Quick Tips to Maintain Shear Blades

Shear blades are one of the most important tools when it comes to the metal fabrication industry. Shearing, also known as die cutting is a process of cutting metal. The most common materials cut using shearing are in the form of a sheet or metal plates.

The process in which the cutting blades are straight is shearing and if there are curved blades then the process is known as shearing-type operations. There are four types of operations include blanking, piercing, roll slitting, and trimming. To improve the uptime of shear blades & to reduce the maintenance costs, it is important to keep those blades in shape.

Here are some tips to maintain your shear blade in top shape:

Understand the Root Cause

First of all, it is important for any fabricator to understand the functions, designs, and operation of each machine in the plant. One of the major causes of shear failure is the overloading on shear blades beyond its parameters. When you attempt to cut the metal beyond the recommended limits, it could possibly damage your machines as well as shear blades.

In order to maintain the shear blades, it is important to perform standard maintenance every day. Plus, using quality products is also a must. Amada shear blades are among the top market leaders known for its quality and low maintenance cost.

Inspections on Regular Intervals

Make sure to perform scheduled downtime maintenance in order to ensure the smooth operations of the machine. It is important to test all the functions used in day-to-day activities. Examine all the bearing for the emergency and safety functions of the machine as it is an important aspect.

Once done with the examination, documentation is important as well. With the help of it, you can reveal potential issues beforehand so that an immediate repair can take place by an expert. These documents will help in analyzing and prepare preventive measures in case of future emergency problems.

Set the Blade Properly

Before starting the process make sure that you fit the blade properly in the machine. When you set the shear blade properly it helps to extend the blade's life and machine efficiency. Therefore, make sure to set the proper clearance for the finer cut quality.

Additionally, it is important to clean the blades. If the clearance is high, metal would jam between the blade and machine. Hence, if the blade has no clearance, it would work smoothly. But if you set the clearance too loose, it might cause premature failure of the system.

Have a Basic Maintenance Plan

1. As per your machine requirements, you can set a basic maintenance plan to ensure the smooth working of your blade.
   
2. Make sure that the air system is working properly for cleaner air. It is important to maintain the regulators to help the pneumatic mechanism for proper functioning.
   
3. Remember to check the lubrication before starting any operations. It is a must to keep the lubrication system clean and filtered.
   
4. Whenever you wish to replace the parts, try searching "Amada Machine replacement parts", as they are the best in the market, in the search engine and you would find a number of them.
   
5. Check machine clutch and brakes for thickness, lining, clearances, and signs of failure. In any case, they've worn out, replace them immediately to avoid costly repairs.
   
6. Keep in mind that air leaks or failure of the counterbalance cylinder need your immediate attention. They ensure the proper operations of shear and its tooling.

If at any stage you feel that the shear blades need immediate assistance, you would find a number of Amada Machine replacement parts or Amada shear blades online for the same. Other than that, it is advisable to contact the experts quickly if you find something unusual in shear blades or any machine in general.

Source:- https://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/industrial-mechanical-articles/quick-tips-maintain-shear-blades-1723775.html

The Best Examples of Laser Cutting in Electronics Projects

Laser cutting is relatively cheaper than 3D printing and injection molding and for engineering projects, it is best to go with the cheaper option. In the field of electronics & engineering, you often require precise cuts to ensure the proper functioning of the prototypes or products. And Laser cutting is known for delivering such accurate results that too at cheaper rates. Moreover, you can also achieve a level of consistency if you are making the cut many times.

And just writing it won't give you a proper idea.

Let's see some of the electronics projects executed using a laser cutter and why did the inventors use laser cutting:

Nixie Clocks

RobG, a leading market leader adopted the laser technology to cut the clear acrylic to mount the nixie components and let all of that electronic design come together. For this use case, the design was easy to achieve with laser cut parts. There are only two simple pieces, a back and a front. No sides. Basically, this is a tabletop clock. Therefore, it does not need much coverage as regular electronics. This leads to fast cutting time which eventually is an important consideration while creating a product to sell.

Nightlights

Jakob Griffith created a set of simple plugin nightlights. He created everything, from the printed circuit design to the artwork attached in the acrylic, and the final assembly. He started the project keeping the laser cutting tech in mind rather the other way around. With the help of laser cutting, he was able to do all the detailed art-work in a few hours which might've taken days with 3D printing and other alternatives.

WITCH-E Emulator

Harwell WITCH is a renowned instrument to teach computing and a milestone in computing history. The WITCH-E project started by Dave Anders studies the engineering characters of the Harwell WITCH and try to extract its educational value. The team has a common motto to accumulate informative materials in a form of videos, writing, and tools such as WITCH-E replica and emulator.

So, when Dave was working on a prototype he used laser cutting in order to make numerous iterations of custom designs in an inexpensive way. It was important to have the proper layout as electronics were to be mounted on it.

Pro Tip: You can also start your very own small project in your basement or garage and for the success make sure you are using quality parts e.g. Mazak Parts, Prima Parts, etc.

Music Devices

Nathan Walker thought of building devices that makes it easy to perform and record music in a better way. After facing hurdles in the initial stage, he started looking for the available options. When he didn't find an appropriate option, he came with a solution. Which was a headless Linux box with a DAW which starts working as soon as you turn it on. You can plug in any type of keyboard with USB or traditional MIDI output. This way, you can instantly access great synths and piano sounds. In this, there are faders and knobs to control anything in DAW. Therefore, it is a kind of dynamic change. While installing the faders, knobs, and buttons, Nathan wanted a lot of fine details. He wanted them to fit perfectly through the holes. To make it possible, he chose the laser cutting rather than an injection mold.

Fri3D Biped Robot

This biped robot is one of the main projects at Fri3D camp located in Belgium. Based on Otto bipedal design, its face is the animal shaped badge given to attendees that perform double duty as the brains for the build. The version is laser cut out of MDF but imagine this cute badge in different acrylic colors.

MeArm Robotic Arm

The MeArm Robots Arm is considered as the world's most accessible learning tool when it comes to engineering with the smallest and coolest robot arm. This robot arm comes as a kit and its parts are given proper shapes using laser cutting. With the help of a screwdriver, you easily gather its scattered parts and build yourself a robotic arm. A great source of information for anyone new in the world of programming, electronics, robotics, and engineering.

You can also embark your engineering journey with a project using laser cutting technology and the ideas mentioned above. It's a cost-effective solution with cutting-edge results. You can try searching Mazak parts, Prima parts to find suitable components for your engineering project!

Source:- https://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/industrial-mechanical-articles/best-examples-laser-cutting-electronics-projects-1723750.html

How to Achieve Burr Free Laser-Cutting

If you work at the laser cutting shop, you would notice that operators often offload the metal sheet of cut parts. After that, they would pick up the cut pieces from the nest for clean edges to make the sheets ready for the next operation.

Mostly right? But sometimes, you would notice that burrs on the surface still remains. It may vary from minor to major in size but with some precautions, you can reduce it. In order to discover the perfect setting, it is important for operators to know about the process in which a laser cutting beam, support gas, and workpiece get in contact to create perfect cut edges in the product.

Achieving a burr-free laser cutting is no longer a magic. It’s a strategy that revolves around the proper operation of laser parts which you need to understand thoroughly to resolve it. Let’s see how. 

Which Parameters to Check?

In general cases, the modern machine controls the laser beam elements. Like the beam profile and beam power. The beam focus consists of a particular grade, thickness based on optical focus.

To match the true focus position on the workpiece, automated technicians usually check a number of parameters including beam alignment, delivery system, centering the nozzle, focus position, etc.

If the operator observes a burr at the bottom of the cut part of the stainless-steel sheet, then firstly the operator needs to slow down the cutting speed of the laser beam. You can justify the reaction because in his perception, cutting speed is too high and the problem might have arisen from that. 

Once the operator has slowed down the cutting speed and the gas pressure, he would find a bigger burr. Therefore, the creation of burr depends on how the beam, material, and gas interact. And once you understand their interaction, you would understand the creation of burr.

The Burr Formation Process

While you work with the laser machine, there’s an intense amount of energy emerging out of the laser beam. That brings the metal’s temperature above its melting point. Hence, metal exceeds the melting temperature, during this, a strong force of gas removes the metal from the kerf. When you use nitrogen, the cutting procedure totally depends on the beam’s energy to melt the metal. But when you use oxygen gas to cut the carbon steel, it seems that hot metal interacts with oxygen that creates an exothermic reaction with added heat.

In such cases, they form the burrs due to the molten metal which solidifies before removing. That solid material would remain tougher at the bottom of the kerf, eventually forming a burr.

But what hardens the metal before you remove it?

Gas Kinetics

The operator should ideally alter efficiency, quality, and cost when nitrogen gas is concerned. Nitrogen can reach up to 50% of the variable costs. Therefore, it is important to control the consumption of such gas in laser cutting. Consider using Trumpf laser parts in order to maintain quality outputs. Make sure to select the smallest Trumpf laser nozzles to attain the desired quality of performance.

It is important to note that when it comes to supporting gas flow, nozzle size and diameter would make a big difference. When deciding, go for the smallest Trumpf laser nozzle size as they will get you a good quality of laser cutting without any burrs. Eventually, you can increase your flow rate with good molten metal separation without going high on pressure.

Slow is never better

The logic of “lower and smaller” diameter of nozzle and gas pressure is not applicable to the cutting speed. Hence, while you slow down the cutting speed, you would end up welcoming more heat than required in the kerf. Along with this the temperatures also rises and cause vaporization which disturbs the gas flow. As a result of it, this disturbance creates more burrs which make the quality even worst. You need Trumpf laser nozzles to ensure the proper interaction of cutting beam and gas which is the best way to avoid burrs.

Additionally, the operator can also save the material from burrs by increasing the cutting speed precisely. This increase in speed would minimize the heat and the ablation while restoring the gas flow dynamics to its appropriate state.

Carbon Steel Cutting by Assist Oxygen Gas

While shifting to oxygen cutting for carbon steel, the exothermic reaction needs to be at an accurate level because here, the oxygen purity level will play a crucial role. It is common that oxygen-cutting carbon steel benefits from a higher level of oxygen gas purity. We can increase the cutting speed by 30 to 40 percent if we work with 99.95 percent of oxygen global purity.

Concluding

Burr-free laser cutting is all about ensuring that the beam parameters and gas dynamics work in synchronization. Moreover, you also need to ensure that you are using superior quality laser parts like Trumpf laser parts for the best and burr-free laser cutting.

A detailed guide to eliminate the creation of burrs in laser cutting and achieve a stable process to produce smooth cutting edge results.