Why All State Keeps Investing in Amada Equipment

On December 18, 2023, a semi-truck pulled up in front of All State Manufacturing with snow falling around it, the kind of scene you'd put on a holiday card. Inside was a brand-new Amada ENSIS 3015 AJ – 3kW Fiber Laser, which our team started calling "the plant's Christmas present." It felt like a huge deal at the time, and looking back, it really was. Just the start of a partnership that's kept paying off.

How it started: a small laser and a big question

Back at the start of 2023, we picked up a small prototyping laser from a lesser-known fiber laser brand, just to test the waters. We weren't trying to run production on it. We just wanted to know if laser cutting would actually be worth it for our shop. The answer came fast: yes, absolutely. And it was obvious pretty quickly that we needed something built for real production volume and could handle our full range of part sizes.

Finding the right fit at FABTECH

That fall, All State's CEO, Madison, went to FABTECH with one goal in mind: find the best fiber laser for what we needed and what we could afford. As a young woman running a small company, she didn't always get taken seriously walking up to some of the bigger booths, even when she knew exactly what she wanted and had the budget ready to go.

Then she walked into the Amada booth. It was massive, polished, packed with equipment, the kind of setup that could easily feel intimidating. She figured it'd be more of the same. Instead, Michael Palmer walked right up and asked how he could help and actually listened when she told him what she needed. Not long after, she met Michael Kroger, who'd go on to become All State's Amada rep. That same week, Amada had her out to their Schaumburg Solution Center to chat with their techs and watch the machine run in person.

The machine mattered, obviously. But it wasn't the only thing that mattered. Amada's service network, and how professional they were from that very first conversation, is what really set them apart from everyone else Madison had talked to.

This wasn't a small purchase, either. It was the biggest equipment investment All State had made up to that point. Decisions like that come down to trust as much as spec sheets. You're trusting the company behind the machine just as much as the machine itself. Amada earned that trust early on, and they've kept earning it with their quality and service ever since.

A Christmas present, and a partnership that stuck

By the end of 2023, the new Amada ENSIS 3015 AJ was up and running on our floor. Once training wrapped up, Amada could've just moved on to the next account. We know we're one of their smaller contracts, and there'd be nothing unusual about that. But Michael and the rest of the Amada team stuck around. They've stayed responsive and hands-on with support ever since, and they treat us like a priority every time we need them.

What the laser actually changed on our floor

The ENSIS 3015 AJ didn't just speed things up. It cut out steps entirely. Work that used to run through multiple passes on our old punch presses now happens in just one. The cuts come out cleaner and more consistent, which means a better finish for our customers, a safer process for our operators, and a lot less guesswork for our assembly team putting together our fully assembled cabinets.

None of that works without the person running the machine, though. Josh has been behind the controls since day one. He jumped straight into training on our first little prototype laser, and when it was time to step up to a much more complex machine, he didn't blink. Every part we cut goes through Josh. Rain or shine, he's out there running that laser, and the consistency he brings is a big part of what keeps our whole line moving. He treats that machine like it's his own.

Growing the partnership: 2025 and 2026

Amada's product and service held up well enough that we've since added two more pieces of their equipment. In 2025, we brought in an Amada HRB8025-M05 servo hydraulic press brake, which has given us a noticeable jump in accuracy on formed parts. In 2026, we added an Amada COBOT as we start dipping our toes into robotics, mostly putting it on the high-volume, repetitive jobs nobody on our team is exactly excited to do by hand. Amada's been just as responsive walking us through this as they were back on day one with the laser, and patient as we learn new technology.

Landry, our Plant Manager, has taken the lead on the COBOT, and honestly, it's turned into one of his favorite parts of the job. He's put in real time learning to program it and figure out where it fits best on our floor, and that curiosity is a big reason it's already paying off.

Why we keep coming back

The equipment is great. The service is great. And as All State keeps growing, Amada is who we keep calling. What started as a curiosity about lasers turned into our go-to equipment partnership, not because we're some huge account, but because they've never once treated us like we weren't worth the effort. Amada isn't a one-time purchase for us. We keep investing in Amada equipment because they keep investing right back in us.