When Steve Ross started as a general laborer at Arin Inc. in the northern suburbs of Detroit, every morning he entered a noisy place where mechanical presses banged out parts. Now plant supervisor, Ross walks from the front office through a mostly quiet pressroom—complete with racks holding traditional steel rule dies—to an area with several laser machines cutting away almost constantly. When I visited he was monitoring the laser cutting of a precision job involving tailor welded blanks, two different material thicknesses joined by a laser weld. The customer sent these prewelded blanks to Arin, which had to cut them in a way that ensured the ridge at the weld seam—where the material jumps up to a thicker gauge—aligned perfectly with adjacent components.
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