New technology:
Brisco began to investigate laser cutting around late 1996. We attended IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show) in September, 1996 with the intention of learning more about water jet cutting. During the show, we began to see that lasers were better suited to our needs as a job shop. The water jet could certainly perform nicely, but the speed of the laser was unmatched. After returning from the show we decided to look for quotes on a new system. We purchased our 1st system (a 2800 watt 3015 with a rotary axis) in the fall of 1997 from Bystonic.
A concept is born:
After making many learning mistakes and discovering many new ways to design parts with laser technology in mind, we began to pursue laser-work.
Breaking into the Motor Sports Industry:
During December 1997, while participating in the annual Morgan Shepherd Christmas in Virginiať trip, I was talking with a good friend, Dennis Setzer, who I had raced with at Tri-County, Hickory, Martinsville, and even the now defunct North Wilkesboro Speedway. Dennis was, at that time, driving a car in the NASCAR™ Winston Cup Series. We were on the subject of lasers and Dennis mentioned that if I could figure out how to make truck arms (the rear suspension-of-choice in the top divisions of NASCAR™) we would probably keep pretty busy.
So off to work I went:
Don Stikeleather; The Fabrication and Laser Manager for Brisco and I made a few attempts at what we thought was the best method for manufacturing.
After several tries we had a part ready to be critiqued. While racing at Greenville-Pickens Speedway we had become friends with local racing legend Jack Ingram (named one of NASCAR™s top 50 drivers of all time.) I proudly took our first set of truck arms to his shop on Brevard Road in Asheville and Jack was nice enough to point out a couple of areas for improvement, but overall he thought we had come up with a usable part.
Jack introduced us to Mike and Jackie Laughlin, who began buying our laser-cut truck arm halves. They welded them to their own specifications and sold them like hot-cakes to nearly every Winston Cup team.
As time went on, as it is the racing parts business, every team using fabricated truck arms (opposed to the now obsolete GM factory truck arm) was using either our truck arms or a copied version of our laser-cut truck arm. We are very proud to be copied by every laser shop in the nation who makes truck arm blanks. We are the originators not duplicators.
History made:
As we began to make contacts in the motor sports world, we began to get orders for parts and pieces to have laser-cut (usually the drawings were actually paper patterns cut out of poster board.) Technology has certainly advanced since our first days of laser cutting, but the principle is still the same we save the team's valuable time by giving them the custom parts they need.
Laser cutting parts for the motor sports industry is just a small part of what we do here at Brisco, it didn't take long to adapt many other manufactured parts to laser cutting, what used to be weeks of turn around now can be done within days and even overnight.
Special Thanks: None of the Brisco history would be valid if it had not been for the help and support of some of the best employees and help from our community.
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