Quick Fabrication – Dallastown, PA
First RhinoFab Customer Revisited
Eight years ago, Quick Fabrication purchased their first RhinoFab. Since then, they upgraded and
added more automation to become a modern fabrication company.
Background and Overview
My name is Derrick Quick, President of Quick Fabrication. I've been in the glazing business for
just over 23 years. At Quick Fabrication we fabricate storefront, curtainwall and various other
projects for the glazing industry across the United States. And we're currently shipping from
coast to coast. We started out with just over 12,000 square foot facility and now we're pushing
30,000 square foot.
The Future of Fabrication
With losing a lot of the skilled trade people, we realized that we needed to find a solution and
automated machinery was going to be the way to the future. Eight years ago, we started with the
RhinoFab 600, had it for about five years and upgraded to a Rhino 1150. A year later we added a
gasket machine to the Rhino. And then recently purchased a door panel machine as well.
RhinoFab 1150 Miter Cut Applications
The (RhinoFab) 1150 has allowed us to really get into some different things outside of standard
curtainwall and storefront. It's allowed us to do our miter cuts and do our routs in this handrail
system.
There's a customer that we picked up with, one of our better customers, that pretty much all the
projects that we do for them do require miter cuts. So that has allowed us to basically fabricate
all their jobs across the United States.
Do you think you would have won that business without the RhinoFab 1150?
I don't think so because it wouldn't be cost effective to pull it off the saw and miter everything
by hand.
How long have you had the gasket machine?
We've had the gasket machine for about two years now. Saves us a lot of time rubbering the pressure
plate and then also being able to rubber the curtain wall tubes – the shoulders and the nose.
Get Your Doors Faster with Rhino DoorFab
Tell me a little bit about the DoorFab machine?
We recently purchased the door panel machine, and that allows us to become a fabricator for
Tubelite.
How has the experience been with the the door fab machine so far?
It's been great. One of the longest lead times from manufacturers are doors and hardware prep. So
that allows us to take that in-house and reduce lead times. It basically cuts our lead times and
half that we can have blank door sitting here or be able to to fabricate our doors. Maintenance has
been easy. There’s just very minor adjustments that we need to make here and there – just the
coolants and just the roller pads here and there that would get worn out, but nothing major and it's
usually in stock that we can have the next day.
Eliminate Fabrication Errors with Glazier Studio
My name is Travis King. I am the fabrication manager at Quick Fabrication. Prior to using Glazer
Studio and the Rhino, we had issues with finding experienced fabricators. We've been able to
eliminate a lot of human error, switching over from manual fabbing to using the Rhino. We can
really offer our customers a more accurate product.
This is an example of our Glazer Studio sheets that we send out
to the shop. It’s all labeled by number. Each piece is labeled by number. Each piece has a
number that goes with that particular piece. So when you have an inexperienced guy you can give
this sheet to them and they can pull the material that is shown in
that bay.
Error Proofing Fabrication Assembly
We built these racks. We see a lot of fab shops put stuff on skids. Everything is buried. We built
these racks. We put setting blocks on them so it doesn't scratch or mar any of our material, but
this spreads everything out. You can see the labels on them. It's just easier for guys to grab and
build.
RhinoFab Makes Drawing and Fabricating Easier
WMy name is Seth Reichard. I'm a project manager for Quick Fabrication. I pretty much do anything
from quoting new projects to managing the jobs that we have going on. And then also programing the
Rhino that we have.
Prior to having Glazier Studio, we would have to generate hand cut lists and hand takeoffs off
of shop drawings, and that was very time consuming.
To get everything out to the Rhino, we would draw in the elevations off of our shop drawings or
whatever we would have there. And then make sure all the fabs are correct in the programing and
then eventually send it out. It was just a lot longer process than it is now with the way we
have the Rhino. And it does everything, all the fab work for us.