Plasma CNC Drill Line Burns Rings Around Conventional Beam Lines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 4, 2009 -- The economy of structural steel fabrication is very dependent on the path the workpiece navigates as it goes from raw steel inventory to eventual loading on a truck headed for the job site. Every time the workpiece is "touched" adds delay and cost to the final finished beam, channel or angle.

A structural element with a dozen or so bolt holes and cut to length has minimal "touches" . However, many structural sections are considerably more complicated than that.

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Plasma CNC Drill Line Burns Rings Around Conventional Beam Lines

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For instance, complete fabrication recently completed on an 96" W16x31 structural beam involved 35 distinct operations:

* Front Trim Miter Cut 1/4"
* 2 Copes on the near end of the beam
* 3 Bolt Holes on that same end of the beam
* 6 bolt hole angled cluster on web
* 4 layout marks on web
* 2 bolt holes on top flange
* 2 bolt holes on bottom flange
* 3 slots on web at rear of beam
* Piece Mark - 2 Lines - 9 letters total
* Flange notch cut flush with web (each end of the beam)
* Cope on rear of beam
* Notch cut on flange

All those operations involve a lot of "touching." But they also involve just a lot of time actually making the cuts. Or do they ?

To begin, the "high touch" path is a predominantly manual approach. The beam has to be measured and marked, then cut off on the bandsaw. Afterwards, there is plenty of "manual" drilling (admittedly using a heavy duty drill press) and quite a bit of thermal (torch) cutting to make the copes and flange flush cuts, in addition to stamping to make the 9 letter piece marks. The total time involved to perform these various tasks was estimated to be 120 minutes. But because of the shuttling involved and the delay in queue at various stations, the clock time would cover two shifts - typically two days at most shops.

Next, a more updated and automated track was followed to produce the workpiece. This involved cutting the piece to length on the bandsaw, then shuttling it to a CNC drill line to make the thirteen bolt holes and 3 slots. The better CNC drill lines can probe the beam to ascertain location and dimensions, then drill the holes based on instructions determined by specialized softwarethat reads standard detail drawing files. The remaining features have to be measured and marked on the beam before cutting. The cutting is done via coping torch, plate thermal burning machine, and stamping in the piecemark characters. The estimated elapsed time for this approach is 82 minutes. Again, when including the time needed to transfer the workpiece between stations and waiting at those stations, the total clock time totals to consume most of a shift.

Lastly the piece was actually fabricated on a new and state-of-the-art approach. All features were produced on a single machine - a robotic plasma cutting system. Employing this system, there is no use for any measuring or marking. The torchhead probes the beam for position and geometery, then follows self-generated cutting instructions it calculates from engineering software files of the workpiece downloaded into the machine's operator control from programs like TEKLA, SD/2,StruCAD and others.

This robotic wonder starts cutting on the workpiece and doesn't stop until it's done . . . 10 minutes and 13 seconds later. All thirty seven features are made in this time and the beam is completed. Notime is lost to transferring the piece or waiting , as a result the time from beginning to completion isn't a day, or a shift or even an hour . . . it's the time of a coffee break.

PythonX has the potential to revolutionize the economics of structural steel fabrication. While it cannot affect the cost of materials, it can give so many more inventory turns on that material, that significant working capital is no longer tied up in steel. It reduces labor costs, by eliminating a number of material handling and operator requirements. It lowers overhead and capital costs, because a plasma system can replace up to 7 other machines or workstations, freeing upboth floorspace and capital.

Structural steel fabricators are an enterprising and tenacious bunch. They'll try to find the most direct path they can find to lowest total cost and get to lean manufacturing. They are finding that that path runs through the PythonX robotic plasma cutting machine.

More information can be found online at http://www.pythonx.com/economics/beats-cnc-drill-line.html

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