• Advanced Manufacturing

SHEET HAPPENS IV: Searching for elements – This helps a lot

  • Advanced Manufacturing
Every once in a while someone appears, usually from a commercial department, asking, "That part we did seven months ago, can you find it?" and when you ask for more information, they say something like, "You remember, it was about… this big!” while making a measuring gesture with their hands.

Which cutting technology is the most suited to your plant?

  • Nesting
Thirty years ago, the global distribution of sheet metal cutting machine-tools was dominated by the oxycut variety (large thicknesses) and, to a lesser extent, the plasma variety (small thicknesses). There was a niche for punching machines along with water jet and laser machines. The latter were aimed at thicknesses less than 5mm and were expensive. Since then, the trend has shifted, shrugging oxycut in favor of other technologies according to thicknesses.

Technological progress of Thermal cutting: from Oxycut to Fiber Laser

  • Advanced Manufacturing
Historically, different material cutting technologies have been developed for different sectors of the market, each with its advantages but also disadvantages and limitations. Usually they have been developed around a single type of cutting, but for some time now combined methodologies are being used, such as water and plasma, punching and laser or punching and shearing.