Alpha Manufacturing, one of the UK’s largest precision sheet metal fabricators, has ordered a TruPunch 5000 CNC punching centre from Trumpf, which complements the acquisition last year of a Trumpf TruLaser 3030 CNC fibre laser profiling centre, and helps keep the company on track to achieve its ‘2020 Vision’ – a five-year plan to double turnover by 2020.

Last year, Alpha installed a STOPA automated materials handling and storage system, to which the company linked its new Trumpf TruLaser 3030. In the coming 18-months, the company intends to extend the STOPA by 5-10 bays, when it will be possible to fully integrate the TruPunch 5000.
“The TruPunch 5000 replaces an automated machine from another supplier and gives us far greater capacity – I estimate that it is 100% quicker,” says operations director Paul Clews.
Trumpf‘s TruPunch 5000 features backlash-free drives for high axis acceleration, while the high rotational speed of the C axis enables fast tapping, as well as the productive processing of complex contours. Thanks to the hydraulic drive it is possible to punch at up to 1600 strokes per minute and mark parts at 2800 strokes per minute.
“This investment is a clear indication of the direction in which the company will be heading in the coming years,” concludes Clews. “In fact, we have taken on three really big customers in the past few months, bringing orders that represent around £3 million per annum. Together with the greater efficiency and capacity afforded by our new Trumpf machines, we remain on track to double turnover by 2020.”
For further information www.uk.trumpf.com

Amada has launched the ENSIS-3015 AJ fibre CNC laser cutting machine featuring a 3 kW source, already selling two into the UK market. The first has been bought by Bristol-based LW Jenkins Ltd, a specialist in fine-detail sheet metal solutions for the electronics industry.

At 3 kW, the machine offers the industry’s largest single-diode module size. Unlike other machines, there is no diode module beam combiner, thus improving reliability and increasing machine uptime.
Aside from the large, single-diode module, there are many more advancements in the 3 kW ENSIS. Firstly, Amada’s patented ENSIS technology is capable of changing the laser beam mode, not just the focal spot size and focus position. This results in the optimum beam control for both thin and thick sheet processing. The machine also offers single-lens processing for all materials and thicknesses, and features a large-capacity nozzle changer to cover the full range automatically.
Importantly, the machine is capable of cutting up to 25 mm thick mild steel, which is equivalent to the performance levels of a standard 6 kW fibre laser, but uses just half the power to do the same job. With energy prices proving a major overhead for profiling and fabrication shops, this presents the opportunity to make significant savings.
Among further new features is a development of ENSIS technology that provides a high-speed pierce in 20 mm mild steel, and faster cutting than a 4 kW fibre laser. This performance is achieved by instantaneously changing the beam mode between pierce and cut. For piercing materials at the thicker end of the material spectrum, oil-shot functionality is available for added reliability.
For further information www.amada.co.uk

At the Bolton factory of trailer manufacturer Indespension, sheet metal cutting productivity has doubled following the replacement of a CO2 laser-powered machine with a fibre laser profiling centre costing nearly £800,000.

The Bystronic ByStar Fiber 6520 has a 4 kW fibre laser and a 6.5 x 2 m capacity bed, making it the largest fibre machine to date delivered by this supplier into the UK market. Only around a dozen machines of this size have been sold worldwide.
Steve Sadler, Indespension’s purchasing director, says: “We cut mainly 43A and pre-galv mild steel, plus some aluminium, from 1 to 12 mm thick. Up to 3 mm, the fibre laser cuts three times faster than CO2. It flies through 1 mm steel, producing 10 holes per second.
The advantage tails off as the thickness increases, but overall the ByStar is twice as fast across all the gauges we process. At a stroke, it has eliminated the bottleneck in our factory that was being caused by the CO2 machine not being able to keep up with our increasing laser cutting workload.”
The fibre laser was purchased in part-exchange for a 6 x 2.5 m capacity CO2 model supplied by Bystronic to Indespension in 2009. Sadler confirmed that a good price was realised for the old machine, despite it having worked up to 20 hours a day, highlighting value retention as an advantage of buying equipment from this Swiss manufacturer.
“Now we can produce the parts in-house in a matter of days, reducing the lead-time for a new trailer from typically six or seven months to less than five, or for a modified trailer from three or four months to less than two,” he says.
For further information www.bystronic.co.uk