PRODUCTION & ASSEMBLY EQUIPMENT FEATURE
LASER MARKING WORK STATION ensures traceability of parts
A business providing a one-stop shop offering high precision machining services has achieve much-needed part traceability since installing a laser-equipped work station from Technifor
A
s part of the Hemlock Group HPC Services provides high precision
machining services to many industry sectors. When the company became involved in the production of tight tolerance parts for a new system for suppressing building fires traceability became a necessity. This is efficiently and cost-effectively achieved by a TD412 laser- equipped LaserTop 2000 workstation supplied by Technifor. Hemlock has invested in 3- and 5-axis
prismatic machine tools while HPC Services provides multi-axis turning with Swiss- type sliding head and turn-milling machines to provide a one-stop shop service. Both were early adopters of CNC technology and look to automate and improve efficiency whenever possible. “It was the drive for efficiency and cost- effective results for the customer that initially prompted us to review the various component marking solutions available,” says Paul Cobb. “We are machining 15,000 parts a month with many variables. One customer Dual Mist required component traceability to meet end customer expectations and industry safety standards. It requires part number, date and location it was manufactured; as we don’t know when we are making a batch of any particular design we had to have a flexible solution.” That flexibility came from a Technifor
LaserTop 2000 work station fitted with the company’s TD412 diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser to efficiently generate high definition marks. With a marking power of 12W it provides consistent, high contrast character quality on a wide range of materials and is capable of marking at up to 2.5 m/sec. An innovative workstation, the LaserTop 2000 can accommodate any of the highly capable Technifor YAG or fibre technology lasers fitted with any lens. Compact in design the LaserTop 2000 can be installed on a desk or a work table. It is quiet enough to be used in an office and no external cooling is required. The useful 520 by 580 mm working area provides maximum flexibility in the size and weight of work pieces accommodated. It makes laser part marking more accessible and can be operated with minimal training. The Class 1 enclosure certified against laser emissions is fully interlocked to ensure
maximum safety. The counterbalanced door is equipped with sensors and an anti- pinch system. Opening vertically up to 420 mm it allows access and loading on three sides of the working area while a large viewing window ensures operator confidence during marking. LED lighting is embedded in the marking head so the area remains perfectly illuminated. A red diode marking pointer and 300 mm
Z-axis motorised height adjustment with positional display ensure that parts are positioned correctly in the 240 by 240 mm maximum marking area and processed correctly every time.
HOLDING THE NOZZLE BODY WITHOUT RISK OF DAMAGE For HPC Services the laser is used to drive a rotary axis to allow the cylindrical nozzles to be clearly marked around their circumference. By repurposing the plastic collet designed to be used by the installation engineers to screw the nozzle into the water feed pipework HPC Services has created an effective method of holding the nozzle body without risk of damage. “We investigated various methods and
suppliers and selected the TD412 because as a benchtop machine it is very compact and we are keen not to waste floor space,” explains Cobb. “It is extremely well designed and built and we liked the intuitive ease of use of the software; it is so straightforward even I can use it.” Prior to investing in the Technifor
marking system the company used the engraving capability of its Nakamura Tome CNC mill-turning centre to achieve the required traceability information. “When we first started producing the
HPC Services is confident that the traceable marks on their Dual Mist nozzles will remain legible for the lifetime of the buildings they are installed in
parts the volume was low enough to engrave the data on the circumference of the body,” continues Cobb. “However, it added a minute to the machining cycle time of a lathe that cost £200,000. We are currently producing to order 2,000 parts per month and that would be a lot of lost machining minutes. The Technifor system allows us to run the turning centres more efficiently and the mark generated on the component is of a much higher quality.” Although the quality of the mark was not a requirement at the outset it is an unexpected benefit that has impressed customers in other industry sectors that HPC Services supports, particularly train braking. Components for this sector are now marked using the Technifor laser and there is enough capacity for HPC Services to offer its capabilities as a subcontract service to other engineering businesses. With the sprinkler-based fire suppression
industry worth around £500 million each year Paul Cobb is confident that the Dual Mist product range will grow significantly. “A couple of businessmen approached
Hemlock looking for 5-axis machining and sliders to make some nozzles they had designed. I could see the potential but they were difficult to machine and therefore expensive to produce. We redesigned the nozzles using our engineering skills to simplify the design to make it both easier and more cost-effective. We spent a few years getting the design as effective as possible with the nozzle exit controlling the mist-to-water droplet ratio. It is so efficient now that we can literally replace 9 sprinkler heads with a single Dual Mist nozzle. The potential cost saving for the construction industry is huge and we expect exceptional growth so the marking machine will have to work even harder as we produce more nozzles. “We wanted to produce a ‘fit and forget’
nozzle and every element has been driven by that goal. These systems have to remain operationally ready for the life of the building and we are confident that the traceable marks created by the Technifor TD412 will remain completely intact and legible for the same timeframe.”
Technifor T: 01926 884422
www.technifor.com FACTORY EQUIPMENT | JULY/AUGUST 2016 7
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