Trumpf 3030 fibre in action
The Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser cutter is perfect for cutting thinner gauge sheet metal work. I can cope with materials up to 20mm thick but in this instance it’s just cutting 1.5mm 304 stainless steel and very fast. You can see the first 2 components are missing from the sheet and that’s for a reason. We cut the first component and then stop the machine to check it out. We check for general cut quality and beam width that can effect the size of the finished component. We make any changes that might be necessary and then cut a second part and inspect it again if it’s alright the rest of the sheet can be run as seen here.
Laser cut stainless steel brackets in nest
This more detailed view of the laser cut nest shows how components can be nested together to improve the yield from the sheet. If you click on the image and look carefully you can see at the top edge of each component the point at which the laser beam started cutting before it actually cut the component profile, this is know as the lead in. As the pierce point will create a larger hole and some burning this is always done just off the part and then run straight onto the component profile and cut.
Laser cut stainless steel brackets
As these parts were quite small they had a small tag on each part to hold them in place within the stainless sheet after having been cut. The components were twisted straight out of the sheet and just touched on a de-burr belt to remove any witness. If they had been rougher they could have been barrel de-burred but it wasn’t felt necessary on this occasion.
CNC bending stainless steel brackets
Here we have the process needed to fold the brackets up with their 2 angles. We have used a CNC press brake for this operation in this instance a Trumpf 7036 but we have others that could have done the job as well. The components on the left are the flat blanks and those on the right the final folded bracket. The bend tooling is simply a bottom V tool and top V tool with a back stop setting the position of the bend. We have used a G clamp to position a side stop so that the bracket all have the bends perpendicular to the blank leg in production.
Folded stainless steel brackets
And now finally the finished formed bracket ready to be shipped off to the waiting customer.
If you have a sheet metal bracket or more complex sheet metal work project that you want any help with please just give us a call on 01489 577786 or email us with your drawings and we will be happy to take a look for you.