Atlas 46

Fenton, Missouri

"New and rapidly growing, Atlas 46 in Fenton, Missouri finds the benefits of integrating an automated cutting solution into their business. Starting with their smaller orders of denim jeans, Atlas plans to quickly adopt the machine as a solution to cut the wide array of materials needed for their military grade construction gear and apparel."

About Atlas 46

Atlas 46 is the brain child of John Carver and his son, Brian Carver. John, after serving the military and law enforcement industry with high quality products for over 30 years, sold his company and sat down in an empty building to create something new… Atlas 46 was born. Using their decades of experience in the tactical product industry, Atlas 46 provides construction vests, belts, bags and apparel for tough jobs that require rugged and lasting dependability. Did we also mention their products are made in the U.S.A and come with a lifetime guarantee?

Atlas 46 is in a transition stage where they are taking on large orders, but still fulfill the smaller orders they often see with their newer products. This is where Brian Carver saw a real benefit to having a machine that could cut 2-3x faster than traditional cutting by hand.

What was unique about this install?

Integrating automated cutting incrementally, rather than spend ~$100,000 on an expensive machine that is sold in fixed sizes and requires a specialist to service, Atlas 46 decided to purchase our Pro PTi Plotter/Cutter and a 6′ x 12′ table that can expand to their needs and won’t consume their entire profit margin. Atlas is slowly moving into the apparel business by providing shorts and jeans made of various materials including black and tan denim as well as Cordura. Denim is a particularly troublesome material to cut, due to it’s soft exterior and somewhat open weave. Material shift is always a concern. To combat this, Atlas has purchased two Carlson Design Turbo Vacuum Blowers and use a thin sheet of 1 MIL plastic over the material as they cut. The plastic sucks down tightly to the denim material keeping it secure while the machine cuts it’s patterns. How do you mark on the material? Using Carlson Design’s proprietary software, PEdit, splitting a pattern file into a cut and plot file separately is as simple as checking a box and clicking ‘Save’.

Cutting 1000D Cordura may seem difficult, but with the Carlson Design Drag Blade cutting head, it couldn’t be easier. The Cordura fabric is sealed on the underside with a urethane coating that effectively ‘closes’ the material and allows it to be vacuumed securely to the table.

Real Results

In the first picture below, you’ll see the pattern maker comparing the cuts to her patterns printed to scale on a large sheet of paper. The pieces cut with the Carlson Design PTi lined up perfectly. After patterns have been imported, edited and optimized in Carlson Design’s proprietary software, running a cut for a pair of jeans will take the operator a fraction of the time it used to take to cut a pair of jeans by hand.

Install & The solution

Atlas 46 had a really great space for their business. Having recently expanded into an entire other building just for their sewing production, they have plenty of space for the machine and material spreader cart as you can see in some of the above images. They even have enough room to extend the table another 12′ as production demand grows.