Federal Equipment

Custom Lighting Manufacturer Sees New Light

When Vision Quest, a local lighting manufacturer, began to struggle with their production process they turned to Federal Equipment. Ron Shuster, the President of Federal Equipment and Mazak Optonics Corp. worked in conjunction with The Profit and Mazak in order to pair Vision Quest with the best machinery to streamline production and increase profitability.

The Profit and Mazak Optonics bring new life to Vision Quest Lighting

Vision Quest Lighting, a custom lighting manufacturer located in Ronkonkoma, New York, has created lighting for names like Hollister, Chanel, and Universal Studios.

Vision Quest Lighting started to have a fall in sales which lead owner, Larry Lieberman, to dip into his daughter’s college savings to keep the business running. Luckily, Lieberman was able to connect with Marcus Lemonis from CNBC’s The Profit. Lemonis acquired 50 percent of Vision Quest Lighting and helped Lieberman get on the right track with his company.

One of the first steps Lieberman needed to take was updating their current manufacturing equipment. They were using a 25-year-old water jet along with a turret punch. Ron Shuster, Federal Equipment's President and a Mazak Optonics distributor, helped to get Lieberman on the right path by looking at laser-cutting machines.

The Vision Quest Lighting team never ran a laser before, so they needed something that was quick and easier to learn but still within their budget. The OPTIPLEX NEXUS 3015 was just the solution they needed. The OPTIPLEX NEXUS 3015 is an entry-level price point machine that has Intelligent Functions that allow the operator to take a step back and allow the machine to do the setup and monitoring.

All of Mazak Optonics Corp.’s flat laser machines have the Intelligent Functions standard on the machines. The Intelligent Functions have two parts, the Intelligent Setup Functions and the Intelligent Monitoring Functions. The OPTIPLEX NEXUS 3015 Intelligent Setup Functions include automated nozzle changing, automated nozzle cleaning, automated focus positioning, automated profiler calibration, and focus detection. The OPTIPLEX NEXUS 3015 also has the Intelligent Monitoring Functions which are pierced detection, plasma detection, burn detection and lens monitoring. The Intelligent Functions allow the machine to do more on its own and rely less on the operator.

Vision Quest Lighting has an increase in throughput due to introducing the OPTIPLEX NEXUS 3015. The laser cuts higher quality parts which allowed them to reduce their secondary process. They now have more room for creativity because of the higher quality and elimination of post-processing parts. The Nexus helped streamline operations at Vision Quest. Today, Vision Quest is better organized and better equipped for the quick turnover rates that its customers demand.

**For the official article written by Abbe Miller, Editor-In-Chief of Shop Floor Lasers Magazine, visit pages 17-23 of the magazine. http://magazine.shopfloorlasers.com/2016/mar/d/