• Advanced Manufacturing

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Laser or water jet? Two different, but complimentary, cutting machines

  • Advanced Manufacturing
They emerged at practically the same time, during the second half of the 1960s, and although they use antagonistic technologies and processes, in a metal or sheet metal factory both complement each other because they are unbeatable in their respective niches, as we’re about to find out.

Smart pricing

  • Advanced Manufacturing
It is generally quite difficult to know exactly how much each process contributes to a product’s value chain. The sheet metal world is not immune to the difficulty of estimating the right price for the product. There is an infinite number of processes that add value to a product: material used, scrap generated, cutting time, consumables used, labor associated with production, miscellaneous indirect costs, etc.

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.