December 2007 Edition

LASERS

Tapping the Power of Lasers and Brakes

A shop found speed and precision in the combined power of laser-cutter and press brake

It started out as a three-man welding shop in a Kansas town of 3,700, and has grown into a leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment, transportation products, material handling equipment, and government equipment, with 500 full-time and 85 contract employees. The Landoll Corp., Marysville, KS, founded in 1963, now operates a 500,000 ft² facility processing 60,000 lb of plate and sheet metal per day.

The company requires manufacturing systems that are reliable, precise, and flexible enough to handle short runs without lengthy setups.

"We knew we needed quick-change tooling and high repeatability, so I looked for the best press brake I could find," Don Landoll, company owner, said. "We also needed a cutting system that could produce complex flat parts and continually hold tolerance from run to run."

After looking at other manufacturers, Landoll chose Bystronic Inc., Hauppauge, NY, because of its systems' ability to handle thicker, harder metals. Landoll bought three Bystronic 4020 Bystar laser-cutting systems, one with a rotary axis. The purchases were made in 2001, 2005, and March 2007. He also bought a Bystronic Beyeler PR Series 710 ton, 5,100mm press brake with a 5-axis back-gauge in 2006.

Both the laser cutting and press brake systems offered advantages such as fast setup and repeatability. They also both shared the Bysoft cutting and bending system software, which, in processing short runs, provided an unexpected advantage.

"Since we run a lot of low-volume parts," Landoll said, "the Bysoft software's nesting capability on the three lasers, and the bend sequencing on the press brake, helps us cut costs associated with waste."

Landoll programmed about 1,800 different parts on the PR Series press brake in about a year.

"Tooling changes are fast and easy," Landoll said. "My operators bring up the part number on screen and start forming the required part. It saves us a lot of time and helps ensure part accuracy."

Downstream Essentials

Landoll Corp. deals with a range of materials, material types, and thicknesses. "We employ approximately 100 welders and nine robotic welders," Landoll said. "If we start with a robotic welder, for example, we must have repetitiveness; each bent part has to be accurate and precise every time. That's why we were careful in selecting our equipment, especially in purchasing the PR Series press brake."

The company also deals with materials of different characteristics. Each piece of metal differs in transformation and part accuracy. Even the same metal may behave differently on a different day.

No matter what the material, however, Landoll said the PR Series press brake seems up to the challenge. With five other press brakes on the floor, nearly 50 percent of the parts formed at the facility every day are processed on the PR Series. Alan Koch, an industrial engineer at Landoll, estimates the machine processes anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 lb of material every day.

"This brake does a good job in forming various parts, especially with the thicker materials," Koch said. "It automatically measures the material and compensates for thickness irregularities and spring-back. With the grain, or across the grain, we run a lot of parts on this machine every day and material is really never an issue. The machine measures the differences automatically to form a correct bend."

Perfect Parts

Accurate parts are important for demanding customers, such as the military. The Landoll Corp. is a leading supplier of components for mid-sized military recovery units – wreckers.

Made out of a combination of aluminum and 50,000, 80,000, and 100,000 psi yield steel, and equipped with two 30,000 lb winches, a hydraulic under-lift, a rotational crossbar, and a crane, the machine has a small footprint for air transportability.

Although the company has press brakes from other manufacturers, it uses the PR Series systems for demanding applications.

"There could be hundreds of different parts that go into a wrecker," Landoll said. "Each has to be perfect; we must have quality or they are scrap."

In dealing with high-yield materials, spring-back becomes more of a prominent issue and poses a challenge with high-precision forming.

"We bend from 14 gauge to 3/4"-thick material," Landoll said. "The PR Series' material spring-back compensation has helped us a great deal in securing accurate parts with a good repeatability."

Perfected Flow

The lasers process much of the company's high yield material, roughly 6,000 lb of aluminum and stainless steel per machine per day.

"They have helped us with diversity as well as streamline production," Landoll said. "For example, we don't need to use punches or drills any longer on our laser cut materials."

The company now also cuts slot-tabs into its flat parts so that various parts are easier to secure together for welding, much like a puzzle, sometimes without the use of jigs. Its other cutting systems were not accurate enough to handle such complex applications.

Koch is particularly impressed with the laser's ability to hold tolerances from run-to-run to within ±0.001". Prior to installation, when forming longer parts, he would encounter issues with part consistency, especially where length was concerned. Earlier cutting systems were not consistent. Whenever a like part would be processed, run-to-run part inconsistencies amounted to a lot of trial and error in creating accurate bends on the brakes. This would, in turn, create an issue at the welding stations, affecting overall productivity.

The benefits of the Bystar cutting system are not limited to flat parts. An oft-used feature on the cutting system is the rotary axis.

"We use this feature all the time," Landoll said.

The company processes 3/16" thick, 4"×6" tubing for truck bumpers, with the laser cutting irregular holes for the lights, reflectors, and grommets in the finished part. Bystronic Inc.

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