Laser Cutting Equipment
The choice of laser systems has increased dramatically over the last 5 years. There are suppliers from all over the world competing for the lucrative UK market. Prices vary enormously dependant on the level of technology involved, the options chosen, and how hungry the machine suppliers are for the order! We chose two Bystronic machines as the basis of our manufacturing systems.
Bystronic is a major manufacturer of machine tools based in Switzerland. They specialise in turnkey laser systems, including the related manufacturing software and control systems. In addition to the excellent technology, they also offer, in our experience, the best after-sales service in the industry. This level of service was an equal factor to machine capability when we were deciding which machines to buy. It's no use having great machines if they're sat idle waiting to be fixed!
We currently have a 3kw Bysprint and a 4kw Byspeed, a total investment of around £650,000. The kw is the amount of power available - equivalent of a 3-bar and a 4-bar electric fire! It's the way the lasers focus this power to a very tight beam that allows us to cut thick materials.
Cutting Aluminium - difficult to do with laser only a
few years ago. Recent developments have allowed
us to cut up to 10mm thick in most grades.
As important as the laser cutting machine is the software that programs and controls it. We've invested in several systems to improve the range of services we can offer including:
- Software to allow us to visually schedule the machines and therefore respond quickly to order progress enquiries
- Software that allows us to open and translate numerous different computer file types - whatever system or software you've developed on we can usually work with it
- Specialised systems and software to allow us to scan & translate artwork into data the laser cutting equipment understands
- Systems that allow us to reverse engineer existing parts, allowing us to make new / modified versions
The Bysoft software allows us to program a job
offline and download the cut-plan to the laser cutting
equipment when the job is scheduled to cut
Laser Engraving Equipment
We laser engrave on many different materials, including plastics, wood, MDF, aluminium, stainless steel and many others. The type of equipment used is very different from the cutting lasers shown above. We use much lower powers, and the lasers are capable of working with raster artwork, as well as vector files. This allows us to, for example, engrave photographic images on materials at up to 600dpi.
Because the laser engraving machines use such low power we're also able to cut very thin materials, such as paper and card, without causing severe burning or distortion due to gas pressure.
Laser engraving Stainless Steel - the laser "scans" the components and pulses the laserbeam to apply the engraved mark
Laser engraving is very flexible. We can use most image formats to generate the program for the machine, and the engraved image can look better than the artwork used to create it!
We've also recently installed a Nitrogen generating system, costing £110,000.This allows us to cut thick stainless steel, aluminium and other non-ferrous metals very efficiently, to a very high quality, and at a very competitive cost. It also helps us to help the environment - because we generate our nitrogen from the air around us we don't rely on external producers (who use an awful lot of electricity) to transport the gas to us up to 5 times a week. It really is an eco-friendly solution.
