pic: IFI: This is how we cut.

[JVN]

loading photo ...

[sanddrag]

How cool: one of our main mentors works for Amada and sells those machines.

[Sachiel7]

So this is where kitbots are born?
Really neat
Edit:
Lol, it really must be where kitbots come from!
Cept they dont come preassembled
See:

[Heretic121]

soo ah... john... you wanna... you know... "donate" that to our team... but without anyone knowing of course =D

a peice of work... yay for machinary at its best...

[MikeDubreuil]

I can tell it came from Amada, looks very heavy, computer controlled, and probably very expensive, but what does it do? (other than the obvious answer: how IFI cuts.)

[ChuckDickerson]

Looks impressive but what is it? It looks sort of like a CNC version of a stamping/shear/bending brake sort of machine?

[Sean Schuff]

Two words....show off!

[TriggsJr]

Hey John,

Is this a Punch laser combo

You need to lose that Amada punch and Come to the dark side (German) and exchange it for a faster Trumpf machine maybe even a Punch Laser combo.
http://www.trumpf.com/3.index.html

Amada is one of our competitors.
Nice setup with the Sheet storage and automation.

Isn't it so nice to make this kind of hardware up with these kind of machines!! The past two weeks I've cut a least 20-30 parts a day in about an hour or so. Then walk over to the press brake and bend this stuff within 0.005" Milling all these parts just isn't necessary and its so slow.

[team222badbrad]

Production Machinist, Oh what FUN!

Wish I had one of those to make parts with or maybe I will just stick with a simple cnc mill and manual machines.

[Arefin Bari]

Hey John,

Can I bring up my team up there for a week? =)

[Andrew Blair]

Wow! One of our sponsors has a bigger one of these! (Not sure if bigger is better; its older ) I love this machine!

Actually, we recently had a couple of plates cut out by different sponsors, and the one laser cut plate actually looked worse than the punched one!

[TriggsJr]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Wow! One of our sponsors has a bigger one of these! (Not sure if bigger is better; its older ) I love this machine!

Actually, we recently had a couple of plates cut out by different sponsors, and the one laser cut plate actually looked worse than the punched one!

That was a bad laser then. The Laser quality is always better.
But you can't form, tap or bend with a laser.
Thats why they make combo machines laser punch

[JVN]

No laser on this machine; just a straight up 58 station turret punch.

This punch is the centerpiece of IFI's new manufacturing facility. It's primary function in life is making IT racking and mounting products (www.racksolutions.com), but sometimes it gets to play around and make robot parts.

It is a great machine, and it makes me jealous that I couldn't play with it in my 229 days. Once you go sheet metal, you just can't go back.

-JV

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by TriggsJr

That was a bad laser then. The Laser quality is always better.
But you can't form, tap or bend with a laser.
Thats why they make combo machines laser punch

Errr... Not with small holes. (1/4"). The intense heat blows out extra material, and you get a jagged edge. The long runs looked better, but, being as the plate has about 50 1/4" holes in it, it looked pretty bad.

EDIT_______________________________________

We burned these out of 1/4" steel. Perhaps with the extra material, a slower feed was needed, hence- jagged edges.

[TriggsJr]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Errr... Not with small holes. (1/4"). The intense heat blows out extra material, and you get a jagged edge. The long runs looked better, but, being as the plate has about 50 1/4" holes in it, it looked pretty bad.

EDIT_______________________________________

We burned these out of 1/4" steel. Perhaps with the extra material, a slower feed was needed, hence- jagged edges.

When the hole diameter starts to match the thickness of the material it gets harder to cut. I use a feature called small contour to cut then.....its slower and it pulses the laser on an off. But they can be done with plus or minus .001 tolerance.

What machine are you using??