Technical Services & Capabilities Machining Welding MIG TIG Robotic TIG Friction Stir Welding Solution Heat Treat & Artificial Aging Assemblies & Fabrication Bike Frame Specialists Technical Services Product Design & Engineering Tool and Die Design Architectural Drafting & Rendering Project Management 53
Machining Right from the start, when a profile is being designed, it is possible to create a shape that will minimize necessary post-extrusion processing. However, some type of further processing is often necessary. It is relatively inexpensive to carry out further processing of aluminum profiles. The excellent formability of the material generally creates competitive tooling costs. Considerably higher cutting speeds can be achieved in cutting aluminum than cutting steel. Further machining can be done both before and after anodizing. The requirements on the product determine what process is applied. Capabilities Sapa has extensive cutting options. We can provide close tolerance cutting, whether the need is for straight cuts or miter cuts. Additional de-burr can be handle by hand, wheel or in a tumbler. Tumbling is used mainly for burring and creates different surfaces depending on time and tumbling material. At Sapa, we have expansive punching capabilities, with our own on-site punch die design and fabrication. Our in-house equipment can handle short parts and long, up to 25ft in length. Range of in-house punch presses with maximum 122 tons capacity. 55
We know the properties of the material down to the atomic level. We also have the latest machines, control systems and tools. At the same time, we are constantly working to develop and improve our processing methods. We punch, drill, cut, tape, glue, bend, shear, weld, turn and mill profiles. Sapa can be an integrated part of the customer production chain. Just-in-time is a part of our everyday work. Since we are able to assume total responsibility for the product from extrusion to machining to finishing, we can provide a highly efficient value stream. Sapa has extensive forming, squishing and bending capabilities. We handle a wide range of requirements, from simple to advanced bending, from small to large series. Our common methods include compression, rolling and draw bending. We can design and fabricate our own tooling. With Sapa Technology, bending simulations are also possible. We have standard machines and custom equipment, plus 3-axis CNC bending and milling machines. Our logistical solutions add value for our customers; an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) ordering process, just-in-time delivery, a dedicated production cell or special packaging requirements. Sapa also has many in-house technical services, which include engineering, product design, drafting, architectural rendering and project management. Sapa s success lies within our key customer service, short lead times, and increased flexibility! Contact us for a solution to your machining needs! 56
Welding Sapa s welding capabilities include MIG, TIG and TIG robotic welding, and Friction Stir Welding. Capabilities Aluminum is eminently suitable for welding. Any heat effect to the local area around the weld can be easily compensated for with increased wall thickness or through Sapa s in-house solution heat treatment. Welding has become a popular joining method, because refinements in welding equipment, materials and Sapa s solution heattreatment capabilities have all improved. Post welding, aluminum can be heat-treated back to -T6 temper. Appropriately designed profiles greatly simplify welding and improve strength. Sapa s welding team is expert at joint design for welding. Edge preparation, material compensation, in-built fastening, integral root backing and minimizing the number of required welds are all examples of our proactive extrusion design. MIG welding - used for material thickness from 1 mm upwards; thickness less than 1 mm can be welded using a pulsed MIG arc. Filler metal is added in the form of a wire fed through the welding torch. MIG welding can be performed in any position and for all joint types. Current density higher than TIG welding allows higher welding speeds for a positive effect on distortion and shrinkage. TIG welding - suitable for material thickness under 1 mm; at an upper limit of about 10 mm, edge preparation is necessary. Due to customer requirements, 90% of Sapa s in-house welding is TIG. Filler metal is normally used and introduced from the side. TIG welding can be performed in any position and gives the most fault-free welds and excellent cosmetic appearance. TIG welding can be recommended where the gap width varies. The welding speed is relatively high, even higher in mechanical TIG welding. Sapa Portland has more than 20 manual TIG welding stations. Robotic TIG welding - popular for those projects that require a precise, aesthetically perfect weld. This method noticeably increases productivity. The position of the work piece is easy to control, facilitating welding from the optimum position to provide excellent results. Sapa Profiles, Inc. is one of few companies with capabilities of robotic TIG welding. Friction Stir Welding - a simple process that gives completely void-free, tight joints with high strength. Heat has minimal influence with only small heat stress in the material and flat surfaces. The process involves few, easily controlled variables which allows tight tolerance values and good mechanical properties. Ensures good working environment. Prototypes Available! 57
Solution Heat Treat & Artificial Aging Capabilities Sapa is aircraft certified in solution heat treating and is one of the only manufacturers on the west coast with in-house solution heat treat capabilities. Solution heat treat greatly improves the mechanical properties of welded aluminum and helps to relieve stress from the welds. Sapa also has in-house artificial age heat treat for welded products after solution heat treatment. The heat effected zones from all types of welding, aluminum can be post weld solution heat treated to bring material properties back to T6 temper or full strength. Solution heat treatment is normally carried out during extrusion by carefully controlling the temperature of the emerging profile. Precipitation hardening, which takes eight hours, occurs afterwards in special furnaces. The final strength is thus determined by solution heat treatment and aging. Feel free to contact Sapa for advice and guidance on how to create the perfect aluminum weldment. Sapa looks forward to collaborating with you and developing sustainable solutions for your projects. 58
Assemblies & Fabrication Capabilities Assemblies Sapa s assemblies division is equipped with both press and compression bending, rolling machines, tapering for tubing and mechanical fastening. Sapa s high end bike frames account for a large percentage of assembled products, but Sapa also has experience with many diverse product areas; for example transportation, building and construction, customer durables, medical & renewable energy. Joining Capabilities include: New Product Development: Rivet Joint Screws Analysis help Bolting Snapping Concepts Welding Adhesive Bonding Participate in design Sapa uses all available fabricated components capabilities to create new product solutions! Fabrication Sapa Profiles, Inc. possesses the total capability to support commercial construction projects on any scale of fabrication, assembly services and panel work. Sapa s commercial fabrication is efficiently set up to take a raw aluminum extrusion and miter, cut to length, drill, mill, assemble and bend to the required customer specifications. Sapa s in-house commercial fabrication capabilities and technical services ensure each project is completed with the upmost quality. Sapa has been successful with commercial fabrication customers because with Sapa, customers find an expert in the value stream. This stream includes having extrusion, paint, anodizing, fabrication, assemblies and technical services from one source. Our project managers are constantly coordinating with the extrusion and coating facility to ensure each project is streamlined. Having these capabilities from one source also means a shorter lead time for our customer. Our project managers work together with our customers on scheduling the material delivery to correspond to the installation schedule. Commercial fabrication capabilities at a glance! Full fabrication service Panel, break shape fabrication (aluminum, aluminum composite material, stainless steel) Sawing, punching, drilling, milling, welding, bending Special packaging (piece marked, by elevation, etc.) Assembly 59
Bike Frame Specialist Capabilities Sapa Profiles, Inc. has a unique competence in serving the bicycle industry with premium quality bikeframes. Sapa s expertise in aluminum technology, use of special alloys, extensive design experience and high quality work has allowed Sapa to become a significant sub-supplier to the bicycle industry around the world and the largest contract frame manufacturer in the USA. Sapa serves many of the well-known, high-end brands in the market and are well known for our craftsmanship and the esthetic quality of our welding gets a lot of attention. Sapa does not chase high volume production, instead Sapa focuses on premium quality brands, where flexibility, intellectual property rights, fast development and great customer service are appreciated. Many companies in the industry value a USA made product not only for the logistical advantages. Sapa s frame development and production is built around high quality, fast, flexible and efficient manufacturing processes, not around low labor costs. Sapa Profiles, Inc. is a professional American supplier and does not share proprietary designs. Trust and reliability are important elements when building a business relationship. Many western companies value the ability to communicate with an English speaking company. Sapa understands the entrepreneurial bicycle company focused on growth and increased brand attention, needs a certain type of support. At Sapa, our manufacturing expertise, respect of intellectual property, and supply reliability has played a role to help many customers achieve their dreams. Sapa Profiles, Inc. is a perfect partner. Prototypes Available! 60
Product Design & Engineering Technical Services Sapa has an unprecedented commitment to the development and manufacturing of our customers products. Sapa s expertise entails a vast knowledge of aluminum profiles and fabrication. Our customers are experts within their product area. With Sapa s innovation, creativity and access to the most advanced technology we help our customers create distinct product solutions. Sapa s Manufacturing Engineers are concerned with the development, improvement and implementation of lean production processes. The Manufacturing Engineering team aids in the design, production process and quality assurance. Product design includes working closely with customers to provide design solutions, reviewing customer designs for manufacturability and the elimination of waste. Sapa s engineers help define the process of how to fabricate parts; including CNC programing, establishing equipment specifications, and design and manufacture all production tooling. This includes weld fixtures, punch tooling and CNC clamps. Sapa s Manufacturing Engineers are also responsible for quality assurance systems, ISO guidelines and facilitating quality and process improvement projects with Production Teams. Cost effective solutions are an important part of product design. Sapa can help to make each design as production-friendly as possible. To help reduce the cost of manufacturing, Sapa recommends to designers that each profile: Have a uniform wall thickness Have simple, soft lines and radius corners Be symmetrical Have a small circumscribing circle Not have deep, narrow channels Allow Sapa to work together with you to create your products and you will benefit from our capabilities to provide: Feasibility Studies Design and Construction Concepts Prototypes Value Engineering Engineering Analysis 61
Tool and Die Design Technical Services Sapa understands that each customer has a need to produce the most unique product for their specific market. Sapa is equipped with a talented in-house die design team to help customers overcome the most complex challenges. From the initial die design phase, die manufacturing and final assembly, each stage of the die design process is controlled internally. Sapa specializes in both solid and hollow die designs. Furthermore, Sapa staff develops tooling solutions to ensure the maximum tooling life and quality. Sapa s innovative team is able to meet your simple or complex die design needs. 62
Architectural Drafting & Rendering Technical Services Design drafting is the art of creating accurate representations of objects for technical, architectural and engineering needs. Sapa s design drafting department creates accurate representations of a diverse product line. The design drafting department is there to help create a unique product or match an already developed design. The benefits of having an in-house design drafting department is to have a high level of expertise easily available to the shop fabricators. Sapa s drafters are housed in the same facility as fabricators to ensure that communications between departments is maximized. An example of this communication is when Sapa s fabricators, working on a complex part, have the ability to step into the engineering office and view three dimensional models of parts to help them visualize their project. Likewise, drafters can step out into the shop to view any fabrication challenges that may arise. Sapa supplies the drafting team with the most advanced computer aided design (CAD) software. This system gives Sapa the capabilities of supplying customers with 2D drawings, 3D models and architectural renderings. Utilizing the latest versions of CAD software ensures compatibility with customers. Designing with 3D parametric solid modeling ensures accurate and detailed drawings and visualization tools. Sapa s design experts are thorough in their creation of shop drawings and eliminate virtually all possible challenges before they are discovered in the field. Throughout the project installation phase, the designers are available to communicate with the customer or visit job sites to solve potential challenges that may arise. Feel free to make an appointment with the team to learn more about how they can help any project come to life! 63
Project Management Technical Services Sapa views Project Management as the art of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about a successful completion of each projects objectives. Sapa s project managers act as a customer representative and make sure that the key issues of cost, time, quality and above all, customer satisfaction, can be realized. Each project manager is knowledgeable of Sapa s in-house capabilities, is focused to execute each project within the required constraints and can envision the projects needs from start to finish. Sapa s Project Managers: Understand the rigors of the construction trade and its associated tight timelines and constantly shifting built environment. Have the vocabulary and experience to work directly with owners, architects and engineers in addition to the customer. This vastly increases the effectiveness for transferring ideas into build forms. Provide a main contact for all of Sapa s resources, such as die design, extrusion, anodizing, finishes, etc. Also, Sapa can coordinate the inclusion of outside vendor s material into Sapa s finished product. This provides even more of a one stop shopping experience for customers. From design, fabrication, finishing/coating, to packing, and finally delivery per customer s request. Can coordinate delivery of material by discrete parts lists, by floor, to multiple project sites, or as multiple large shipments. This flexibility creates costs savings for the customers on projects that have tight space requirements and or scheduling of cranes. Sapa understands that the world is dynamic, therefore our Project Management staff is prepared to handle any situation. If changes need to be made or troubleshooting issues need to be resolved, we are fully capable of completely and successfully managing any project. 64