What CNC machines—and an established part of the automation industry I should have paid more attention to—taught me about building more flexible machines I have spent much of my career programming machines. Some have been conventional PLC-controlled machines built around sequential operations. Others have been CNC-style systems where the machine programming and the part programming … Read more
The laser source may be the heart of the system, but beam delivery, motion, controls, safety, process knowledge, and maintainability determine whether the machine actually succeeds. Fiber lasers have changed industrial manufacturing. They are compact, efficient, reliable, and increasingly available in power levels and configurations that would have been difficult to imagine just a few … Read more
An alarm can be technically correct and still be almost useless to the person troubleshooting the machine. I have a confession. Over the years, I have written some machine alarms that probably made perfect sense to me while I was programming the machine—and weren’t nearly as useful to the person who eventually had to troubleshoot … Read more
One subsystem that has caused me more commissioning trouble than people might expect is the cutting gas system.One lesson I learned building laser cutting machines is that saying:“I need 300 psi nitrogen.”doesn’t really define the requirement.What you actually need to know is:“I need this pressure while flowing this much gas.”Laser cutting—especially high-pressure nitrogen cutting—can require … Read more
Why higher programmed speed does not always mean more good parts per hour By William Kane | Manufacturing with Light (MWL) Eventually, almost every successful production machine gets the same request: “We need more parts per hour.” With a laser cutting machine, the first reaction is often obvious: increase the feed rate. If the process … Read more
By William Kane | Manufacturing with Light (MWL) When people start discussing a new laser cutting system, the conversation usually starts with the laser. How much power do we need? Fiber or ultrafast? What wavelength? What spot size? What material thickness? Those are important questions and should be worked out in an applications lab before … Read more
What You Need to Know About Handheld Laser Welding is a practical, safety-focused guide for shop owners, welders, supervisors, students, and anyone considering this rapidly growing technology. It explains how handheld laser welding works, what equipment and controls are required, how to develop a repeatable welding process, and why training, ventilation, documentation, and laser safety … Read more
A colleague once used a made-up story to explain a problem that will probably sound familiar to anyone who has worked around automated laser equipment. A new laser system had been installed, tested, and accepted. The system produced good parts during the factory acceptance test. It repeated those results after installation at the customer’s facility. … Read more