UK specialist in laser cutting for manufacturing and production, SSC Laser have written an important white paper discussing the importance of tube lasers and how they are transforming the industry.
Tube lasers have revolutionised the way design engineers are using box section and tubular materials. There is now no need to design using the constraints of traditional machining methods, and concern over the cost of complex parts due to multiple operations on separate machines have become a thing of the past.
SSC Tube Laser Manager, Martin Elmore said: I think this new white paper is very important. First of all we can inform people that tube lasers exist so that helps to create market awareness around them. Tube lasers can produce different outcomes to conventional machines. The only way to grow the market is to get that information out there.
The greatest value of laser tube cutting becomes apparent when you take the laser's capabilities into consideration during a product's design stage. Speed, quality, flexibility, and repeatability are benefits that can be used to the designers advantage.
The modern product designer now constructs parts as a 3D model using software such as Pro-engineer or Solidworks. The construction industry uses Tekler for structural beams and roofing members, again a 3D modelling package.
Elmore explained: Software such as Solidworks takes days out of the design process, as it can ensure that parts fit together mechanically. We can create a virtual sample, where we can take the customers design from their 3d model, put it through our software, put it through the parts simulator which then generates the part as it actually will be cut and send it back to the customer.
All of this can be completed in a matter of minutes, rather than go through the prototyping stage, they can look at the part as we will produce it and they can decide whether it is suitable for their needs.
Systems such as these now allow parts to be designed and manufactured without having to go through the stage of producing dimensioned drawings of a complex 3D part. Producing these drawings is very time consuming, and often difficult to represent if complex curves and compound angles are involved.
Additionally, adding tabs and slots in varying forms to mating components can drastically reduce the amount of secondary operations required to form strong, accurate joints between parts. Elmore added: If you have got a tab on one part and a slot on another, they fit together like a jigsaw. So you dont have to build a complex jig with clamps to arrange the parts.
A tube laser cutter's speed and flexibility makes it suitable as a rapid prototyping system. A part can be taken from concept to finished tube very quickly. Elmore concluded: If there is a design change, we can again create another virtual sample in minutes, this process can go backwards and forwards through two/three variations in an afternoon. With traditional methods this process would take days or potentially weeks.
You can download SSC Laser's white paper: 'Are your designs constrained by technology?' here: https://www.ssclaser.co.uk/designing-tube-laser/