Delivery dates, quality standards and costs under control

Ivey uses Müller-Opladen technology to automate its production. The functionality of the MO software and the precision of the system set new standards.

Ivey Mechanical Company, LLC was founded in 1947 by Mr. Kermit Ivey in Kosciusko, Mississippi as a small repair shop. Today, after 70 years of service, the company operates under the leadership of Larry Terrell and Denny Terrell and currently employs over 1,000 people with annual revenues around $200 million.

Good support is crucial

"We had been using an older pipe cutting machine," said Todd Burrell, Fabrication Manager. "We had consistent mechanical and computer problems with this older machine and we could never get any real support. We wanted to cut all our threadolet holes and fabricated tees from downloaded CAD drawings. As the number and complexity of our projects continued to increase, we needed a machine that could provide more capabilities and support at our fingertips. Support is not something we need all the time, but when we do need support it is critical to get it quickly.

We visited a couple large fabrication shops to see what they were using. There were several things we observed that helped us know what we wanted to avoid and to isolate what we really needed. A few members of our team attended FabTech in Atlanta, went by the Watts-Mueller booth to see one of their machines and were sold. They returned convinced that a Watts-Mueller 6-axis machine was what we needed."

Extensive MO software for automated manufacturing processes

Ivey Mechanical selected the Watts-Mueller W-244 pipe cutting machine with a 20ft conveyor bed on the front and the back of the machine. "The Watts-Mueller machine has improved our efficiency and productivity within the Ivey Mechanical pipe shop," said Burrell. "This machine enables us to download pipe cuts from our CAD system straight to the machine with no manual entry. The precision of the 6 axis cutting head allows us to use automation for cutting olets instead of cutting them manually."

"The 3D pipe cutting software gives us efficiency cutting to length. The cuts are always precise and the bevels are excellent, so there is very little weld prepping. The ability to nest cuts also makes our pipe fabrications more efficient. We set up conveyors on our machine so there is very little manual labor involved getting pipe onto and off the machine. Delivery dates, quality standards and costs are thus well under control“, summarizes production manager Todd Burrell.