Beam control ensures uninterrupted laser cutting for multi-unit user

DUSTIN DIEHL

RGF Environmental was founded in 1985 in Palm Beach County, FL for the purpose of designing, engineering, and manufacturing total turnkey environmental systems to provide the world with the safest air, water, and food without the use of chemicals. RGF strives to make the world a safer, cleaner, and better place to live for us, our children, and the next generation.

RGF, a vertical manufacturer with its facility in Riviera Beach, FL, offers laser cutting, electrical and mechanical assembly, injection molding, plastic extrusion, welding, machining, and general metal fabrication. Stepping into this factory, everyone is impressed with the bright-white interior lighting, polished floors, and over 100 tropical plants, flowers, trees, and artwork. The company believes a happy craftsman is a safety, quality, and productive-minded craftsman.

Doing all the work in-house gives the company the ability to control quality, reduce cost, and reduce lead time. It strongly believes the future is in new and innovative technology. Accordingly, a high emphasis is placed on R&D, engineering, labs, and quality control. A research and development team collectively demonstrate experience with multiple disciplines around air, water, and food purification system design and development. The company maintains fully equipped electrical, mechanical, food, and wet labs onsite; these laboratories are at the core of its abilities to maintain a forward momentum in innovation.

RGF manufactures over 500 environmental products and has a 35+ year history of providing the world with the safest air, water, and food without the use of chemicals. It is an ISO 9001:2015-certified research and innovation company, holding numerous patents for wastewater treatment systems, air purifying devices, and food sanitation systems.

Situated in the heart of the Port of Palm Beach Enterprise Zone, RGF headquarters span 9 acres, with 130,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing, warehouse, and office facilities. The company has recently upgraded its facilities, creating an increased vertical approach to manufacturing and further allowing it to provide the highest quality and best engineered products on the market.

Due to the recent threat of COVID-19, RGF experienced an overwhelming amount of purchase orders in its residential, commercial, and medical divisions. The company continued operating during this uncertain period as an essential business under the Department of Homeland Security definition for “Critical Manufacturer,” defined as “Workers necessary for the manufacturing of materials and products needed for the medical supply chains, critical government operations, food chains, etc.”

Businesses across America are installing RGF’s REME HALO and HALO-LED whole building in-duct air purification systems to remove impurities such as viruses and bacteria from the air. The company is proud to manufacture and supply this product to help businesses across the country provide a safer environment for not only their employees, but their customers as well.  Its air purification products are installed in gyms, schools, daycares, restaurants, office buildings, public transit networks, government and military facilities, assisted living facilities, hospitals, dentist offices, and more nationwide.

RGF’s BioControls division supplies huge numbers of critical airborne infection control products to major hospitals throughout the U.S. The company’s Microcon products are in place and being purchased for premier hospitals like MedStar Georgetown, NYU Langone, Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai, Johns Hopkins, and county hospitals in every state.

RGF has won multiple awards, including 11 Dealer Design awards from ACHR News, Gold Global Status from Trane/Ingersoll Rand, the Trane Supplier Award for Excellence in Growth and Innovation, and the export award from Governor Rick Scott, to name a few.

Fiber laser successes

For several years, RGF has used an AMADA LCG 3015 AJ fiber laser to cut sheet metal parts in-house with high quality and accuracy. The company chose fiber laser cutting over other technologies (such as turret punch press) due to the laser’s unlimited shape contouring, high speed, high accuracy, and quality cut.

Due to high demand for its products, RGF has been running the AMADA laser for three shifts a day, seven days a week. The company found that the companies with other laser technologies, such as CO₂ lasers or standard fiber lasers, could not match the quality cut of the AMADA VENTIS laser.

When comparing several laser manufacturers, RGF chose the AMADA VENTIS 3015 AJ because it has the highest-quality cuts as well as the fastest cutting times for its materials. Although AMADA offers other lasers in higher power versions, during test cuts for the same parts, RGF found the higher power did not have any significant advantage over the VENTIS 3015 AJ in the materials it uses the most, such as 1/16 in. pre-anodized aluminum and stainless steels of 1/8 in. thickness or less.

The VENTIS series fiber laser, with the latest generation of beam technology, provides the highest-quality cuts in both thin and thick materials. This is especially important for the anodized aluminum and stainless-steel products for which RGF is known. With a beam parameter product (BPP) at <0.9 mm-mrad, this machine can oscillate in the kerf based on flexible beam patterns.  This provides optimized cuts and speed based on material type and thickness; in addition to highest-quality parts plus time savings, required power is reduced for greater resource sustainability.

According to Walter Ellis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of RGF Environmental, “AMADA’s after-sales service along with the proven reliability of our first LCG laser, that provided nearly uninterrupted operation running 24/7 shifts for over four years, combined with having this next generation of machines running up to 50% faster on some parts, made continuing with AMADA an easy decision.”