JOB SHOPS


ALL PART OF THE SERVICE


Greg Blackman assesses the health of the laser job shop market and finds that new service offerings are springing up for micromachining


K


eeping up to date with the latest technology can be a struggle in any industry, and this is certainly the case for laser job shops with the advances


being made in fibre lasers for cutting. In a world where equipment is not cheap and system lifetimes are long, it has to be worthwhile to upgrade to new laser technology. In addition, a whole new category of machining service bureau has emerged on the back of the growth in ultrashort pulsed lasers and micromachining, which has just about reached industrial maturity. Dr John Powell, technical director at


Nottingham, UK-based job shop Laser Expertise, noted two big changes in the UK job shop sector over the last few years: the addition of fibre lasers to what was a market dominated by CO2


lasers


for cutting, and competition from steel stockholders with laser machining capabilities. Powell spoke about the UK


some cases, steel stockholders are quoting prices for large orders that are the equivalent of what job shops will pay just for the metal.’ Steel stockholders aren’t interested in small


jobs; those are still going to the job shops. But taking away the larger commissions is squeezing the job shop sector. One route to compete in the market is for job shops to add value to laser cutting with other services. Laser Expertise offers a full fabrication service, including bending, welding, drilling and painting, alongside the cutting. Te other trend Powell noted was that job


shops have started to split their production, adding a fibre laser to existing CO2


laser


capacity. Fibre lasers are faster at cutting thin section stainless steel – up to around 4mm


job shop market at the International Laser Technology Congress, AKL’16, at the end of April in Aachen, Germany. Steel stockholders, he said, are taking the


parts for prototyping, while others are asking for 20,000 identical parts


Some want 10


jobs that weigh a lot, and involve a lot of metal. ‘In the old days there were small jobs and big jobs for laser cutting, and the job shops were doing them all. But, nowadays most of the big jobs are being taken by steel stockholders with laser systems,’ he said. Tis is because the majority of the cost of the job is in the material, and the steel stockholders get their metal cheaper than job shops. ‘Tis has changed the UK job shop


landscape,’ he continued. ‘Turning a profit as a job shop is more difficult than it used to be. In


32 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE ISSUE 31 • SUMMER 2016


thick – compared to CO2 systems, making it cheaper. But with stainless steel thicker than 4mm, CO2


lasers are still the sheets for the CO2


preferred choice most of the time, according to Powell. Subcontractors therefore cut all the thin sheet jobs on the fibre laser and leave the thicker machine. Tat gives them


the best of both worlds. Fibre lasers cut mild steel with oxygen at a lasers. However, the cut


similar quality to CO2


edge on stainless steel and other alloys in sections above 4mm is inferior to CO2


unless


specialist techniques are employed. Tese techniques, however, are generally slower and consume a lot of cutting gas because they need big nozzles, Powell said, meaning fibre lasers are not as efficient when cutting thicker section stainless steel. ‘A lot of job shops now have both CO2


and fibre lasers,’ he said. ‘All the lasers bought @lasersystemsmag | www.lasersystemseurope.com


4Jet Technologies has recently opened a laser micromachining job shop for processing glass, thin films and electronic components


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