Page 19 - MetalForming November 2012

Fig. 2—Chain cutting creates several parts tabbed together on a sheet. This eliminates the possibility of the parts tipping up and causing a cutting-head crash.
the end, produce high-quality parts in an incredibly short amount of time.
Note: Some applications for the technology described here are only possible on cutting machines equipped with certain types of drive systems or with certain CNC controllers.
Flash Cutting
Flash cutting (as Amada refers to it) is a technique used when cutting grid patterns of squares or rectangles from a nested sheet. Historically, when laser
Fig. 3—Chain-tabbed sheets can allow a metalformer to gang-bend all of the parts simultaneously in a press brake, which can be a huge time saver when bending large quantities of small parts.
cutting a square or rectangle a metal- former would pierce the center of the contour, or pierce closer to the edge, and then lead-in to cut the shape. Dur- ing lead-in cutting, cutting speed slows as the beam approaches each corner, and then accelerates to the established
cut speed to complete each side of the four-sided shape.
While this process suffices and still finds use, a better method has recent- ly been introduced to metalformers to provide a faster way to complete a grid pattern (Fig. 1). The key is optimum
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