why invest in sheet metal racks
/ By Miguel Menargues / laser cutting • Partners/ No comments

3 reasons to invest in a sheet metal storage system

Storage systems are an efficient solution for companies that handle large quantities of sheet metal or long products made of steel, stainless steel or aluminum. They offer many advantages such as savings in logistical time, organization, space and security.

In this article, we will give you an overview of the top 3 reasons why our customers invest in sheet metal storage systems, whether they are towers or racks, automated or not. 

1. Faster sheet metal storage than ever before

The main advantage of investing in storage racks for sheet metal is that they allow faster and more secure storage. Racks or storage towers for sheet metal are designed to accommodate sheet metal in a way that it is better organized and can be quickly moved back and forth between production and storage. This allows our customers to improve material flow and thus save time and space in their facilities. In addition, the storage racks protect the materials from external conditions and weathering, thus providing protection against corrosion.

2. Less manual handling of sheets for better safety

Sheet metal storage systems reduce manual handling. This greatly reduces the risk of damage to the sheets, the risk of injury to the operators and improves overall productivity. In addition, it is also possible to automate these storages with fully automated racks. This is the specialty of our German partner Remmert. On the other hand, we can consider standard or custom configurations. Each one can be equipped with additional security systems.

remmert sheet metal storage tower

3. More flexibility in production

Finally, storage racks offer companies greater flexibility. For example, our partner Remmert offers the creation of racks that are 100% customized to the size and dimensions of each workshop. The racks can be adapted to both small and large storage spaces, allowing companies to optimize space and use their storage space more efficiently.

Lhe intelligent control system SMART Control is the heart of the Remmert goods flow solution. It consists of two modules. On the one hand, the Control module, which enables the control of the system and is responsible for visualization, process control, diagnosis and troubleshooting. On the other hand, the WMS BASIC module which represents the inventory management system with simple and intuitive inventory management. These two modules form a powerful control system with an intuitive graphical user interface.

In conclusion, investing in sheet metal storage racks offers many benefits to businesses. It allows for more efficient storage, reduced costs, less manual handling, increased security and more flexibility through customization and automation. As you can see, sheet metal racks are an excellent solution for companies that handle large quantities of sheet metal.

/ By Miguel Menargues / laser cutting/ No comments

The degaussing of parts in laser cutting

Over the past two decades, the sheet metal and boiler making industry has evolved to become more and more competitive, orders are arriving later and later, lead times are getting shorter, fierce competition is forcing the industry to compete with ingenuity in order to reduce production costs and to be able to offer advantageous prices without impacting quality. Machine tools have also evolved, they have become real jewels of technology, fully automated and offering extraordinary performances, these machines represent important investments for manufacturers but are nevertheless necessary for anyone who wishes to remain competitive. 

In this context, any optimisation in terms of productivity is welcome, and there is one problem in this area that can be particularly costly and that all users of laser cutting machines are confronted with, which is the degreasing of parts.

What is part degreasing?

During laser cutting operations, micro-junctions are made that keep the cut parts attached to the sheet metal skeleton. Their main function is to keep the parts flat in order to avoid a collision with the cutting head, which could seriously damage the machine. They also serve to prevent the parts from falling under the cutting table and possibly getting lost or damaged. In an automated machine, the micro-junctions also allow the unloading forks to retrieve the cut sheet in a single block for storage while awaiting de-stripping.

De-bonding is the action of unhooking the cut part from the sheet metal skeleton by breaking the micro-junction. This operation is usually carried out manually by an operator and can be particularly time consuming if many small parts have been cut, especially after a night or weekend of automatic machine operation. This is a dry loss of productivity as it takes at least one person full time, and cannot be done in hidden time due to its length.

How to speed up the process of removing parts?

There are several ways to reduce the time spent on degreasing metal parts. The most effective, but also the most expensive, is to acquire a fully automated laser cutting centre. The latest generation of laser cutting machines offer several automation options, from loading and unloading, to sorting the cut parts by a system designed to collect the parts and place them in different bins according to their shape. This is obviously the most efficient solution and will have a significant impact on your productivity. That said, it is necessary to have large production volumes in order to amortize the high cost of this type of machine, which can exceed one million euros! It is therefore not a wise investment for all companies, which is why several other systems exist. 

Among them, one solution stands out because it allows to reduce the degreasing time significantly and at a lower cost, it is the Rhino Hammer gun. 

The Rhino Hammer is a very simple and economical pneumatic hammer gun that allows you to blow out micro-junctions by simply passing the polyurethane tip over the parts. Thanks to this system and its impressive impact rate of 1,000 strokes per minute, it is possible to reduce the time spent on degreasing by over 60%. Of course, this productivity gain will quickly translate into significant economies of scale as it is much more affordable than other options. In addition, the polyurethane tip ensures that no impact marks are left on the parts. For our team, this is definitely the best value solution on the market to optimise your post-cut handling operations by reducing the time spent on part removal.
We found this solution so interesting that we recently decided to add the Rhino Hammer to our catalogue. We are now able to offer this product to all our customers!

degaussing of laser-cut parts
Zooming the Rhino Hammer movement
/ By Miguel Menargues / laser cutting • Partners/ 1 comment

The importance of metal deburring in laser cutting

Today, as you know, there are a multitude of tools for metalworking. In our case, we are particularly fond of laser cutting. Machines on which we have been performing maintenance since 2002. Indeed, they offer a certain flexibility, speed and precision in your production compared to other machine tools. It is certainly a heavy investment, but it will be very profitable for your company over the years.

In addition to laser cutting machines, we can also mention press brakes, plasma cutting tables, water jet cutting tables and deburring machines. In this article, we will focus on the latter production tool. A machine tool dedicated to a perfect metal finish, ideal for increasing the quality of your production.

All you need to know about metal deburring

The first question you need to ask yourself is a legitimate one: What exactly ismetal deburring? As the name suggests, it is the process that comes after laser cutting. This operation consists of removing burrs, splashes and dents from the edges of your metal part. Simply put, it's all the little imperfections that separate the edges of your part from a completely smooth and shiny surface. That being said, these burrs are generally less present on laser-cut parts compared to other metalworking machines. Obviously, the greater the thickness of the metal being cut, the more burr will be present. This makes perfect sense.

Demanding customers in search of the best quality!

In a booming laser cutting market, there is obviously more and more competition. In particular, many subcontractors are equipping themselves with very powerful fibre laser machines to keep up with the influx of orders. Nevertheless, faced with these numerous players, customers sometimes find it difficult to make a choice for their service providers. For subcontractors, one argument makes the difference: production quality!

We now frequently see manufacturers who no longer hesitate to internalize laser cutting directly in their factories. As an example, we can cite our customer Citynox and its purchase of a EAGLE fiber laser machine 15kW. It is for the moment the most powerful machine installed in France (September 2020). A machine which thus largely exceeds the performances of those of the subcontractors!

In view of this high customer demand, the deburring process is becoming more and more important. Hence the growing interest in deburring machines, machines for clean metal finishing, such as the one of our partner COSTA Levigatrici for example.

How deburring machines work

Choosing a deburring machine really does simplify and speed up the finishing of your parts after the metal cutting phase. It saves your teams from having to use strips, paper or even sanding discs. Indeed, these "classic" deburring processes are much less efficient, but above all much more time-consuming and exhausting! With a metal deburring machine, you simply put your production parts directly into the machine and they come out as smooth as possible. All in record time! With the best quality parts, your customers will always be satisfied, which will help you to keep them loyal in the long term. This is especially important for small and medium-sized industrial companies!

metal deburring machine
precision leveler for metal
/ By Miguel Menargues / Other • laser cutting/ No comments

Problems with flatness? Think precision leveler!

What is the purpose of a precision leveler ? First of all, it is important to know that your parts can be deformed as a result of laser, plasma or punching operations. If this is the case, it is because the temperature contrast generated by this type of technology releases the stresses inherent in the metal. This causes the phenomenon of cambering, also known as tiling. Even worse, your sheets may be tiled or bent before the laser cutting process.

Although quite common, this phenomenon can be detrimental to your day-to-day production. Indeed, whether it is on sheet metal or on already cut parts, it can cause a loss of productivity in the order of 15 to 25%, or even more if you use welding robots.

In addition, touch-ups may be necessary in order to regain optimal flatness. These operations can generate a lot of scrap when it is impossible to recover the defect, causing a loss of profitability. This problem is all the more present as the length of the parts, or sheets, is important.

Rather than manually straightening your parts to meet your customers' requirements, you can optimize their stability with a simple leveling operation lasting about 2 minutes. The purpose of this operation is to subject the sheet or part to several alternating bending operations applied by small cross-section flattening rollers. The effect of these operations will be to eliminate residual stresses and obtain a perfectly flat part ready for machining in record time, without the need for time-consuming and damaging rework that would be detrimental to your profitability.

The efficiency of a precision leveler with servo-hydraulic motors

The gain in profitability can easily be calculated. For example, if you manually straighten 10,000 parts per year, an operation that can take up to 30 minutes per part, this means that your operators spend 5,000 hours a year straightening.

On the other hand, ifyou reduce the operation time to 2 minutes per piece, your operators will only spend 333 hours a year for a better end result. An exponential gain that doesn't even take into account the improvement in the stability of your parts, which will allow you to save time on each of the steps after cutting.

In general, 2 operators are required to perform manual straightening of parts. To sum up, they will cost you around 30 euros each per hour, i.e. a total of 60€/h x 5,000h = 300,000€ / year. 

On the other hand, if you equip yourself with a precision leveler with servo-hydraulic motors, the operation will only cost you 60€/h x 333 h = 19 980€ per year. This means a potential gain of more than 280 000€ each year.

This is a theoretical example to illustrate our point. Everyone must indeed be aware of the importance of these deformation problems, and not hide the fact that the hidden costs are potentially significant.

system for precision levelers
Zoom on the Precision Leveler System

Metal planers: A new partner of choice!

Of course, the SERVILASE team remains mobilized to help you to better understand this problem specific to thermal cutting and to precisely measure the impact in terms of costs.

In addition, we have recently moved closer to the company Roccia SRL and became the distributors for France. Based in Italy, this brand designs and manufactures a range of state-of-the-art levelers. We will be pleased to complete the information given in this article in order to offer you the machine that corresponds to your needs. And always with a quality/price ratio that is unbeatable on the market.

Companies directory Web Directory

laser tube machine
/ By Miguel Menargues / laser cutting/ No comments

All about tube laser cutting

With our previous blog posts, you already know the various fields of application offered by laser technology. Among these applications, we often talk about 2D laser cutting and the laser engraving on wood. But that's not all, it also includes laser tube cutting , which has been very successful in recent years.

But why such a development of this market? Most of the time, companies wishing to cut tubes and profiles use traditional methods, such as cutting with hand saws, grinding wheels or gas welding. These methods have many disadvantages, being more tiring and time-consuming for your teams. Faced with this obvious observation, laser tube cutting machines were born! 

Reduction of production times

First of all, as with the 2D process, laser tube cutting offers a more cost-effective solution compared to conventional methods: sawing, drilling or milling of metal tubes. In detail, these machines are equipped with a rotary axis, allowing a specific handling of the parts. This unique design guarantees optimum cutting qualities and a considerable reduction in production times.

The advantages in a few points: 

  • More than 70% time reduction on each machined tube.
  • Parts can be assembled 2x faster.
  • Possibility to continue to use other production tools at the same time: 2D laser cutting, milling machine, saw...
  • Process large serial customer orders more efficiently.
  • Possibility to work on much more complex tube shapes than with manual methods.

As you will have understood, the laser tube offers significant efficiency and production flexibility, opening up interesting possibilities for manufacturers to create new products. An opportunity to constantly respond to the needs of the market in real time! As you will have certainly noticed, the tube is present in many metal constructions.

Finally, the powers of these laser machines can be increasingly higher thanks to the innovations proposed by the manufacturers. Today, these machines can reach up to 5kW in order to perform cutting on tube diameters ranging from 12 to 610 millimetres. As for the length of the processed tubes, they can reach 14 metres for the largest machines.

metal tube construction

Fiber at the service of the tube laser

Of course, you can't afford to miss out on the latest innovations on the market! Manufacturers of tube laser machines have understood this, quickly deciding to integrate fiber laser sources into their production tools. Nevertheless, for more flexibility, most manufacturers still offer the choice between fiber and CO2 machines.

Of course, the main advantages of this technology remain similar to flatbed laser cutting machines :

  • Possibility of cutting the tube on many materials, including copper and brass.
  • Lower energy and maintenance costs compared to CO2 technology.
  • Absence of several spare parts.

In conclusion

In conclusion, it is obvious that laser tube machines still have a good margin of progress, similar to the fiber laser machines flat, now up to 20kW of power! From the point of view of the equipment itself, this will require increasingly fast cutting speeds and complete automation thanks to the phenomenon of "flattening".industry 4.0This is a new way of organizing productions, particularly thanks to digitalization.

Moreover, the collection of this machine data by the software in place will allow tomorrow's machines to continuously improve according to the expectations of each company. This is where the most interesting added value for the future of thelaser industry lies.

servilase laser cutting consumable
/ By Miguel Menargues / laser cutting/ No comments

Consumables for laser cutting

Consumables directory for laser cutting machines

Today, we present you the laser cutting consumables. Small parts, which are essential to ensure the proper functioning of your machine. Presentation.

What is a consumable for laser cutting?

When we talk about consumables for laser cutting, we are talking about nozzles, protective windows, lenses or even ceramics. Parts that allow your laser machine to work properly for the production of your customers' parts.

As the name suggests, these elements have a long life and use. Of course, in order to ensure production that meets your expectations, it is essential not to neglect the quality of these consumables. Moreover, with better quality, you can logically use each of these parts for longer. Significant savings, especially in the long term for your company. 

As you will have understood, consumables are important to consider when you need to choose your laser cutting machine !

The main types of laser consumables

Cutting nozzle

  • The laser nozzles are made of copper, which is the last part of the cutting head that is in contact with the sheet metal. It injects gas pressure into the cut, allowing the metal to be cut. For a better durability of your nozzles, consider buying chrome nozzles.

Protective window for a fibre laser

  • Protective windows are consumables that are only found on the fiber laser machines. They protect the focusing lens(es) of the cutting heads, thus preserving their qualities and a durable cut.

Ceramic laser cutting head

  • Ceramics are a terminal component of the profile tracking system during laser cutting. They are located at the end of the head, acting as a support for the nozzle. 

Focal lenses for laser cutting

  • Finally, the lenses for laser cutting are located in the head and allow the beam to be focused. A focal lens in good condition ensures optimal laser beam quality, allowing clean and sharp metal cutting. 

Laser cutting consumables at SERVILASE

In response to our customers' expectations, we have decided to develop partnerships with many suppliers of consumables for laser cutting. Of course, as outlined above, we have focused above all on the quality of these parts. A long process that today allows us to be sure to provide the best to our customers.

With a field of expertise in laser cutting machines EAGLE laserIn addition, we ensure that we always have a large stock of lenses, ceramics, nozzles and protective windows for these brands of fiber laser and CO2 machines.