7 Tips to Maintain Your Fiber Laser Cutting Method

Maintenance does not mean learning how to fix things; rather, it means keeping things in a manner that does not need any repairing or fixing. And proper maintenance is exactly what one should do for successful Fiber Laser cutting machine maintenance. Not all fabrication managers realize the importance of it, however, the truth is that a successful fiber laser maintenance schedule is a significant factor for a successful fiber laser operation.

Fiber laser cutting machinery repairs can be a costly reminder to perform proper maintenance. Because we know that if one machine does not work well, it will hamper the entire process and the final output. Thus, to avoid the repair cost of laser cut parts, let us look at some tips to maintain it.

1. Train Your Employees

Never skip on this part. No matter how trained employees you hire, training them regularly according to your business necessities, goals, and products is essential. Training your team is a necessary investment that will pay you dividends in the form of customer satisfaction. Training will also save you money in the long run. Because if you don’t train your employees properly, then they might use the laser machine part in the wrong way, which can lead to loss of tons of material, and you would not be able to see perfection.

2. Maintain a Maintenance Guide

With every Fiber Laser Cutting machine, the manufacturer offers a recommended guide for maintenance. You should practice following it regularly and be very keen while doing activities like cleaning. Go as per the guide because it is solely written for your machine model. Overlooking it might turn into disastrous encounters.

You should keep a maintenance log and fill it with each maintenance interval. This machine parts and maintenance log can help you to avoid disastrous encounters and will help you to know your machine and its requirements better. Also, let your employees know about the same and train them for maintenance too.

3. Know Your Options

No matter what you are purchasing, you should know that part's quality, reliability, and its lifespan. This will help you to calculate your production cost. This directly means that investing in quality parts like trumpf laser parts, amada laser parts, etc., can serve you quality outputs and longevity, thus making your investment-worthy. Even replacing consumables when needed, like nozzles with quality trumpf laser nozzles, will enhance the quality of the final output.

4. Consider Replacements 

What is MRO? Maintenance, Repair, and Operating (MRO) are critical for your maintenance schedule of the fiber laser cutting machine. If you operate and maintain your machine parts regularly and adequately, then you might know the importance of replacing them at intervals.

There can be times when your laser cut parts need a replacement due to various reasons, and avoiding replacing them can result in damaged output. For this, you need the right and functional parts in their place. Thus, consider checking on all the machine parts on time and replace them if required. It will promote the longevity of your machine.

5. Monitor Machine Parts

A service team and trained operator can predict machine failures by monitoring machinery parameters like hours of use of each consumable, its precision ratio, etc. Monitoring the machine parts closely can be an easy and effective way to detect any issues or damage and predict when things such as lenses and nozzles likely need a replacement. 

6. Extend the Warranty Period

On buying any new equipment, you can also get an extended safe warranty. Talking about a fiber laser cutting system, it is wise to take the warranty card. Because any error in the fiber cutting machine will cost you a lot to fix without a warranty on used machinery. And on top of that, taking a warranty card is often not an option.So, then how can you save your machine parts and money both? You can have a setup with a preventive maintenance package. From where? Either from your OEM or an aftermarket service company. But make sure that it specializes in your specific machine model.

7. Care for Your Key Accounts

Almost all shops have a few significant customers or, as we say, "key "accounts that provide the company with the majority of their fiber laser cutting projects. You as a company can know their production schedule and align your machine's maintenance schedule accordingly. 

This will be of great benefit to both the parties. It will allow you for more uptime when the demand is high, and in the other downtime, you can schedule your preventive maintenance. Knowing their projects can also help you to order the necessary materials and schedule any urgent necessary maintenance.

With all these tips, you can maintain your fiber laser cutting machine and prevent resolving it before it is created. Regular checking of the machine and keeping a record of its functioning will help you to know more about your laser cutting machines and provide it with what it wants before the situation worsens. Also, replacing laser parts like nozzles or other consumables with quality parts like trumpf laser nozzles or trumpf laser parts will help promote the machine's longevity and provide quality performance. 

Remember: A preventative maintenance practice is a great way to minimize cost and maximize perfection.

Source: https://altpartsinc.wixsite.com/altpartsinc/single-post/7-tips-to-maintain-your-fiber-laser-cutting-method

Benefits of Laser Machines in Automobile Industry

With the continuous increase of laser engraving or cutting machines applications, there is not a single part of the industry untouched. Most of the industries like jewelry, medical, automotive, etc. you name it and they utilize these technologies to create enormous and unique products.

With its number of benefits, ease, and innovation, laser technology offers the constant evolution you can bring in your industry.

In our previous article, we elaborated on the benefits of the Jewelry Industry.

This article will be talking about the way laser technology is helping in the automobile industry:

But Before that, here is a brief history of the automobile industry:

The automotive industry is humongous and is rapidly growing. The first automobile industry invention was in the 1880s. And today it became a very staple and popular part of our society.

Around 80 million automobile purchases happen every year globally means 220,000 automobiles per day. And that is a huge number. With a large number of production happening every day, the best part is that the companies are taking accurate measures in handling the quality of these productions. They make sure that each and every part of the materials is of high quality.

Some fun fact:

There are considerations that an average car has 30,000 parts in it. This means that on average, 6,600,000,000 parts will be going out of the production line every day. To keep up with such huge manufacturing, it is important to have a reliable and efficient process to manufacture these parts.

That is when laser machines and its parts like Trumpf laser parts, Trumpf laser nozzles prove to be one of the most important and valuable assets to the automotive industry.

In terms of the production line, the automotive industry is similar to the aerospace industry. But, when it comes to product outputs, the automotive industry surpasses the aerospace industry with almost 100 million automobiles manufacturing as per the year 2016.

These numbers yield the fact that the automotive industry is all about high production, high-profit margins, high efficiency and a high level of safety. Similarly, fiber lasers can be useful in welding various parts of the automobile industry. They also help in creating parts that become the core part of vehicles.

There are multiple uses of fiber lasers within the automotive industry. The fiber lasers are currently useful at high scale in the automobile industry.

Various benefits they bring to the industry:

• Improvement in profits
• Increase in productivity
• Having great flexibility
• Superior quality.

Additionally, the growing market of e-mobility and electric cars is also helping in the rapid growth and adoption of laser technology in the automotive.

Features of laser technology like engraving and marking are being successful in marking the parts or adding the vehicle identification number (VIN), and serial numbers. You can apply these at the microscopic level which helps you and your company in manufacturing workflows. It even helps you in making the dashboards of the vehicles.

Fiber laser welding is also highly useful for applications like airbag initiators, batteries, fuel injectors, etc. and is especially useful for different metal welding processes.

In comparison to other industries, the automotive industry is rapidly taking over 3D printing through additional manufacturing processes which helps in rapid printing parts, tools, and devices. It even enables a rapid increase of prototyping which speeds up the research and development of the team.

As we discussed above, you must be aware of the fact that laser cutting has the potential and brings ease of use to the automobile industry when it comes to production.

Let’s understand how:

• Components:

In the automobile industry, the designs and productions of the components are much smaller yet very complicated. To make apertures for antennas, and other such delicate materials, laser technology is widely useful.

• Hydroformed parts:

They are the metal parts that form in 3D shapes and are a crucial part of any automobile business. To create such complex shapes, laser cutting machines and its parts Trumpf laser parts, Trumpf laser nozzles can help in cutting with accurate precision and provide perfect shapes.

• Airbags:

The biggest benefit of using laser cutting machines and its parts Trumpf laser parts can be useful to cut any material, not only metal. It can work with any material like airbags. The blade of the conventional cutting machine can cut the cloth too, but laser cutting brings the advantage of melting the edges quickly is that it does not leave a material to erode.

Final words:

Laser machines are here to stay and play a vital role in making even the smallest part of the automobile industry. They can help us in making more efficient and productive vehicles.

Source: https://altpartsinc.wixsite.com/altpartsinc/single-post/2020/04/18/Benefits-of-Laser-Machines-in-Automobile-Industry

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.