News

For a street furniture manufacturer, a laser profiling system that can change from sheet to tube cutting with no downtime between components, has proven to be ideal and has increased profiling capacity.

An LVD Impuls 4030 laser processing system has proved to be the ideal solution for Macemain + Amstad's profiling requirements, as it can change from sheet to tube cutting with no downtime between components.

The rotary axis can be loaded while flat sheet is cut and vice versa.

Corby-based Macemain specialises in the design and manufacture of street furniture and architectural structures, and has been a laser user for many years.

Its first investment in this area was a combination punch and laser machine, but, recognising the new degree of freedom that the laser provided, Macemain decided to invest in pure laser capacity and purchased its first LVD flat-bed profiling machine five years ago.

Although the machine performed well, there was a growing need to cut thicker materials, and Macemain's products were incorporating an ever-increasing proportion of tubes and profiled sections.

This meant that features such as holes and cutouts had to be machined - either manually or on conventional machine tools.

But despite the inconvenience, the amount of work involved could never justify a dedicated tube processing system.

"We don't have enough work to be able to use such a system to full capacity in a double shift," says Technical Director Colin Godfrey.

"On the other hand, we needed a flat-bed system with greater capacity.

So we looked for a solution that would enable us to perform rotary cutting, but which would also increase our normal cutting capacity."

The answer was an LVD Impuls 4030, which combines a four-metre flat-bed machine with two shuttle tables, and a rotary axis that can handle parts up to six metres long and 500mm in diameter.

No intervention is required to change from flat-bed to tube cutting, so the operator can load the rotary axis while the machine processes flat plate, or load the table while cutting pre-formed parts or tubes.

Says Colin Godfrey: "We need this flexibility, as we cannot simply cut sheet one day, then cut profiles the next.

Our production is individual and order-related.

This facility saves us a lot of time and money."

An extensive library of standard components makes it simple to program tubular components, he says.

"Programming for profile cutting is certainly more demanding than with flat-bed cutting.

The LVD software made this much easier for us, so we got the hang of it very quickly."

LVD's Impuls range is available in sizes to suit almost any customer, from heavy fabricators to small job shops.

And while most manufacturers offer a range of sheet lengths, LVD can also offer its machines in a range of sheet widths.

The machines use Fanuc laser sources, which are available in powers from 2kW up to 6kW.

Macemain chose the 4kW option, which gives it more than enough power for cutting stainless steel and aluminium up to 5mm and mild steel up to 20mm.

The ability to laser-cut profiles has fed directly back into component design at Corby.

Being able to create any contour with no extra effort or expense means that new features can be introduced to simplify assembly.

Once on site, the components simply need to be slotted together.

The result has been significant on-site savings in time and cost, which are directly attributable to the new Impuls system.