With Rafael Barrera, Marketing Manager, Asia Pacific

 

Please introduce Hypertherm

 For 40 years, Hypertherm has been a pioneer in advanced high temperature metal cutting technologies. Established in 1968, the company has grown over the years to establish a presence in all five continents across the globe. Our goal has always been to create technologies that allow users to cut confidently, and that reduce the cost of cutting metal.

Setting the standard for cut quality and weldability, we produce a wide range of automated and manually-operated laser and plasma cutting systems. Hypertherm systems are trusted for fast, precision metal cutting and reliability that results in increased productivity and profitability. Today, Hypertherm has more than 1,300 associates along with regional operations and partner representation worldwide.

Your company has constantly been name of the best place to work in America. Please tell us about your company’s focus on HR development.

We adopt a culture that has been driven by our founder and CEO, Dick Couch. We focus on not only our customers, but also on the development and well-being of our associates. Hypertherm believes in developing our employees by ensuring that each one is well-trained to perform with accountability to their responsibilities.

Hypertherm also engages our associates through an annual survey. Our leaders take the results of the survey and work on improving the respective areas to close the gaps identified. These measures are communicated regularly with the associates.

Each Hypertherm associate is an owner of the company through stock grants. This ownership fosters a culture that is best described by our motto ‘Think like a customer and work like an owner’.

Tell us about Hypertherm’s strengths

At Hypertherm, our experience gives us strong advantages in expertise and brand recognition. However, we still continue to invest significant time, resources and labour in research and development to produce patented technologies that enhance productivity and improve cut quality.

Hypertherm is committed to being a leader in thermal cutting solutions in order to provide end-users with the best. We regularly conduct voice-of-the customer surveys to find out what our users want, and then manufacture systems that can meet their needs in the most effective way.

What advantages does Hypertherm’s plasma cutting bring to manufacturing?

Plasma is very versatile in terms of both material thickness and the types of metals it can cut. The technology is suitable for any ferrous or non-ferrous conductive material, and metal that is in any condition Ð even rusted, painted, or grated. This means that Hypertherm equipment is suitable for numerous applications.

With plasma cutting, the main appeal is productivity and economy on a larger scale. In addition, there are other benefits such as application technologies and automation that add value and enhance profits and productivity benefits for the end-user.

 What are the recent initiatives undertaken by Hypertherm?

Our new tagline ‘Built for Business’ emphasises the creation of synergy between our CAM software, Torch Height Control, CNC and cutting power sources. We want to show our customers that from the start to the end, Hypertherm’s integrated cutting solutions make it easy to achieve consistent results by enabling end users to optimize cutting performance.

We have also recently updated our Hypertherm ProNest CAD/CAM Software, which facilitates fabricating or cutting to achieve better cut quality, productivity and profitability for businesses.