Above: Freedman Seating makes components that are installed on buses and commuter trains.
April, 2026- For over 130 years, Freedman Seating has designed, engineered and manufactured highquality, rigorously tested seating and safety solutions for North American public transportation markets, including heavy-duty bus and railway. Freedman combines advanced manufacturing capabilities with deep industry expertise to deliver durable, compliant and passenger- focused products.
Now, as part of Lippert, Freedman continues to push the boundaries of metal fabrication and engineered seating solutions, supporting vehicle makers and transit agencies with reliable performance, safety and long-term value.
Alec Brennan, manufacturing engineering manager for Freedman by Lippert, located on the West Side of Chicago, says the company was, up through most of 2024, running an Altamar Tubelaser 2kW CO2 and a BLM Group 2.5kW CO2 tube laser with a pivoting head. The machines were 14 years and 10 years old, respectively, “and were causing a lot of downtime.”
The company had begun to process more stainless steel, “which put us at the limits of the machines’ laser power and caused extra post processing to clean up cuts. Our overhead costs were climbing with laser gas, spare parts and service. We were missing out on the current technology performance improvements seen with fiber lasers.”
A TRUMPF engineer came to the factory for a preliminary site visit and later oversaw the unloading and installation process from start to finish.
Furthermore, says Brennan, “we needed to improve our layout flow as well because these machines were in separate locations, and handling 24-foot-long bundles through our shop was difficult.” It became critical that Freedman Seating outsource some of that work “due to downtime and capacity issues.”
After conducting comprehensive due diligence of multiple machinery builders, the company chose to purchase two TRUMPF built TruLaser Tube 5000 fiber laser cutting machines.
“One is a 4kW and the other is a 6kW,” says Brennan. “We run a variety of material ranging from 0.5-inch-diameter square tube up to 4-inch square tube and all the square, rectangle and rounds in between. The TruLaser tube machine has a maximum capacity of 6-inch diameter round tubing.” Freedman processes tubing with wall thickness ranging from 0.06- to 0.25-inch but the TruLaser can process walls up to 0.375-inch-thick.
Material types are mostly carbon and stainless steel but the machine can also process aluminum, copper and brass when needed. “Our part lengths can range from 0.5 inch to 90 inches. We receive 24-foot bundles and the machines can handle up to 8,000-pound bundles.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker visited Freedman Seating, as part of promoting manufacturing in the state.
DESIGN FREEDOM
“Before tube lasers, we were processing everything on saws, drills and mills, which was very time and labor consuming,” Brennan recalls. “The moment we started using lasers, the benefits were immediate. Throughout the years, we became heavily reliant on them and needed to upgrade even further.”
He notes that Freedman Seating’s customer needs “vary across the spectrum of mix and volume, which make tube lasers with automation a perfect solution for us. Laser processing offers great design flexibility and turnaround time” than previous metal processing tools. “We can have a design and part cut in under an hour versus more traditional methods, which could take days.
“The added design freedom lets us design more efficient parts and features in one component, compared with creating multiple brackets/weldments,” according to Brennan.
The TruLaser machines came with bundle- loading automation, “so there is a lot less burden put on the operator to load/unload material.” In addition, the company can now run lights out.
“Our first tube laser had to have every bar and part loaded and unloaded by hand, which killed our productivity. Our new lasers have so much more capability and performance that we also put most of our saw-cut parts on them as well, and we still had excess capacity,” Brennan says.
That means that Freedman Seating could even take on some jobs for its parent company, Lippert, for which it produces RV axles “at an overall cost save,” Brennan says.
Overall, he continues, “the high-quality cutting parameters that came right out of the box produced perfect cuts and eliminated all of our grinding post processing. The robustness and machine accuracy also eliminated issues we had with through-hole concentricity, so our quality issues almost completely disappeared.”
TEAMWORK
Brennan and his team began its search for new tube lasers as far back as 2019, evaluating five separate machinery makers. The process is intense. “Usually, we will provide parts for time studies and cut quality. We also like to see the machines in action, preferably at a customer’s location, running production.” Brennan also seeks testimony from the client’s operators, programmers and maintenance personnel—“not only on operation but their experience dealing with OEM support.”
TruLaser Tube 5000 fiber laser cutting machine in action.
He notes that service “is a big sticking point for us because poor service could quickly sour a relationship and prevent us from doing more business. TRUMPF stood out with great testimonials, robust build quality, and their service app that can be downloaded on your phone for easy tracking and communication.”
He says TRUMPF also offered “the most advanced maintenance support options such as augmented reality [AR] smart glasses and remote machine monitoring.”
Brennan’s team worked with Kevin McWard, sales engineer for Icon Machine Tool, and Ryan Welcome, regional sales manager for TRUMPF Inc. “They made the evaluation process very smooth and easy. They arranged trips to their Connecticut factory for an open house, a visit to their Smart Factory in Hoffman Estates, and several customer trips.”
CONFIGURATION
Brennan notes that Freedman Seating has a unique setup in its factory, in which the two TRUMPF tube lasers face each other. This setup “required that the bundle loader be flipped from the standard configuration to work the best for our layout.
“The installation was handled very well,” he says. A TRUMPF engineer came to the factory for a preliminary site visit and later oversaw the unloading and installation process from start to finish.
“Training was well coordinated and easy to manage through TRUMPF’s online portal. We went to their headquarters for a week-long operator training session, and completed the programmer training remotely at our facility.” Brennan says the training was “very thorough and we were able to run our equipment with very little help after the fact.”
When the modernization was completed, Freedman hosted Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the president of the Illinois Manufacturing Association President for a tour.
Freedman is taking on new business as a result of installing new tube processing capacity.
NO REGRETS
Freedman Seating runs its TRUMPF tube lasers 16 hours per day five days a week.
“We had the tube lasers in production for 18 months now and have no regrets. Our throughput increased fourfold,” says Brennan. “Our cycle times range from 10 seconds to one minute, depending on part complexity and thickness; this is three times faster cycle times on average than with our old machines. We typically run larger batches of parts, 100 to 1,000 pieces, as well as rush jobs for a couple pieces that will get turned around same day.”
Brennan notes that the tube processing overhead costs were cut in half. In addition, “machine-related quality issues have disappeared and machine breakdowns have dramatically decreased. Our annual maintenance costs have decreased 80 percent.
“We are taking on new business because of these machines.” Because the TruLasers are automated and simple to use, training time for new operators “has reduced dramatically. Our operators love the equipment and are able to obtain increased productivity with less effort.”
Freedman Seating, 773/524-2440, http://freedmanseating.com/
TRUMPF Inc., 860/255-6000, http://trumpf.com/
