A bespoke Noblegen nitrogen generation system has been supplied by MBA Engineering to Anord Mardix, saving the manufacturer in excess of £1000 per month. After acquiring a new CO2 fibre laser cutting system, Anord Mardix quickly noticed how expensive it was to purchase nitrogen for the machine. With this in mind, the team identified the need to invest so it could bring its nitrogen production in-house.

Due to the shortage of factory floor space at Anord Mardix, MBA Engineering provided a bespoke machine to fit into a specific area of 2 x 2.5 m. The MBA Engineering team split the system’s skid, while items on the machinery’s plinth were separated, meaning the equipment could be flexibly fit in and around the factory floor.
“The fact that we now have our own equipment for generating the nitrogen we need to operate our CO2 fibre laser has not only resulted in significant cost savings, we’re also saving on factory floor space since we no longer need to store nitrogen canisters,” says Darren Gollogly at Anord Mardix.
MBA Engineering exclusively partnered with Noblegen in 2018 to save manufacturers up to £1000 per month on the gas costs relating to operating certain machinery, including eliminating the expenses and CO2 emissions associated with regular canister deliveries.
“While the Anord Mardix team wasn’t sure it had the space to install its own nitrogen generation system, we were able to provide a bespoke solution that fitted into the manufacturer’s available area,” says Bradley McBain, managing director of MBA Engineering. “This proves that we have the capability to provide nitrogen generation systems to manufacturers, no matter what the specification.”
For further information https://mba-eng.co.uk/

The latest Laser Line Ultra machining centre from Walter Ewag is designed for the laser ‘fabrication’ of cutting tools, including spiral tools from 0.4 to 3 mm diameter, and made from hard/ultra-hard materials such as WC, PCD, CVD-D and CBN.

Walter Ewag’s Laser Line Ultra can be applied to cutting edge preparation, post-sharpening, chip breakers and cylindrical margin fabrication, as well as to the laser modification of ground cutting tools. Complex micro-geometries can be lasered thanks to the machine’s eight-axis kinematic concept and the use of an industrial laser source that emits pulses in pico-seconds.
By way of example, a four-flute PCD end mill can be produced from a cylindrical blank with its primary and secondary clearance faces machined at both the tip and circumference. The corners at the edges are protected by a chamfer and, as with all lasered spiral tools, the result is a smooth and uninterrupted interface between PCD and WC.
Laser processing removes material in line with thermal-based mechanisms, and because the Laser Line Ultra uses ultra-short laser pulses and appropriate laser machining parameters, the resulting pulse is so short that there is insufficient time for a significant amount of heat to conduct into the cutting tool, meaning there is negligible heat-affected zone. Indeed, carbide drill bits that are laser-fabricated by the machine can subsequently be coated (by the PVD process) with a single layer of TiAlN or AlTiN alloy, and the coating processing method is the same as that applied to ground cutting tools.
The company has worked closely with two of Switzerland’s foremost surface technology companies to ensure successful coating, and together they have used a number of inspection methods to validate the process.
For further information www.walter-machines.com