Page 11 - MetalForming January 2012

laser cutting may opt for plasma when they see the results.
Hypertherm: 603/643-3441; www.hypertherm.com
3D Laser Cutting of B-Pillar Body Panels
Laser Specialists, Inc., Fraser, MI, recently took delivery of the first Prima Rapido 3D laser-cutting and-welding sys- tem produced at the Prima Power Laser- dyne facility in Champlin, MN. Says Laser Specialists president Nick Pacquin: “We now have a system that will cut and trim a typical automotive B-pillar body panel in less than 50 sec., as well as sim- ilar large components for our aerospace, appliance and electronics customers. With the machine’s high acceleration and rapid traverse speed of 175 m/min., we can produce cut edges free from oxide that are weld- and paint-ready, with no costly added operations needed.”
Laser Specialists, a contract manu- facturer with more than 25 years of experience in laser processing, became the first company in the metro-Detroit to invest in a five-axis laser cutting (in 1989). Prima Power Laserdyne: 763/433-3700; www.prima-na.com
Automated Laser Tube Cutting
BLM Group USA, Wixom, MI, intro- duces the LT Jumbo Series, an automatic laser-cutting machine designed for cut- ting large-diameter thick-walled tubes. Use the machine to cut round, square and rec- tangular tubes, as well as nontubular open structural sections, ranging in diameter from 3 to 20 in. and lengths to 60 ft. The LT Jumbo can process mild, high-strength, alloy and stainless steels, and can cut, edge-bevel and countersink holes.
All material loading, cutting and unloading operations are controlled by CNC, and the system control software automatically selects the optimum cut- ting procedure. Because all machine
operations are performed by programmed commands, no manual setups or fix- tures are required. Once tubes are placed on the loader they are moved indi- vidually into the feeding line with an automated chuck system. The combined action of the two working chucks and drive chuck move and position the tube under the five-axis cutting head accord-
ing to the program parameters.
After being cut, each finished part is unloaded to a specific programmed posi- tion according to length. Parts 10 ft. long can be unloaded onto the short part- unload conveyor; longer parts are sent
to a long-part unloader.
BLM Group USA: 248/560-0080;
www.blmgroup.com
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