Home / Laser, Waterjet, Plasma Cutting Systems

Laser, Waterjet, Plasma Cutting Systems

A yearend review of some of the current advances and application capabilities in each of these metal cutting technologies.

Posted: November 5, 2014

An Eagle fiber laser cutting head with laser beam from MSS Lasers is one of the most advanced systems in the market, with linear drives on all three axes and a low inertia carbon fiber transverse bridge construction that can accelerate up to 6G with achieve cutting speeds in excess of 100 m/min.

Accuracy inside the Eagle fiber laser from MSS Lasers is assured through the rigidity of the carbon fiber bridge and the dynamic polymer concrete frame that minimizes vibration and heat related deflection of the machine geometry. With bed sizes up to 6 m x 2.5 m, this system increases material utilization by efficiently nesting jobs and cutting very large parts.

The SUPER TURBO-X laser-cutting system with Preview 3 control from Mazak Optonics uses proprietary vibration dampening frame and integrated laser resonator that ensure stable, high accuracy cutting of plates. The constant beam length construction provides uniform cutting performance across the machine table.

The TruLaser 8000 2D laser cutting machine from TRUMPF can process material up to 52 ft long and up to one inch thick using a 6 kW laser, making it ideal for processing very large parts or for job shops looking to expand their capacities and range of services.

KBM separate rotor and stator packages on ProLaser CL laser cutting systems from Proteck are supplied in kit form and directly mounted on the machine within their own bearing system and protective cover, with power and encoder connectors built-in. The mounting arrangement directly couples the large diameter pinion shaft to the rotor as a single solid assembly, restricting lost motion and potential unwanted harmonics that a flexible coupling may allow.

On ProLaser CL laser cutting systems from Proteck, S700 servo drives with multi-feedback capability from Kollmorgen are used with both resolver feedback, mounted on the KBM motor for commutation, and magnetic linear scales for the position loop. The feedback protocol is SSI absolute, EnDAT or alternatively BiSS, to suit a choice of CNC controllers with set-up and monitoring via EtherCAT that is integrated in all S700 drives.

With a maximum sheet size of 3.1 m x 1.6 m, next-generation ProLaser CL flat sheet cutting machines from Proteck also use AKM series rotary servo motors with Micron™ series planetary gearheads that are brake fitted for the Y-axis as well as the Z-axis.

The highly rigid MicroMAX JetMachining® Center from OMAX has a table size of 2 ft 4 in x 2 ft 4 in and an X-Y cutting travel of 2 ft x 2 ft. Its new Mini Tilt-A-Jet® cutting head nearly quadruples the position accuracy of the nozzle for even more precise cutting with virtually zero taper in most materials up to 3 in thick. The head is also 25 percent smaller and lighter and nearly twice as rigid for less deflection.

Intelli-MAX 21 for JetMachining Centers from OMAX not only optimizes tool paths automatically, it provides precise predictability of cutting speeds, taper, jet lag and other abrasivejet factors of those particular tool paths to achieve the highest levels of waterjet cutting speed and performance.

Supplied with a MAXJET 5i nozzle, the high precision A-Jet cutting head from OMAX cuts accurate beveled edges at angles determined by either the machine operator or part program. The A-Jet adds two motion axes, enabling the nozzle to tilt over a range of 0 deg to 60 deg from the vertical position. It can be used to easily produce beveled edges or cut countersunk holes, as well as machine parts with complex geometries. With its additional axes of motion, the A-Jet allows production of beveled edges in preparation for welding operations. The use of this accessory eliminates the need for many secondary machining and grinding operations.

With a Rotary Axis, JetMachining Centers from OMAX have up to 6-axis cutting capabilities that can create accurate complex 3D parts from pre-existing CAD drawings or DXF files. With the expanded parametric shape library, the Rotary Axis is ideal for pipe and tube cutting, simplifying challenging projects such as intersecting pipe fittings.

FlowXpert 2015 is a robust CAD/CAM software platform from Flow International that introduces significant new waterjet capabilities for 3D pathing and cutting that allow shops to work more effectively and with less complexity in 3D.

The DynaBeam laser height sensing technology from Flow maps the natural state of materials, reducing the need for manual adjustment throughout cutting. Operators can choose between setting the standoff height between the waterjet nozzle and the workpiece before every pierce, or pre-mapping an entire workpiece quickly and easily.

The price of a build-it-yourself WARDKit from WARDJet includes everything necessary to start waterjet cutting, including the tank, cutting head, grates, intensifier pump, control software, human machine interface and access to technical support. Upgrades and options on pump horsepower, controller style, and abrasive delivery system allow perfect configuration.

The Emerald 0606, the smallest waterjet ever manufactured by WARDJet, is designed to offer all the quality of a large, expensive waterjet cutting system at a reduced size and cost. Because of its rigid, sturdy tank design, the Emerald 0606 is capable of handling 12 in thick stainless steel just as easily as a 2 in sheet of foam.

The J-Series is a low-cost water-only waterjet from WARDJet that uses belt drive technology to cut at speeds of 2,500 ipm with an acceleration and deceleration rate of 0.2 m/s2. J-Series waterjets are ideal for cutting high volumes of parts where margins are low and tolerances are not as demanding.

The L-Series, the fastest cutting waterjet from WARDJet, uses a linear motion drive system with excellent accuracy, repeatability and reliability that cuts 7,000 ipm with an acceleration and deceleration rate of 1 sq m. The thick-walled steel tubing frame of the L-Series can accommodate multiple 5-axis cutting heads.

The FARM-JET waterjet cutting system from Jet Edge brings the power and versatility of ultra-high pressure waterjet cutting technology to farm machine shops for the price of a new fully loaded 1 ton 4X4 pickup truck, without requiring special electrical service.

The affordably priced direct-drive style Eco-Jet PTO ultra-high pressure waterjet pump is ideal for rural machine shops or areas with limited power because it utilizes a tractor PTO shaft to produce ultra-high pressure water for precision cutting, cleaning and surface preparation. It runs a .015 in waterjet orifice and can power most waterjet cutting systems and waterjet tools.

The economically priced BOSS-CUTTER water jet cutting system from Jet Edge is ideal for small shops. It has a 40 in x 40 in (1 m x 1m) work envelope with one abrasivejet cutting head and a motorized Z-axis with 5 in (513 mm) of travel that is controlled with a Windows PC (sold separately) and uses a FlashCut Pro-Series Stepper Controller and FlashCut CNC software. It also includes IGEMS path generation software and a hand-held controller pendant for operator convenience.

The compact SGX automated plasma and oxy-fuel cutting machine from ESAB features the easy-to-use Vision® T5 touch-screen CNC with built-in automatic nesting, as well as automatic gas controls and plasma automation powered by m3 Plasma technology. Performance and accuracy are assured with a heavy steel beam, precision machined mating surfaces, and linear rail. This rugged design ensures smooth motion, accuracy and long term machine durability. SGX enables higher productivity with rapid cut-to-cut cycle times through the integration of dual-side, high-speed AC drives and a fast torch lifter.

The do-it-yourself V Series Plasma from MultiCam features a custom-engineered, extruded aluminum frame with steel leg supports for high strength and rigidity. Automatic torch height is standard along with powerful, dual X-axis drive motors and Hypertherm PowerMax plasma torches. The easy-to-use, handheld operator interface features graphic icons for all machine functions.

The V-PRO CNC Plasma system from MultiCam has a standard, heavy-duty, all-steel water table with integrated bladder capable of production processing of sheet steel up to 1.25 in thick without the need for fume evacuation. The CNC plasma system uses a Hypertherm MAXPRO200 (200 amp) power supply engineered for heavy-duty, high capacity mechanized cutting.

The compact, durable 5-axis bevel plasma head from MultiCam uses aluminum castings for weight reduction and rigidity, has improved crash protection and ease of maintenance, and introduces the “phi” and “theta” axes of movement for cutting complex parts with bevels up to 45 deg in 2 in thick mild steel.

Designed to remove up to 25 lb of metal per hour, the PAK 200i manual gouging and plasma cutting system from Victor Thermal Dynamics can also hand cut 2 in thick mild steel at 10 ipm.

PLUG AND PLAY LASER MACHINING
Proteck Machinery Pvt. Ltd. (Chennai, India) was established over 25 years ago and is now one of India’s leading production machinery suppliers, distributing, supplying and manufacturing a wide range of printing machinery, machine tools, metal cutting and forming equipment, and CAD/CAM software throughout its home market and in more than 20 countries world-wide.

Its manufacturing subsidiary, Proteck Precision, has a young, dynamic and highly qualified engineering workforce that develops and produces exciting new economy solutions for the fast growing Indian manufacturing industries as well as providing competitively priced machinery that is exported beyond Asia. This technology-driven company has styled its production, quality control and engineering logistics departments on a European model and has two very modern manufacturing facilities in Chennai, complete with state-of-the-art CAD/CAM, MRP systems and the latest ISO accreditations.

This Indian equipment supplier began working closely with Kollmorgen Europe GmbH (Ratingen, Germany) after experiencing their impressive servo motor and drive performance and reliability in some of the German CNC machine tools that Proteck was distributing into its own markets. Kollmorgen has provided integrated automation and drive systems, along with corresponding components, for machine builders all over the world for more than 70 years. A learning curve and close relationship progressed with product training and close application support from their European-based engineering facilities and further support from its Mumbai-based team.

Proteck engineers have had extensive training at the Ratingen facility, and as they develop their own ProLaser CL purpose laser cutting and CNC machine tool range, Kollmorgen is very firmly established as a manufacturing partner. “Our latest generation laser profiling and machine tools have developed from more than two decades of experience in supplying and supporting machine tool technologies from our partners, as well as from our increasing in-house design and manufacturing capability,” says Mr. K. Bala, the managing director of Proteck. “In both of these important factors, we count Kollmorgen as a major technology contributor and a valued partner.”

Proteck began manufacturing high specification CO2 equipped 3-axis laser cutting systems with flying optics that cater to a wide range of flat sheet material. These small footprint machines originally included cast-iron beds and single lower-axis geometry that allowed open three-side access for flat sheet sizes around 2.5 m x 1.5 m. Bosch Rexroth or Siemens CNC controller options fully integrated with highly developed MetaCAM CAD/CAM software allows ease of use for all types of sheet metal cutting.

The company then introduced a ‘Plug and Play’ model for job and fabrication shops that included all of the features of the previous machines, but used a much lighter and lower-cost welded-frame construction. This began its ground-breaking marketing concept that a laser cutting machine should be no more complicated than an office laser printer.

As part of this continued initiative, designers looked hard at the transmission mechanics. Precision ground ballscrew cost for a 2.5 m travel range is expensive and the single-axis/single-screw design with its overhung load requires more sturdy and costly linear motion guide bearings for adequate support. Furthermore, to maintain a good dynamic performance, ballscrews must be large in diameter to allow high rotation speeds – which increases servo motor and servo drive size. With the need to produce even longer travel machines that could provide larger flat sheet work, Proteck and Kollmorgen EU began to address some central questions:

How to maintain the ±10 micron bi-directional repeatability performance and up to 110 m/min max linear speed, required of the machines?
How to reduce the power requirements and provide increased efficiency?
How to further drive down powertrain component costs?

The result was the introduction of an innovative rack-and-pinion drive system for the long-travel lower axis of the machine for a new 3-axis bridge laser machining center that includes two synchronized lower X-axes, supporting a gantry Y-axis, and a vertical Z-axis.

Rack-and-pinion with direct drive motor and innovative preload
The initial conception looked at linear motor technology for the long-travel dual synchronized X-axis, but the cost for this was prohibitive for the market sector being targeted for the machine. The cost effective rack-and-pinion design was developed with the awareness that backlash and repeatability performance would need to be achieved using a novel approach.

The special preload mechanism was realized by mounting the pinion and its motor on an eccentric pilot circle and a gear tooth geometry that allowed full face gear contact and in-situ adjustment to minimize lost motion and hysteresis. This performed more than adequately at the point of the actual rack-and-pinion face – but when combined with a standard rotary servo motor which required a planetary gearbox to develop the torque required to drive the load – the gearbox backlash, albeit relatively small, proved prohibitive.

The answer was to design the pinion-to-rack transmission around the Kollmorgen KBM series direct drive motor.

Directly coupled
The KBM separate rotor and stator packages are supplied in kit form and directly mounted on the machine by Proteck within their own bearing system and protective cover, with power and encoder connectors built-in. The mounting arrangement directly couples the large diameter pinion shaft to the rotor as a single solid assembly, restricting lost motion and potential unwanted harmonics that a flexible coupling may give rise to.

The resulting design has been field proven for extremely low backlash and has a dynamic and throughput specification which is very close to linear servo motor performance. This rack-and-pinion system is also very resilient to debris and does not require the degree of protection that a linear motor system would need for a laser machining environment.

This rack-and-pinion system, combined with the direct drive KBM motors, uses less parts, is more energy efficient, and delivers higher speed and accuracy to reduce backlash and lost motion well below the desired specification. As an intrinsic part of the design, S700 servo drives with their multi-feedback capability are used with both resolver feedback, mounted on the KBM motor for commutation, and magnetic linear scales for the position loop. The feedback protocol is SSI absolute, EnDAT or alternatively BiSS, to suit a choice of CNC controllers with set-up and monitoring via EtherCAT that is integrated in all S700 drives.

Many optional features of the advanced servo drive may be included in the machine specification. These include STO (Safe Torque Off) for SIL 2 and 3 safety standards, and Ethernet connectivity for set-up and monitoring. EtherCAT is also available and will be integrated in future machines for axis synchronization. With a maximum sheet size of 3.1 m x 1.6 m, next-generation ProLaser CL flat sheet cutting machines also use AKM series rotary servo motors with Micron™ series planetary gearheads that are brake fitted for the Y-axis as well as the Z-axis.

For complete compatibility, S700 drives are used throughout the machine, which will also benefit in the future from a cost-optimized CNC control solution from German cutting machine specialist Eckelmann AG (Wiesbaden, Germany), which works closely with Kollmorgen EU.

Direct drive offers further advantages
The latest Proteck laser cutting machine, the Sl 2530, is a massive 7-axis ‘walkin’ machining center which includes an advanced flying optics head design that provides laser cutting of vertical and angled sides of formed workpieces. Large three-dimensional fabricated sheet metal workpieces are fixed to a stationary central table and the multi-rotational laser head is guided to always maintain the optimum perpendicular angle for perfect cutting.

KBM direct drive motors with the innovative rack-and-pinion mechanism are used for main horizontal axes of the machine, which covers an area of 1.6 m x 3.3 m x 0.7 m. The hollow-shaft KBM motor is also used as the main drive for the multi-rotational flying optics system, allowing feed-through of the laser delivery and focusing system while maintaining the flexibility and precision to provide completely synchronized twin rotary axes, featuring nX360 deg and ±135 deg rotational strokes. The machine also uses a complement of AKM servo motors on other axes along with matching S700 drives, allowing users to reduce spares and inventory costs.

Proteck Machinery Pvt. Ltd., 15 Medavakkam Road, Sholinganallur, Chennai 600 119, India, + 91 44 2450 6000, Fax : + 91 44 2450 6006, info@proteck.co.in, www.proteck.co.in.

Kollmorgen Europe GmbH, Pempelfurtstraße 1, 40880 Ratingen, Germany, +49 2102 9394 2195, sandra.becker@kollmorgen.com, www.kollmorgen.com.

WATERJET CUTTING

TAPER-FREE CUTTING IN WATERJET MICROMACHINING
With its MicroMAX JetMachining Center, OMAX® Corporation (Kent, WA) proves how the speed, versatility and accuracy of abrasive waterjet technology now applies to the cutting of micron-level parts or part features from a wide range of materials, including exotic metals, advanced composites, polymer thermoplastics and glass.

Ideal for prototype development and production runs, the MicroMAX is a highly rigid machine with a table size of 2 ft 4 in by 2 ft 4 in and an X-Y cutting travel of 2 ft by 2 ft. It utilizes advanced high-precision linear encoders, innovative vibration isolation and intuitive software control systems to achieve a position repeatability of less than 3 microns and a positioning accuracy of approximately 15 microns (0.0006 in).

The MicroMAX comes equipped with a high precision 7/15 Mini MAXJET® 5i long-life diamond integrated nozzle that features a 0.007 in orifice and 0.015 in mixing tube combination for quickly and accurately cutting delicate, complex patterns. Because it forms a jet stream carrying an extremely fine abrasive, the nozzle can produce a kerf as small as 0.015 in. The machine also has advanced pressure controls for piercing delicate materials.

Now, a smaller version of the award-winning Tilt-A-Jet® cutting head designed specifically for MicroMAX JetMachining Centers is the new Mini Tilt-A-Jet® cutting head that nearly quadruples position accuracy for even more precise cutting. The position accuracy of the nozzle enables the machine to achieve virtually zero taper with most materials up to 3 in thick. It is also 25 percent smaller and lighter than the Tilt-A-Jet and is nearly twice as rigid for less deflection. The Tilt-A-Jet for the MicroMAX employs 10 deg of tilt and is fully sealed for use in the abrasive waterjet environment.

The MicroMAX is a flexible, cost-effective and beneficial alternative to conventional machining operations. Because waterjet-based machining is a coldcutting process, it eliminates thermal stress in the workpiece, preventing hardening and warping. The MicroMAX enables manufacturers across all industry segments to accomplish quick turnaround of accurate parts without the hassle of tool changes or complex fixturing, as well as achieve smooth surface finishes without the need for secondary machining.