LaserCoil adds multimode feed capability to its coil-fed laser blanking systems

LaserCoil Technologies (Napoleon, OH) has added a Continuous Mode (on-the-fly cutting) capability to its coil-fed laser blanking systems, enabling users to choose either Feed Index Mode (Stop/Start) or Continuous Mode to optimize cutting parameters for each part configuration.

Multiple head systems featuring 6kW lasers had already enabled the company's systems to reach high processing speeds, but the ability to change between Index Mode and Continuous Mode allows customers to select the mode that offers the best production run from a rate and reliability standpoint, explains Jay Finn, LaserCoil Technologies' chief technology officer.

"Most parts will run faster in Continuous Mode, which offers a smooth and steady mode of operation. For production runs that are 10,000 blanks and over, this would be the mode of choice for customers," Finn says. "In some instances, the length of a single cut path can take longer than the existing cutting window allows at the faster production rate. Rather than split the cuts between the heads, index mode allows the user to choose a mode where the cut can be completed prior to indexing the material."

The company's coil-fed laser cutting systems feature gantry-mounted laser heads stationed in multiple cutting cells that travel along the moving strip, balancing the workload. The laser cutting heads, using linear-induction motors, enable them to cut tightly nested, complex curvilinear shapes, while the system's dynamic profile conveyor features adjustable lanes that support the coil strip while automatically repositioning as needed to clear a path for the laser cut. This feature also facilitates gravity-shedding of scrap and offal, delivering finished blanks without any scrap to any type of stacking system. All systems can integrate with any coil line automation, as well as be retrofit into aging blanking press lines.

By laser cutting direct from coil stock, the company's systems have utility in production environments that run multiple blank profiles and mixed material types. The systems can process a wide variety of coil material in aluminum, mild steel, high-strength steels, and other materials for surface-sensitive panels, as well as structural components in thicknesses from 0.5 to 3.5mm and up to 2.1m wide coil at any length.

For more information and to watch a video that illustrates the laser blanking process, please visit www.lasercoil.com.