Waterjet Cutting of Cable Cleats for the Railroad Industry

At Precision Cutting Service, we understand the need for design flexibility and cost savings. Since 1994, we’ve been supplying precision fabricated parts and gaskets to various industries that include machinery & equipment, instruments & controls, and hydraulics & pneumatics. Our commitment to quality and use of state-of-the-art waterjet cutting equipment allows us to serve the needs of both large corporations and small businesses.

A customer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who supplies rubber parts to the railroad industry requested production of cable cleats. These parts have a dimension of 4″ x 1″ x 1 ½” and required a tolerance of ± .005″. The job was to be done on a recurring basis, producing 100 pieces per month and made from 60 durometer neoprene. Our team used our customized Flow A-Series Waterjet unit to cut 1 ½” sections from a 48″ x 108″ slab with 1 ½” thickness. To perform this task, we also had to create a customized jig to meet the customer’s specifications.

These were to be made with extremely tight tolerances. These parts are typically molded, but no cost of mold production was necessary because our waterjet technology could cut the part to exact customer specifications. This also allowed our team to work with the customer and maintain flexibility in the design process without incurring the costs of changing mold design. Since we can easily CNC program new design changes to the cable cleat, the customer was able to achieve greater design flexibility and significant long-term savings.

As a result, our team now performs large volume work for our customer. Using waterjet cutting, they could completely eliminate mold considerations and allow us to produce cable cleats in large volumes. Our work with the customer continues and we are now able to accommodate any last minute design changes or production increases in the future. Using our expertise and out of the box thinking, we established a long-term partnership with this customer by offering reliable service and cost-effective solutions.