August 2007 Edition

LASER CUTTING

When Good Looking Products are Needed, Laser Cutters Deliver

In the retail display environment, "eye candy" produces sales. Making the displays look good is the job of the manufacturer.

The competitive retail environment relies on visual marketing. JP Metal America, Montreal, uses laser technology for cutting sheet and metal tubes for display fixtures. Some of the company’s customers include Harley Davidson, Tommy Hilfiger, and Federated Department Stores.

JP Metal uses three 2D, flat sheet lasers and three 3D lasers for processing tube products. The company’s other equipment includes four CNC press brakes, an automated sheet-bending system, two CNC shears, four robotic welding machines, four automated polishing machines, and a CNC turret punch press. The equipment is housed in a 450,000 ft² manufacturing facility. The company also has a 550,000 ft² warehouse and assembly operation.

As buyers become younger, more sophisticated, and perhaps more jaded, it is often the display of merchandise that makes a sale compared to the merchandise itself. With this in mind, store fixtures can promote sales. To entice buyers into purchasing, equipment, such as laser cutters, are needed to produce precise, appealing, quality fixtures.

JP Metal acquired such a system in late 2006, a Syncrono 2D laser system designed and built by the Prima Laser group of Prima North America, Chicopee, MA.

High-Volume Cutting

The Syncrono led to higher manufacturing volume than the conventional fabricating equipment JP Metal had. The investment brought about savings in production time and gave the company an edge on their competition.

“Before we deployed laser technology, punch presses were used for stamping and punching operations,” Martino Paventi, JP Metal vice president of operations, said.

“Tool and die makers made molds or dies —a very costly, manual and time-intensive process that also led to quality problems, such as precision loss of alignment in manufacture.

“The presses had limited capacities. They didn’t meet our demands. The laser equipment saves time and labor and cuts material waste. Most importantly, we realized substantially increased productivity.”

Even though lasers are more expensive than conventional punching equipment, the savings were apparent, compared to operating time versus manual labor. With the installation of the Syncrono, savings on certain parts increased up to 70 percent and provided cuts that were clean and more accurate.

JP Metals chose the Syncrono for its speed, clean cuts, and accuracy.

“The Syncrono is so fast you can’t even see it cut,” Paventi said.

He said he found that on other laser cutters, as speed increased, there was more dross formation, cuts were less square, and tended to burr.

Clean Cuts

“Our high-speed cuts on intricate fixtures are cleaner,” Paventi said. “Since we’re in a retail environment, we encounter parts that are slotted, punched, and have small and detailed profiles.”

Prior to laser cutting, the company made parts on turret presses and other equipment, which jammed parts when piercing delicate areas. The Syncrono cuts these more accurately.

“I’m talking tiny holes too, only 0.040" in diameter,” Paventi said. “It’s amazing how fast it pierces them.

“When making a 20,000-piece display bracket run, we saw some parts that normally took 34 seconds done in 20 seconds or less. In fact, this was the result of a study we conducted, comparing Syncrono to conventional 2D machines cutting shelf brackets in 11-gauge mild steel. We found the Syncrono to be up to 70 percent faster.”

The time savings translates to money.

“We base our machine running-time on what we produce for ourselves. On a high-quantity fixture run, we estimate 200 hours of laser time for one part. We use an hourly rate, for example, of $125. That means $25,000 of time is consumed on this part and operation. If we cut in 70 percent less time, that would be a savings of $17,500. That doesn’t include less gas consumption because of less cutting time.”

The cutting head axes provide the increased speed. The machine has a patented laser head with two additional parallel kinematic drive axes on the moving gantry. This creates virtually two machines in one —a highly dynamic and light cutting head, and a machine with a large work volume, both moving in precise synchronicity.

The Two Faces of Syncrono

The two “machines” are coordinated by algorithms that automatically control the local axes of the head and the main axes of the machine. The local axes perform micro movements: holes, corners, small shapes, and paths with frequent changes of direction. The main axes carries out macro movements: contours, large shapes, and other large positioning movements.

Carried out simultaneously, the micro and macro movements are analogous to the human hand and arm when typing or playing the keyboard. The numerical control synchronizes movements for continuous, smooth, and fast movement.

Two short, linear driven axes on the cutting head make all small-scale movements up to 4" in X and Y —for holes and intricate cutouts. The small size of the linear drives, combined with stiff, lightweight titanium components, produce minimal inertia, allowing mass to move with three times less power than other machines.

A vibration-free design and a constant beam path throughout the 60"×120" work area also provides accurate, reliable cutting, even in small and intricate profiles.

With minimal weight and optimized linear drives, accelerations up to 6g are possible during cutting of up to 1,000 holes per minute. Shock compensation features, short travel, and lightweight X- and Y-axes eliminate vibration transfer. Proprietary CNC control software assists, as well.

“What makes the Syncrono stand out is the unique head design technology,” Seve Venditto, a JP Metals programmer, said. “It operates smoother than a normal laser-cutting machine. The head works within its own axis and quicker — it almost floats, with no lurching or banging.

“Also, the program interface and routines are easy. Our operators adapted to the Syncrono with a one and a half day transition period.”

The company uses the Syncrono for lights-out cutting and piercing operations in 11- through 18-gauge steel sheets.

“We cut materials from mild steels to stainless,” Ian Cabogreco, a JP Metals operator/programmer said. “In thicker materials, as soon as it pierces in Laser Piercing Monitor mode, the machine senses it’s through the metal and starts to cut, a big time saver.”

“The Syncrono was a technology for us,” Paventi said. “Initially we debated the investment, but we knew Prima would stand behind it since we have a history with them. The Syncrono is our third Prima laser. There’s always uncertainty with new technology, but if you don’t try it, your competitors will.” Prima North America Inc.

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