Capabilities

The capabilities offered by Hydram Sheet Metalwork's laser cutting service are:

• Sheet capacity:   up to 3m x 1.5m
• Mild steel  (up to 20mm thick)
• Galvanised and zinc plated steel
• Stainless steel  (clean cut up to 12mm thick)
• Aluminium  (up to 8mm thick)
• Better than +/- 0.2mm dimensional tolerance
• CAD drawings can be read from DWG or DXF formats

 
How does Laser Cutting work?...
 
Laser cutting offers a superior cut-edge quality with parallel sides and no burrs.  The technology offers supreme flexibility, handling profiles from the simplest of components to shapes of almost limitless complexity.  So how does it work?

Put simply a high-energy infra-red laser light beam is directed onto the material.  A focusing lens is used to concentrate all of the energy onto a pin-point, causing rapid localised melting and partial vaporisation of the material.  An assist gas, such as oxygen or nitrogen is then directed through a nozzle to expel the molten material.  The position and power of the laser beam is precisely controlled by computer.

An advanced CAD/CAM system enables components to be programmed quickly and accurately, thus ensuring that there are no delays either leading up to or during production.  CAD drawings are accepted via e-mail in AutoCAD, Radan and DXF formats.  The narrow laser cut width, zero clamping strip and computer-assisted part nesting allows maximum material utilisation.

A very narrow cut width is produced due to the highly localised focusing of the beam.  This allows a much higher definition and quality of cut when compared to alternative profiling processes such as plasma or oxy-acetylene burning.   The laser machines used by Hydram Sheet Metalwork can cut up to 20mm mild steel and 12mm in stainless steel.