[Babba]

Hello. I'm currently having motorcycle radiator guards manufactured by an outside contractor on a very £expensive CNC laser and apart from losing a lot of the profit to them I'm suffering through lack of flexibility in quantities, lead times etc.

I'm mainly using 0.5mm - 1.2mm mirror polished 304 Stainless. Business is growing to the stage where I really should be looking to move production in house but I don't have anywhere near the £1/2million'ish I'm told my contractors machines cost to purchase and commision.

I've already ascertained that Plasma won't give the accuracy of cut needed, is there anything on the market that will cut stainless up to 1.2mm ????

[MacGyver]

YAG is your laser of choice here, 1.2mm isn't too bad... 100W would cut fairly fast, though you could probably get away with 60-80W without too much trouble but at a slower pace. Others will chime in with more specific answers as I've never used YAG.

[bisjoe]

Probably a better way to go is waterjet. Laser cut stainless often turns bluish along the cut.

[Baketech]

I've never had much luck waterjetting thin stainless without a backside burr. Maybe someone can chime in with a solution. Even then, speed and cost seem like it would be hard to make money with that part...

Have you thought about using an off the shelf piece of "perf" and welding it to your box?

Interesting product...keep us posted with your solution...

[Banzai11]

Waterjet should do it just fine, find a local job shop.

WJ machines are hot now, prices are good....and no expensive laser parts to replace!!

If you have a burr...try slowing down feed rate or maybe faster since it is so think, adjust abrasive feed, worn nozzle(?), etc
Test cut is the key...

I just WJ cut some 11G (3mm) 304 SS and it was almost perfect w/ a slow feed and used nozzle etc.

[chatchawalsit]

CS Inter Group Co.,Ltd. is estabished in Thailand almost 6 years.Our office in located on north of Bangkok, at Donmuang. We are manufacturing and distributing all CNC cutting machine solution such as CNC Gas and Plasma Cutting machine,CNC Laser Cutting and Engraving machine ,CNC Water Jet cutting machine ,CNC Router and Engraving machine,and we are supply CNC controller for new and retrofitting program .We are offers arange of services and products to enhance your productivity and options for your cutting machine.Listed form shorterm benifit with minimum cost, through the longest term with maximum benefits,you can find a solution to fit your needs.

[bennett71]

You might also be able to find perforated stainless sheets & just cut the rectangle you need. This would save a lot money if it would work.

[Babba]

Thanks for the responses so far but what I'm looking for is a self contained machine capable of cutting 0.5 - 1.5 mm stainless steel.

I've built up quite a list of machinery (mostly Chinese in origin) with prices ranging from £2k - £8k that promote their non metal cutting specs but finding anything that admits it will cut metal for less than a £gazillion is proving difficult.

Surely someone out there is routinely cutting stainless on machinery that costs less than the building its housed in ?????

[MonoNeuron]

I have heard of people cutting stainless steel with a 120 watt laser but it was about .6mm thick and they pulsed the laser in microsecond pulses to keep the molten pool established and cut through very slowly. You could probably cut up to about 1.2mm with a 200 watt laser but you are looking at 30K to 40K for a good synrad RF laser.
Head on over to Synrad and have a look at their examples of what they cut and power settings and speed used. Their is a lot of info on heaps of different types of materials.
Here is a rough guide from their site.

Steel 25W 50W 125W 240W
Stainless 0.01" 0.016" 0.025" 0.08"
Mild 0.01" 0.016" 0.03" 0.16"

So as you see at 240 watts and a gas assist you can cut through 2mm or 80 thou.
here is the link.

http://www.synrad.com/search_apps/ap...briefs/6-2.htm

Rich.

[wickedboysap]

Hi Babba I know the right machine that you are looking for I have been in the laser industry for the last 10 years and work with a few machines which cut stainless steel upto 4mm with a clean finish, PM me and I would be more then happy to help you out.

Sap

[bigtoad170]

What about cutting mild steel and having them chromed. If you had two products to offer a standard and a premium you can charge a premium price for the stainless even if the chromed once end up costing the same to manufacture most will justify spending close to double for the premium product then you have a product you can double profits on. Just a thought

[coleong]

Maybe you could find somebody to use a turret punch machine with rubber strippers to avoid scratching the mirror finish.

Turret punching is far cheaper to do your work as compare to laser cutting since you have only holes rather than different contours on your part.

Waterjet is not the right idea to do your job.

[Babba]

What about cutting mild steel and having them chromed. If you had two products to offer a standard and a premium you can charge a premium price for the stainless even if the chromed once end up costing the same to manufacture most will justify spending close to double for the premium product then you have a product you can double profits on. Just a thought

Not an option I'm afraid, motorcycle radiators are placed (by neccessity) in a very hostile environment, in the worst possible position for anything made of mild steel & chromed.

[MonoNeuron]

If you don't want to spend a "Gazillion " dollars then Plasma cutting would be the way to go. I am not sure how you would polish the stainless after to get rid of the discolouration, though. Maybe a linisher with a good quality felt belt/pad.
Hypertherm get about 400 starts from their Indium tips whereas other cheaper brands will get about 200 but at a much cheaper cost.
Just a thought.
Regards
Rich.

[BassCustom]

With an abrasive waterjet, stack-cutting is an option. It may cost $100+ an hour, but the math may work out favorably when you look at cutting with cheaper methods but one sheet at a time. Stacks up to a half inch of material are efficiently cut this way before the extra thickness makes the extra cutting time no longer profitable. The waterjet doesn't discolor the metal, as nothing is being super-heated. Look to punching, as mentioned earlier, for production runs of the same part; always cheaper with several parts. You won't be able to own a machine that will cut stainless steel well (since you ruled out plasma) without spending $40,000-$200,000. Waterjets are very expensive also, and cost between $35 and $45 an hour to run (power, water, garnet sand, wear on nozzles, wear on ultra-high-pressure water pump). These are very ballpark numbers; I'm just an armchair enthusiast.

[MonoNeuron]

Another alternative with plasma cutting would be to glass peen the whole thing or sandblast and paint it a "signature" colour like gun metal grey or a good quality flat black. Ducati motorbikes look great in these colours. Then you could always sell as "the best of both worlds, stainless steel in any colour you want" without the rusting.
Just trying to think outside the box for you and not be too limiting with your material selection.
Rich.

[Will_Laser]

Hi peeps. Im new to the forum, but not to laser cutting.

Bubba. Laser cutting is the way to go for you. We've got a 4.4kW CO2 laser cutter. Cutting at 7500mm/min on thin gauge stainless is a daily occurance. Someone mentioned a blued edge with laser cutting, sorry to say, but it thats happening, its being done wrong or on a machine that either cant cope with it or is in serious need of a service.

What is your average order for a month? as buying your own set up may not be viable (depending on machine, instalation alone can cost £thousands). Plasma cutting will give a poor edge quality and burr's.. waterjet will give a nice clean edge but takes blummin ages.. but laser cutting will give you a nice edge, no burr, quick turnaround, and a part ready for you to post process stright away!

If you would like a quote or more details on the work we do, PM me and i'll send you the company details.

Will.

[elmor fudd]

hi all
To cut the material you want is very easy with a 1600 watt laser and you should be able to cut 3mm without a problem.
If you cut on oxygen then it will leave a dark edge and the tolerances wont but up ti much either because it will radious the edge but if you use nitrogen at high pressure you wont have the above problem at all and you will end up with a nice clean cut and shiney edge.
If you can afford to go to £250k you could buy a 4000 watt Bystar and you wont have any problem cutting up to 15mm stainless with a nice clean shiney edge either which is way less than the 2million your thinking.
I worked for one of the UK's biggest laser cutting firms for 3 years and ended up as manager there so i know what im talking about when it omes to clean cutting stainless and have done enough of it to know this.
If anyones interested in knowing how to get the best im open to consultaion work

[Babba]

hi all
To cut the material you want is very easy with a 1600 watt laser and you should be able to cut 3mm without a problem.
If you cut on oxygen then it will leave a dark edge and the tolerances wont but up ti much either because it will radious the edge but if you use nitrogen at high pressure you wont have the above problem at all and you will end up with a nice clean cut and shiney edge.
If you can afford to go to £250k you could buy a 4000 watt Bystar and you wont have any problem cutting up to 15mm stainless with a nice clean shiney edge either which is way less than the 2million your thinking.
I worked for one of the UK's biggest laser cutting firms for 3 years and ended up as manager there so i know what im talking about when it omes to clean cutting stainless and have done enough of it to know this.
If anyones interested in knowing how to get the best im open to consultaion work

Thanks, the £2million figure was a bit of an exaggeration :-)

I can get an extremely well made & accurate table locally, what sort of budget figures would I be looking at for a 1600 watt laser and a nitrogen supply???

[Will_Laser]

Thanks, the £2million figure was a bit of an exaggeration :-)

I can get an extremely well made & accurate table locally, what sort of budget figures would I be looking at for a 1600 watt laser and a nitrogen supply???

Hi Babba

Theres a few places around that can help you. I'd personally go for a Bystronic ByStar or BySprint.. upto 2kW are reasonable cheap. I've seen BySprints sell for less that £100,000, but to be fair they were in need of a good service. Have a word with a company called Laser Resale (the forum wont let me add a web link.. just look for 'laser resale' in google.), they have a good selection of second hand machines which are re-furbed and ready to go.

As for your gas supply.. You could use 18 bottle cylinder banks, but i'd go for the larger external bulk tanks. We use 2000 litre tanks for both Oxygen and Nitrogen supplies. In your case, you wont be using much oxygen, if any, so an external tank for nitrogen and 18cyl banks for oxy would be something to think about.

If you'd like to come down to veiw our machine and set up, we're based in Birmingham and have a Bystronic BySpeed 4.4kW machine.