Speed and flexibility for thin sheets

for sheetmetal processing. Fighting its corner was Bystronic, which held a recent open house during March heralding the introduction of the BySprint Fiber 3015 – its first foray into the fibre-based laser cutting market.

First exhibited at last's year's EuroBLECH exhibition, the BySprint Fiber also made its UK debut last month along with the announcement by Bystronic that sales across the company were beyond budgets with both the subcontract and OEM market turning on to sheetmetal technology.

The new system is based on the company's popular BySprint Pro CO₂ laser cutting machine concept, adopting such parts as its proven rack and pinion drives and is equipped with a 2kW laser. Laser sources from several suppliers are offered and have helped to bring the machine to market faster.

While this is less powerful than some of its close rivals, the company maintains that any more power would simply drive energy consumption upwards while offering little in the way of additional flexibility. In fact, the BySprint Fiber uses just 30% of the power of its CO₂ counterpart which will be one of the big draws to the technology.

Having spent quite some time in development (R&D began back in 2007), speed when processing thin materials is where the fibre technology is particularly advantageous for operators. Bystronic claims for example, that when cutting 1mm stainless steel using nitrogen, speeds of 50m/minute are possible.

The time savings between simple and complex shapes were also demonstrated at the open house, with the fibre machine coming out on top for all parts on metals up to 4mm thick. On a relatively simple demonstration component, fibre processing beat CO₂ by 21 seconds to 34. A component with complex features was also demonstrated, with the fibre laser ahead by 40 seconds to 44. The machine however is proficient on thicknesses up to 12mm.

Another key selling point is the flexibility on offer, as non-ferrous metals such as copper and brass can also be cut with the same high process reliability and precision. The cutting head has been specially developed for fibre laser applications and is available in variants with focal lengths of 100mm and 150mm. As a result, the machine can be optimally matched to the production requirements of individual customers. Additional process reliability is assured by Bystronic's Protection Window Sensor, which reliably protects the lens against damage.

Also on show at the event were the company's automation systems for loading and unloading materials on its laser cutting machines – the ByTrans and ByTrans Extended – the latter offering two cassettes for raw material rather than one. This feature of the extended version means not only more capacity, but also the ability to store plastic plates in one cassette and automatically place them in between cut sheets to protect them. Both systems offer loading and unloading cycle times of just 60 seconds.
So far, all BySpeed Fibers sold have been equipped with Bytrans automation, and interestingly the company points out that sales of automation products have gone up six-fold in the UK in the last three years. This mimics the trend that has been set in the wider European area, albeit a little behind the curve.

An additional piece of news to come from the event is that Bystronic is extending its collaboration with German grinding machine producer Weber to offer its machines in the UK. Weber offers several solutions based around a planetary head system specifically for laser cutting applications to achieve constant quality on all part shapes.

Bystronic
www.bystronic.co.uk