Measures to Ensure Higher Productivity in Laser Cutting

Posted by Steven Glassner on January 16th, 2018

If you are in the metal fabricating industry, using laser for fabricating your metal, you should know that for maximizing your productivity, you need to take few micro leveled measures. Few small measures can push up and lift your productivity. Even if you pay attention to the environment, equipment or even the necessary consumables, you can improve your efficiency. All the leaser machine users know this, but they often ignore it.

Fabricating in the 21st century is even more difficult. This is because the raw material prizes are unpredictable. In addition, the margins are shrinking and the lead times are also decreasing. At such a crunch time, proper machine maintenance can save your shop plenty of money. That is when these few of these tips can help laser operators avoid pounding head pins. Moreover, it can also keep their equipment operating at top speed.

Let us look into it.

Knowing the Environment

It is true that the makeup of all laser machines is the same. However, it is also true that the shop environment influences these laser machines in different ways. Other factors also play a very important role in tuning the machine. These factors are:

ambient temperature
the type of material under fabrication
human skills
shop cleanliness
air quality (dense, moist etc)

This is becomes  vital as one defective air compressor or an air dryer might contaminate the focal lenses faster in your shop than in some others shop. Thus, a laser operator needs to study all these factors. In simpler terms, the operator needs to be aware of and know the environment in which the machine has to function. After that, they can create a preventive maintenance program accordingly.

Routine Checks

When you know the environment, you know how it can affect your machine and your productivity. To make the results more productive, you also need to conduct routine checks. You need to keep an eye on every little thing. You need to check the inner and outer nozzles in the shop. For this, you just have to take a look at the nozzles and see if they are in the center or not. A misaligned nozzle will give you poor quality cuts. Moreover, it can also open an opportunity for nozzle damage.

Another routine check is also essential for the lenses. An operator must ensure that the cleanliness of the lenses. For checking its cleanliness, you have to hold up the cartridge against light. When you look through it, you can easily see the dirt on the lens. Conduct a breath test for cleaning the lens. An operator has to check the basic laser equipment such as:

nozzles
lenses
assist gases

A routine check ensures the proper functioning of the machine. It further also brings in sight any damaged or malfunctioned component.

The Consumables

Few components of the machine are under extreme stress while operating. They are also under constant wear and tear as it works frequently at high temperature and pressure. The wear and tear sooner or later consumes the component. You need to keep a stock of few of bystronic laser consumables. When you have a stock of bystronic laser parts you do not have to compromise with the production.

The only thing you need to make sure is that stock the consumables in accordance of the specs specified by the manufacturer. If you choose some other component, which is not in line with the specification of your manufacturer, you would sacrifice performance. Aftermarket suppliers sometimes reverse engineer an OEM specified component. This may result in the replacement with a non-specified spare part. These few steps can push your laser cutting operation to higher levels.