When Leslie Sussman founded Jet Equipment & Tools in 1958, the mission was simple: Manufacture hoists, move metal and solve problems for industrial users across the country. Six decades later, a very similar ethos drives the company: Listen to customers, understand their challenges and engineer solutions that add value.
Tony Topf, Jet’s director of product management, says Sussman moved the company into chain production, selling to overseas markets, which created a natural path toward broader product development.
“He was interfacing with customers and identifying problems,” Topf says. Without Sussman’s forward-facing relationship with customers and willingness to think outside of the box, the company might not be where it is today.
Jet continued satisfying a wider array of users, particularly in a growth period between 1989 and the early 2000s, which included the production of industrial saws.
“People were demanding more of their cutting devices,” Topf says. “We started to make a variety of different sizes and drive mechanisms. We recognized that we had an opportunity ahead of us – that everybody was trying to go for more power.”
Meeting niche demands
Jet’s latest additions are continuous, variable-speed vertical bandsaws designed in direct response to problems operators and shop owners repeatedly face. The JT1-1375, JT1-1376 and JT1-1377 offer a throat capacity of 12 in., 18 in. and 20 in., respectively.
While 10-ton, fully automated saws are fixed in place and built for massive throughput, many fabricators working with smaller materials need mobility. Historically, that has meant using single-phase saws. The trade-off is portability for limited cutting power, Topf says.
To produce the tools that the industry will actually benefit from, Jet product management teams spend significant time on shop floors observing how operators actually work. During those shop visits, one challenge comes up again and again: single-phase saws bogging down on larger materials.
“When you start getting into 3-in. billets,” Topf says, “the single-phase power just doesn’t do it. They need the power to cut through those billets, and they need the ability to move the machine around the shop.”
Upgrading to a beefier saw isn’t always simple, though. For starters, many facilities have power constraints. Larger saws draw high amperage at startup, pushing the building’s electrical system to its limits. Understanding that, Jet engineered the continuous variable speed series to bypass that issue entirely by running on 120 v.
“Brushless DC motor technology helps us attain bigger machine capabilities off of single-phase power,” he says, adding that the bandsaws feature a low-current start that prevents power surges. “This machine can be plugged in anywhere, and we’re seeing people add this machine to their equipment mix because of that versatility. As a bonus, it’s easy to set it aside and bring it out as they need it.”
Serviceability and illumination
Even on modern saws, operators need frequent blade changes, whether it’s due to blade failures or material changes. The Jet series includes wide-opening doors and removable panels that speed blade swaps and simplify maintenance on wearable parts, such as blade guides.
“They can just pop the door off and have easy access,” Topf says.
Unlike large, automated saws that can run lights out, smaller manual saws depend heavily on operator visibility. Jet’s engineers, however, saw firsthand that lighting is often an afterthought on legacy machines – sometimes blocking the cut path or producing so much heat that operators burn their hands while repositioning fixtures.
Point blank, cut accuracy is unattainable in the dark. Operators working each piece through a manual saw require good lighting, especially for those relying on a scribe line to map their cut. To improve operators’ visibility, the saws have built-in cool LED lights that illuminate the cutting table while being safe to move when operators need to point the light exactly where they need it.
To increase the accuracy of cuts even more, Jet included a laser that beams precisely down the path of the blade. The addition of the laser gives operators the confidence they need to follow through with a cut.
“The laser identifies where the blade is going to come in contact with the material so that as you’re moving your material through the saw and adjusting it, you can follow the laser line,” Topf says.
Cleaner cut, cleaner shops
There’s a lot to learn from observation. For example, Jet engineers also noticed that not everyone follows the same method for removing pesky chips from the cutting area. Some saws have built-in chip brushes that conveniently direct the metal shavings away from the blade and into a bin. Other fabricators working with machines that don’t offer such conveniences will grab the hose attached to the shop’s compressed air tank and blast away at the saw’s cutting area – strewing chips far and wide.
Topf says this led to Jet designing a small, built-in air compressor that discreetly blows chips away from the cutting area, which is important as chips can bind to saw blades, impacting cut quality and leading to premature blade failure. Furthermore, the automated chip blower reduces labor associated with cleanup and leads to a cleaner, safer shop.
Versatility across channels
The continuous variable speed series has obvious mobility and power advantages, but there are also some versatility goals at the core of the design. The saws can cut a wide range of materials thanks to variable speed control, and they can achieve between 90 ft. and 1,600 ft. per min. Operators can quickly adjust speed, swap blade widths and change tooth counts to match whatever material lands on the cut list.
Users moving from mild steel to softer materials like brass or bronze or perhaps those switching to stainless can adapt the machine in minutes. Topf says this is especially important in MRO environments, for prototyping and for job shops where materials change frequently and volumes stay low.
“We really thought through the versatility of our customers’ workloads,” he says. “Their materials can be pretty diverse, so this saw enables them to do that work. We’ve heard from several users that those are the exact reasons they’re choosing our saws over the other options on the market.”
Built-in blade welding
Another feature that comes directly from shop floor observation is Jet’s decision to integrate a blade welder, grinder and cutter. It increases the cost of the machine, but Topf says it adds significant value for operators that prefer to make their blades in-house. The system allows users to purchase coiled blade stock, cut it to length, weld it, clean the weld and build their blades, as needed.
“By including that in the saw, work can happen right there next to the machine,” he says.
Operators don’t need separate equipment, and they aren’t limited to pre-cut blade lengths. For many shops, that level of autonomy reduces downtime and further expands what the saw can handle.
