Laser-cut components with machined components are lifted from a nest. Be aware the holes the place a drill eliminated the ultimate microtab, after machining was full.
For years, multifunction slicing machines have epitomized the done-in-one splendid in plate fabrication. And should you visited FABTECH 2025, your eye may need caught extra multifunction machines with a brand new thermal slicing instrument: the fiber laser. This introduces a bunch of advantages, together with taper-free edges and a few excessive plate-cutting speeds.
Normally, all of the slicing happens beneath the identical gantry on the identical desk. However particularly on thinner plate, the laser slicing head can lower so shortly, secondary drilling and milling would possibly turn into a constraint, particularly as volumes rise. Would there be a method to combine milling, drilling, counterboring, countersinking, and tapping into an automatic laser slicing system—however on a separate desk?
Mazak Optonics Corp. took this strategy when it launched the Good Driller system at this yr’s FABTECH. On the sales space, Al Bohlen, firm president, held up an element with a laser-cut gap and a precision counterbore. “The inside gap was laser-cut, after which [the Smart Driller] returned to this location to make the counterbore. We are able to additionally faucet this laser-cut gap to create the threads. We might even ream this gap, if a precision meeting required it. Assume of a big meeting for a mix or a tractor, one the place a pin is positioned inside the gap, an software the place the situation tolerances are razor skinny. We are able to ream that gap after laser slicing, to verify the match is excellent.”
The machining happens in a piece envelope separate from laser slicing. The Good Driller comes as a module that may be hooked up to the corporate’s automated laser slicing methods. The machine robotically retrieves the instrument it wants from a 20-tool carousel, then machines plate with a 3,500-RPM spindle, able to drilling holes in metal as much as 1 in. diameter and tapping holes as much as 0.750 in.
First, a Mazak fiber laser cuts a nest of components, together with cutouts, holes, and half perimeters. Not like in a traditional nest, nevertheless, the laser leaves a comparatively thick microjoint, making certain the clean stays safe for the machining that may comply with.
After laser slicing, the plate is moved to the Good Driller system, which then performs the mandatory machining. After this, the drill cuts the final microjoint, at which level it’s prepared for denesting. Then, the plate will be delivered to a guide offloading desk. Programs additionally will be fitted with automated components selecting and sorting.
“All of the machining happens because the laser is slicing the following job,” Bohlen mentioned. “It’s simultaneous processing.”
A number of key applied sciences make all this doable. First is a CCD digicam built-in inside the Good Driller’s processing head. Because the automation strikes the lower nest from the laser to the machining work envelope, components on the nest can transfer ever so barely. The digicam offers the system the data it wants to regulate. If, say, a laser-cut gap must be tapped, the digicam exhibits precisely the place the outlet is, after which the system adjusts its place.
“For those who’re going to run a faucet by means of a laser-cut gap,” Bohlen mentioned, “you’ve received to be useless heart.”
That gap additionally have to be freed from particles. As Bohlen defined, “Let’s say the laser lower a gap, but for no matter cause, the slug didn’t fall out. That creates a doable collision. So, we would need to run a drill by means of it first to verify the slug is gone earlier than we faucet. The digicam will determine that difficulty.” Bohlen paused, then pointed to a monitor within the FABTECH sales space displaying the tapping instrument in motion. “The important thing to all of it actually is that digicam.”
The Good Driller module will be added to sure Mazak laser slicing cells. Photos: Mazak Optonics Corp.
Bohlen subsequent pointed to the drilling module’s distinctive “double” slat desk. Completely totally different from a traditional slat desk for laser slicing (or different thermal slicing processes, for that matter), the Good Driller’s slats have a resin coating that secures the plate throughout machining. Most critically, alternate slats retract downward as wanted, permitting clearance for drilling and tapping instruments.
“One slat retracts as the opposite slat comes up,” Bohlen defined, including that this eliminates the potential for interference between the slats and the system’s slicing instruments. “And also you’ll discover that we have now no clamping right here. If we add clamping, we add a useless zone. We need to course of your entire sheet.” Bohlen mentioned this whereas pointing to a sequence of threaded holes positioned proper close to the plate edge.
The system can machine partial plates as much as 1 in. thick, however due to weight limitations of the Good Driller’s slat desk, it handles full plate sizes as much as about 5/8 in. thick.
If machined components on one half would possibly trigger points for machined components on one other close by half, the system’s software program can separate these items on the nest structure to make sure a secure slicing cycle. Nests additionally must have net sections of sure widths, to make sure the drill has sufficient room to chop by means of the ultimate microjoint and launch the half from the skeleton.
That barely wider net, nevertheless, could be a small worth to pay to remove time-consuming secondary operations that may add hours and even days to a product’s general manufacturing time. “Once more, if we combine half sorting into the cell, we are able to decide the half after machining, then kind and stack items immediately onto a pallet,” Bohlen mentioned. These pallets don’t go to a machining or tapping station, however as a substitute on to the following main manufacturing step. “We’re now eliminating these secondaries and doing all of it on one automated system.”
On the left, a milling instrument machines a slot; at proper, a tapping instrument threads a laser-cut gap.
