This page is offered to provide an insight into the laser cutting process. Understanding this WILL save you money!
Quoting;
For us to quote we need to understand what you would like produced.
Our systems are highly advanced and work on real data.
File names such as;
These are considered perfect, it provides a part name, qty required, material thickness, material, film and surface (e.g #4)
Names such as;
Are likely to cost someone money!
Please don't list materials and qty's in the actual .dxf file. It causes us no end of grief, and will cost you a LOT more. It always takes longer to clean up the files than it does to cut the actual part. We need to recover our costs and it will be passed on.
A napkin drawing cannot be quoted until we draw it. Drawing will be added to the price.
Folding.
Folding is extremely complex, and we will do our bet to explain it here. There are more untruths about this topic online than anything. If you want on-size parts pay attention.
CAD systems pre-populated values unlikely to be suitable.
To enable accurate, consistent folding there are a number of key metrics that need to be adhered to. There are countless articles, and schools of thought. It may seem impossible to work out where to start. So here we will provide a few tips.
For metal to bend (plastic deformation), it needs to be stressed past its elastic limit. There are countless ways of achieving this, but here we will concentrate on folding using a hydraulic pressbrake.
There are historically three different ways to bend on a press;
All bending on a modern pressbrake is Air bending, and made bossible by the advanced CNC controllers and valve bodies holding precision under pressure.
Rules of thumb;