Page 29 - MetalForming January/February 2022

Kern provided VanRon with this optional rotary lathe-chuck attachment, useful for processing pipes, rods and tubing. Driven by a high-resolution servo motor, the attachment provides smooth, accurate cutting performance.
needed, and when to use oxygen or shop as the assist gas—and how much gas—as key knowledge bites. “And, many of the process parameters change whether you’re cutting square or round tube sections,” he explains, “partly due to the tube geometry. Square tubes have variable wall thick- ness since material gathers in the cor- ner radii, so we must adjust cutting- process parameters accordingly. We also experience variable cut quality depending on the tube supplier, its recipe for creating a particular alloy, and its production process. To adjust at the laser cutting machine, therefore, we’ve developed numerous recipes for piercing and cutting based on the spe- cific workpiece at hand. We probably have some 200 recipes stored in the machine control, and we’re setting up and programming at least one new job/week.
“To learn the machine and become trained, we didn’t hire a laser expert,”
Charon continues. “We trained our- selves, along with the support of Kern’s technician who spent a week here help- ing us get set up, including developing the set of fixtures we needed. And, long after he left, we continued to receive help from Kern as needed. We now have three employees trained on the machine, including me.”
Moving Beyond Prototyping and Short Run
We spoke to Charon during the height of VanRon’s prototyping sea- son—year-end, when many of its cus- tomers ramp up new-product devel- opment. “While prototyping comprises some 20 percent of our annual volume, during Q3 and Q4 we see a lot of this work, along with low-volume produc- tion jobs of 100 to 1000 parts,” Charon says.
Now that Charon and his team have their arms wrapped around low- wattage laser tube cutting for proto-
typing and lower volume work, what’s next?
“As we move into 2022, we’ll likely invest in a bigger tube laser-cutting machine—higher power and equipped with automation—so that we can con- tinue to grow into higher-volume work,” Charon says. “We hear that in this area, lead times for tube laser cut- ting can be 10 to 12 weeks or more, so we think there’s an opportunity for us to graduate beyond prototype and short-run production.” MF
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