MICRO MACHINING | ARTICLE
Manufacturing of various, frequently miniaturised, products requires cutting or drilling of thin-walled tubes or profiles with micron-scale precision. The delicate tube material has to be machined without burrs or distortion and this is where laser systems like StarCut Tube offer inestimable advantages compared to chemical and mechanical machining procedures.
One laser cutting step replaces several adjacent machining steps Manufacturing of parts for implants, instruments or endoscopes from round or oval tubes usually requires numerous different machining steps. Techniques like drilling, milling or eroding are carried out as separate processes, slowing down overall manufacturing speed. At the same time, the risk of production waste increases with each additional step.
The 4-axes CNC laser processing system StarCut Tube allows to transform numerous mechanical machining steps into a single laser processing routine. With CNC-driven rotary-, x-, y- and z-axes and a solid granite machine set-up, even taper-free or offset cuts are as easy as ultra-precise processing of oval tubes or flat parts.
Fully-automated tube loading Streamlining the manufacturing process with a laser system also reduces the processing time of parts up to a length of 600 mm (to only a few minutes). Therefore, an automated material loading system has to provide constant tube supply for efficient series production. ROFIN developed a new tube loading module with a side-loading magazine for tubes of 3 to 30 mm diameter and up to 3 m length. A pivotable pilgrim step separation assures precise and gentle handling of tubes with small diameters. Sophisticated grippers provide accurate and reliable tube feeding and the automated removal of residual material.
Wet cutting: easier than ever The automated tube loading module is available for wet cutting as well. Wet laser cutting with burr-free and oxide-free cutting edges dramatically reduces necessary post-processing steps and offers huge potential savings.
30 | commercial micro manufacturing international Vol 6 No.5
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