitney Systems Skyline Steel operates two Whitney punching systems. One includes a 730 Flange Press and 10 HP Power Unit and is used in their miscellaneous fabrication area for punching lighter materials. The second system is used in their heavy structural area for punching beams, clip angles and various flat stock components. This system consists of two web presses—a 70 ton and a 90 ton—operating from a common power unit. A jib crane and suspension spring position the presses to the hole locations in the beams. The suspension spring allows the press to be moved easily to pick up layout points. The presses move to the work rather than moving the work to the presses. This reduces material handling and fabricating costs. Committed to Growth and Service Skyline, still a young company, looks for methods of reducing costs and increasing efficiency and profits. Each member of the team is committed to growth and service to benefit their employees, customers and community. (Used with permission from Whitney Metal Fabrication News, April 2001) Home | All Applications | Portable Hydraulic Presses | Portable Press Applications |
