Cedar Falls, Iowa. (December 17, 2018) Roger Blakesley is the owner and operator of Yard Engineered Products in Iowa and when the economy crashed he came up with the idea of producing an outdoor lighting product for homeowners that would reflect their own interests and aesthetics. The main goal was to take his daughters artwork, wrap the designs around a strong tube that is laser cut so that the image shines through in the evening.
Sourced Locally:
Yep Lights went with a metal processor close to home to take on it’s new product. It just so happened that Roger Blakesley has worked at O’Neal Manufacturing Services (OMS) for 28 years. OMS who is a supplier of fabricated components and welded assemblies runs an industrial- scale laser cutting operation in Cedar Falls. Describing the process Blakesley states, “OMS takes our artwork and puts it into a usable format and program so it can be produced on their tube laser.” Along with that, the top of the tube is cut to accept the solar light and the bottom of the tube is cut to create steaks. Yep Lights does production runs at OMS every couple of months.
The Process:
In producing a new design, “we bring in a hand drawn picture of the artwork we want.” Everything goes through the OMS sales department. The drawing goes to the engineering department, and an engineer looks over the artwork. Sean Alexander, Account Manager at OMS handles the Yep Lights account. He sums up the production process by saying, “on a new design, they will give us the artwork and we digitize that into CAD models, view it electronically and program it, then quote total cut time for the material.” Sean also manages any repeat orders, and conducts price reviews as they move through material pricing, and produce new quotes as designs change. He adds that, “Yep Lights purchase the raw material through us, too. Our supply chain team takes care of all those orders.”
For more about this article and how OMS helped Roger Blakesley achieve his dream, visit: https://www.modernmetals.com/item/14947-yep-lights-is-on-growth-trajectory-with-the-help-of-laser-cutting-by-o%C2%92neal-manufacturing-services.html
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