Based in Bayswater, Victoria, Catten Industries is a premier fabrication sheet metal job shop specialising in short and long-run orders.
The company’s success has been in keeping tight control of every aspect of their operation. By investing wisely in all their vital manufacturing processes, and moving them in-house. Catten offers customers short delivery times for a quality product at a competitive price.
Catten’s latest machine acquisition is a Bodor fibre laser sheet cutting system from Industrial Laser. Catten purchased the demonstration machine that was exhibited and demonstrated at the Austech 2017 trade show in Melbourne back in May.
“Until the Austech show we were under the misconception these machines were financially cost-prohibitive for our requirements” says Ian Cubitt, Managing Director of Catten. “At the show, we realised the price of this technology had reduced dramatically since last investigating this option – from around $500,000, to $150,000 installed.”
Richard Ladley, Technical Director of Industrial Laser, explains why the Bodor machine was the right choice for this particular client: “The price, speed and cut quality over Catten Industries’ range of materials was a perfect match. Offering the right laser system for the application and providing technical support has been our speciality over the past 19 years”.
What happened after the machine purchase was also a critical factor for Catten.
“The quality of after-sales support and depth of product knowledge from the service staff at Industrial Laser gave our Company the confidence to purchase a lesser-known brand with our eyes open” says Cubitt. “Knowing you are going to be supported by a respected Australian laser company with spares stock is paramount.
“During the installation, Industrial Laser trained our staff from scratch, and held our hands through the usual teething problems of a new machine installation. It has been quite a pleasant experience considering our expected steep learning curve into laser cutting technology”.
The machine has now been in production for over five months and processed many tons of steel. It has allowed Catten Industries to take further control of their operational costs sooner than originally anticipated and opened up new opportunities’.
For Industrial Laser, the sale to Catten was part of a very successful time at the Austech exhibition.
“As an exhibitor we have had an overwhelming response from Austech,” says Ladley. “Several or our machine orders were directly linked to our participation in the show, and the opportunity to explain the benefits of the latest laser technology to the visitors of Austech.”