Compass Precision Shop Acquires Its Third Laser to Greatly Expand Capacity
CHARLOTTE, NC – October 21, 2025 – Compass Precision operating companies almost always acquire the machinery necessary to fulfill customer requirements. That is the case again this fall.
Quality Products & Machine, a Compass operating company which manufactures customer, close-tolerance metal components for mission critical applications, officially announced Tuesday it has installed a Trumpf 3040 10 kilowatt fiber laser at its Charlotte facility.
The laser is a tremendous expansion for Quality from both a capacity and technological standpoint. The unit is the first fiber laser installed at Quality Products. The operating company’s Vice President and General Manager Dustin Jones said with the new laser, Quality Products can produce about three times the amount of more work in the same time frame.
“We are amazed at how fast this new laser cuts metal,” explained Grag Donaldson, Quality Products Fabrication Manager (shown at center in above picture, with Lead Laser Operator Jeff Herrera on left and Engineering Manager Alan Silva on right).
The fiber laser arrived at Quality during the second week of September. Over its first month at the operating company, the laser has constantly run during the first and second shift.
“Our previous two lasers were running at something like 120% capacity. This new fiber laser has nearly taken over all of that work, almost eliminating the need for our other two lasers, based on the same amount of work going through our facility” Dustin said. “Just because it cuts so quickly, it requires so much attention in terms of keeping the machine loaded.”
“Our work load at Quality Products is expanding quickly,” added Compass President & COO Bill Canning. “No way could we keep up without this new laser.”
Before adding the Trumpf laser, Quality Products employees had to pre-process sheets. That’s no longer needed. Quality’s prior two lasers also had a lot more material usage, leading to more material scrap.
The Trumpf laser is more efficient, wasting less material, which ultimately lowers lead time and increases throughput.
Dustin said by the end of 2025, Quality Products plans to make an automation add-on to the fiber laser. That will autoload and auto offload sheets for the machine, which will allow it to run lights-out unattended 24/7.
Once set up, employees will only have to unload parts from the autoloader. That will enable those employees to go back to running the other two lasers, which means Quality could have three lasers running at once.
Another major advantage to the Trumpf laser is its ease of use. Despite being technologically advanced, it isn’t any more difficult to run.
“We didn’t have to do any training,” Dustin said. “The guys picked it up in about two days. It’s such a user-friendly machine.”
The new laser is also significantly larger than the previous two lasers Quality possessed. Quality was first interested in acquiring the Trumpf laser for that purpose.
Quality had a key customer request to buy a larger, faster cutting laser. The customer needed sheets too big for the other lasers, which meant Quality had to take extra steps to fulfill that customer’s demands.
The new laser is large enough to meet the customer’s size requirements.
Quality purchased the fiber laser from another job shop in Canada. The management team visited the Canadian shop and tested the laser before acquiring the unit.
The laser arrived in the United States in July. Quality Products poured a new 10-inch concrete pad before its arrival in Charlotte.
Two days after it came to Quality, the laser was operational.
Quality Products 47,000 square foot facility on Westinghouse Boulevard in Charlotte houses a complete complement of CNC vertical and horizontal machining centers, lathes, laser cutters, press brakes, punch presses, welding stations, and inspection equipment. It has about 30 employees and supplies customers down the street, across town, and around the country.
“Compass loves buying new equipment to enhance its capacity and capabilities,” Compass VP of Sales Jim Miller previously said. “We have invested in significant new machinery at each of our operating companies within twelve months of acquisition. Compass buys really good shops, then invests heavily to make them even better.”
Compass Precision was founded in 2019 with the purchase of three precision CNC machining companies in the Charlotte area – Advanced Machining & Tooling, Quality Products & Machine and Tri-Tec Industries. Compass bought Gray Manufacturing Technologies in Denver, NC as its first add-on acquisition in August 2020.
Over the next two years, Compass acquired Douglas Machining Services in Winona, Minnesota, R&D Machine in Oldsmar, Florida, Strom Manufacturing in North Plains, Oregon and Bergeron Machine in Westford, Massachusetts.
In July, Compass added a second operating company in Massachusetts with Pocasset Machine on Cape Cod, bringing its number of operating companies to nine.
For more information about Quality Products & Machine and Compass Precision, please contact Gary Holcomb, Compass CEO at [email protected].