Bystronic open house with fiber laser cutting demo draws crowd

Bystronic UK (Coventry, England) held its latest open house, which drew a record number of attendees, concurrently with the MACH 2018 machine tool show (April 9-12, 2018; Birmingham). The theme of the open house was MACH SPEED, which involved visitors being asked to estimate the time required to manufacture a component for an off-road vehicle.

Related: Bystronic receives 200th order in UK for fiber laser cutting machine

At the open house, attendees saw a 3D model of a large back plate produced from 4 mm mild steel for a Thwaites 3-ton dump truck. In less than one minute, a laser cutting program was exported to a fiber laser machine with the correct blank allowance and the required press brake bending program was created.

The part was then profile-cut on a 10 kW ByStar Fiber machine said to be 4X faster than on a conventional 6 kW CO₂ laser machine. Then, it was bent on one of the company's Xpert 150 press brakes, without program adjustment and with a full tool setup included. Most people overestimated the total production time because of the very high throughput of which these machines are capable. The person with the closest estimate each day received a Fitbit watch as a prize.

During the event, the company sold a number of machines, including a 10 kW 4020 fiber laser and two Xpert press brakes, says David Larcombe, Bystronic UK’s managing director.

For more information, please visit www.bystronic.co.uk.