At Estes Design and Manufacturing, our philosophy is to profitably produce fabricated metal products with a level of service and quality preferred by the customer. This philosophy has four main areas of focus:
1. Creative, Innovative Thinking
2. People of High Character
3. State-of-the-Art Technology
4. Continuous Improvement
Over the next few months, we will be highlighting a component of this philosophy to emphasize the importance of it in all that we do at Estes.
Estes’ innovation: Estes Express Prototyping, 3D Laser Welding, Value Engineering, and Product Development
At Estes Design and Manufacturing, innovation is at the core of everything we do. In a fast-paced, ever-evolving industry, being at the forefront of change is crucial to ensure we deliver the highest-quality services and parts, pricing, and turnaround times for our customers.
Although the mindset to find a better way and think outside the box has pervaded every area of our business, we would like to highlight our innovation in:
• Sheet Metal Prototyping
• 3D Laser Welding
• Value Engineering
• Product Development
Estes Express Prototyping: Creating a unique service to meet speed-to-market demand
At Estes, we are always thinking ahead to where the market is going in order to anticipate the needs of the customer, and we then invest in the resources to meet those needs. One such need was the ability to get new products to market faster – a concern of any OEM developing new products. To help our customers improve their speed to market, we launched the Estes Express Prototyping shop with the intention to overcome capacity problems for our customers by creating a dedicated production cell to address their time-critical projects.
The equipment in the cell is dedicated to prototyping, which eliminates the need to find a hole in a production schedule. The personnel in the cell is dedicated, too. One project manager handles the project from quoting through programming through production, which means that each project will avoid common mishaps and slowed production caused by a project switching hands. Learn more about Estes Express Rapid Prototyping.
Laser welding: Innovating an application
Often, innovation is taking a process from one industry and applying it to another industry that could benefit from its capabilities. We did just that with laser welding, bringing it from the automotive industry to the custom sheet metal fabrication industry. The pioneering venture challenged our personnel, who rose to the occasion and innovatively improved the process beyond even the knowledge of the equipment manufacturer.
Laser welding has now become a differentiating service that offers cost savings and improved weld quality to customers. The welding process itself is faster and the resulting weld requires little to no post-weld cleanup. Read more about benefits of 3D laser welding.
Value engineering: Innovating better products
Estes also displays innovative thinking in the value engineering they perform for customers. With eight engineers on staff and centuries of collective fabricating experience, we know the tricks of the trade required to cost-effectively make customers’ products without compromising the integrity of the design. We apply that knowledge in our evaluation of the designs of customers’ existing products to simply see if there is a better way to manufacture them. To see an example of how we put our experience and expertise to use and saved a customer 37% on production, read this case study.
Estes’ Product Design and Development: Creating new products
Estes’ creativity is on display in their product development department. This dedicated team has assisted customers in developing products for a variety of industries, collaborating with them from design to rapid prototyping to manufacturing. Our trusted team of designers also develops products for our other business units, Estes Designs Mailboxes and Streetscapes and Estes AWS Weapon Lockers, which has afforded us the experience of taking a product all the way from inception to market.
With over 40 years of history in the metal fabrication industry, Estes has the resources and the experience to take your project to the next level. If you are looking for a partner that will use innovation to benefit you, contact us today.
