Cnc Machines

In a direct response to customers’ demand for a reliable and cost effective means of measuring the water jet prior to cutting a tool management system has been adapted to do the job effectively.

Blum Novotest is pleased to announce that it has introduced its proven LaserControl tool management system for waterjet cutting machines.

The development is a direct response to customers’ demand for a reliable and cost effective means of measuring the water jet prior to cutting.

Water jet machines have been proven for many years, but as with more traditional systems ensuring that the cutting edge is precisely the diameter and in exactly the position is required is essential to eliminate scrap.

It is also essential that diffusion of the water jet between the nozzle and the workpiece does not take the cut outside of tolerance parameters.

The LaserControl provides a simple, effective, non-intrusive means of measuring the water jet prior to cutting with only a negligible increase in cycle time.

The LaserControl is sited within the machine’s operating area, without intruding in to it.

Diameter, diffusion and position of the water jet is measured by laser and the data transferred automatically to the machine’s controller.

Using the system, the accuracy and therefore profitability of unmanned and lights outs out operation is improved substantially.

The easy-to-install system employs sophisticated technology to protect the lenses of the laser during the machining cycle, making it virtually invulnerable to high pressure coolant and swarf.

A pneumatically operated shutter system with an air curtain – which functions only when operational – protects the lenses of the laser during the machining cycle.

This makes the unit virtually invulnerable to high pressure water and swarf.

Thermal growth of the machine is compensated for automatically.

The Blum LaserControl can be retrofitted to existing machines – commenting, Robert Culling of Blum Novotest UK said: “Our measuring range has been created to enable production quality to be improved by cost-effective in-process measurement and testing, and has been developed in response to customer requirement.

Waterjet cutting has become a popular method of producing awkward shapes where accuracy is essential.

We have developed the new waterjet version of the LaserControl from our proven system in order to assist those companies seeking higher accuracies, higher productivity, and higher profitability from their machines”.

Pioneering the development of laser controlled measurement systems for more than thirty years, the Blum range is proven in over 20,000 applications world wide.

Many of the systems sold are the LaserControl tool management system, designed to be sited alongside the working envelope of the machine to verify that the correct tool is in use, certify its length, diameter, roundness and run-out.

This gives a significant increase in accuracy by eliminating errors of tool, spindle, and tool seating.

The LaserControl system, which can either be retrofitted or installed on new machines, operates as part of the machining cycle so does not incur set up time or cause down time.

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A CNC waterjet cutting machine is helping aUK fabricator to achieve a much faster turnaround on the profiles and fabrications.

A CNC Hydrocut waterjet cutting machine from ESAB Automation is helping Crane and Rowbury to achieve a much faster turnaround on the profiles and fabrications that it provides to the architectural and light structural steelwork industries.

It also has a plasma cutting head and can be used for both rapid cutting and high-precision profiling.

Almost all cutting is done under water, which avoids the need for separate fume extraction and dramatically reduces the noise levels.

The 6000mm x 2500mm bed is long enough to allow the operator to start unloading profiles from one end while the machine continues to process plate at the other.

Virtually all of the material cut on the machine is mild steel or stainless steel in thicknesses up to 20mm typically, though heavier gauges can also be processed if required.

Crane and Rowbury previously sub-contracted its profiling work, resulting in at least a three-day wait before the steel components could be welded together to form completed fabrications.

Now, with the off-line programming and CNC link from the computer to the machine, it is possible to start the machine cutting within about 20 minutes of an order being received.

The computerised database also holds a wealth of information relating to material grades, feed rates and cutting head parameters.

Since the machine has been in use, it has also been found that the ease of use and the precision cutting capability of the waterjet head mean that more details are profiled than might have been the case before, which saves time in weld preparation, hole drilling and similar tasks.

The Hydrocut is now required to operate on a 24h basis.

Instead of having offcuts of material being scrapped, the CNC programming software is used to nest small standard items together so that the potential waste can be put to profitable use.

Costly offcut storage and scrap waste have been successfully minimised.

Thyssenkrupp AG, a German producer of iron and steel, has invested in Water Jet Sweden’s waterjet cutting technology to boost business and reduce costs.

Thyssenkrupp makes semi-finished or finished component-parts made of stainless steel and non-ferrous materials.

Its Dortmund Works processes steel, tubes, stainless steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics.

Before consignment to customers, it carries out slitting/cross-cutting, cutting, sawing, flame-cutting, milling, boring, grinding, preserving and coating.

In addition to iron and steel, there is the semi-finish work in plastics.

Traditionally, the cutting of parts has been done using sawing, laser or plasma cutting.

Thyssenkrupp is now using waterjet cutting equipment from Water Jet Sweden to perform heavy-duty cutting.

Using waterjet cutting means Thyssenkrupp’s customers have less work to do before building the delivered component parts into their own product.

In the Dortmund Works, one tonne of abrasive is consumed every day during the waterjet cutting of very hard materials.

Thyssenkrupp selected the NC 3560 DL waterjet cutter, which has a 6m long cutting table to meet the maximum lengths required by customers.

It also features linear drives, the main advantages of which are virtually no maintenance, the ability to move the two cutting heads independently in the X direction, higher accuracy to within 0.05mm and faster positioning speed of up to 30m/min.

The NC 3560 DL model incorporates the advanced Siemens 840D CNC system, especially adapted for Water Jet Sweden machines.

This system also features a wastewater cleaning system.

The amount of wastewater cleaned before discharge into the drainage system amounts to approximately 3200 litres a day.

Marcus Raback, works director for LC Edelstahl/NE-Metalle, said: ‘The advantages of waterjet cutting over other methods go further than the first obvious one of cold cutting.

‘We find plasma not at all suitable for cutting aluminium and we have found laser cutting not to be optimal due to insufficient up-time capacity and expensive running costs.

‘Waterjet cutting up-time capacity of 90 per cent is outstanding.

‘Our expectations that some of our customers would benefit also from the use of waterjet cutting were well-founded.

‘Many of them now, when placing their orders, specify that we use waterjet cutting in our processing preparation work before delivery.

‘They appreciate the beneficial effect of the cold cutting of the waterjet on the material, accuracy, superior finish, absence of burred edges and elimination of added preparation work.’.