Flexibility and fast turnaround
The new laser helps speed turnaround
A new LVD CNC laser cutting system is providing West-Midlands subcontractor De-Met with the flexibility to provide rapid turnaround on complex components.
The Sirius 3015 with twin 3m by 1.5m shuttle tables has a 4kW CO2 laser which gives De-Met the capacity to process thick or thin mild steel, stainless steel or aluminium on the same machine. On thin material, cutting in the plasma mode, the combined axis speed of 120m/min allows very high processing speeds.
The table size allows the use of large-format sheets, so De-Met can offer parts up to 3m long and set up large nests which allow efficient use of the machine time and unmanned overnight running.
De-Met’s managing director Gary Trim says: “We have always aimed at the low-volume, high-value market – the one-offs and the prototypes, the more specialist work. Nowadays we also do some higher volume work for our customers, but is a case of them asking us to do it rather than us going out to look for that kind of work.”
De-Met ’s customer base is quite wide-ranging, including kit car suppliers, parts for Ferrari and Honda race teams, point-of-sale display companies, makers of bus seats and even crematorium equipment.
“We are designers and engineers,” says Gary. “We can do the design work for the customer from scratch or work from their drawings. We have a very skilled workforce who can do more or less anything.”
As well as the larger table size, the new Sirius is offering all-round efficiency gains. At less than 30 seconds the shuttle changeover is faster, the ergonomic layout of the machine makes for easier operation and maintenance, and the plasma mode cutting offers high-speed processing on thinner material.
“We have never had anything like that before and we can use it on material up to 2mm,” says works director Lee Kempson. He adds that they did look at fibre lasers because of their speed on thin material, but soon realised he needed the flexibility offered by a CO2 source.
“ What this machine gives us is flexibility. We can cut thin material quickly in the plasma mode and then go on to cut thick material too. The large bed size means that we can use larger sheet and nest more parts on a sheet. So we can get more machine uptime and we can leave the machines running overnight with one nest in the machine and another sheet waiting on the shuttle table.”
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