Page 28 - MetalForming October 2019

FABRICATION
Depending on production volume and needs, a fully automated setup tying together material storage and handling as well as production can keep laser cutters up and running, and deliver a healthy return on investment.
Tips for Automating
Laser Cutting Operations
An idle laser cutter loses money. Investing in the proper automation can add production uptime and boost profits.
State-of-the-art laser cutting sys- tems combine high performance with incredible speed. Unfortu- nately, they spend far too much time sitting idle. What may sound like a par- adox is actually a reality—and a costly one at that—in many production facil- ities. Companies looking to invest in a new laser cutting system often see it as a stand-alone solution. However, the only way to achieve the return on investment they seek is by ensuring that the laser cutting system continu- ously operates. A consistent materi- al-flow and automation concept accomplishes just that. That said, fab- ricators should consider establishing efficient, future-proof material flow before they purchase such laser cutting systems.
In only the past few years, cutting speeds of laser systems have more than doubled. Rather than producing more and more in less and less time, many sheet metal fabricators instead find themselves facing a problem they hadn’t seen coming: Their cost-inten- sive laser cutting systems are not oper- ating at full capacity. “The problem is that staff simply can’t load and unload the systems quickly enough,” explains Frank Baudach, head of sales DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) at Remmert, a provider of automation and intralogistics solutions for sheet- metal and long-bar storage systems. “When every pallet must be transport- ed to the system individually, and then each sheet must be placed on the load- ing platform by hand, capacity utiliza-
tion caps at around 25 percent.”
At that rate, the significant invest- ment in a laser cutting system will
never pay off.
“Every second that the laser remains
inactive costs the company money,” Baudach says. “However, if laser cutting systems are integrated into a coordi- nated material-flow concept, capacity utilization can be increased to more than 80 percent.”
Consider Equipment Lifecycle and Modularity
“Laser cutting systems have a short lifecycle, perhaps 6 yr.,” explains Dr. Thomas Peitz, Remmert technical manager. “In contrast, the automation solutions into which they are embed- ded have much longer lifecycles.
26 MetalForming/October 2019
www.metalformingmagazine.com