Pictured: Lee Painter
One of the UK’s leading sheet metal fabrication sub contractors has recently invested in a high capacity Bystronic Bysprint 3015 sheet metal laser cutting system in order to meet growing demand and increasingly challenging delivery schedules.
Telford based CEL Sheetmetal Ltd offers a wide range of sub-contracting services with precision sheet metal work and laser cutting at the forefront of their operations. Aside from their UK markets, CEL also has a global sourcing and supply organisation through its sister company China Enterprise UK Ltd which offers a complementary range of services.
The Bysprint 3015 is a high volume machine with a unique high speed laser cutting system for the highest operational and economic efficiency. It features a 3 metre x 1.5 metre sheet bed and a powerful 4.4kw high efficiency laser source powering the Bylaser 4400 laser head to accommodate a maximum sheet thickness of 20mm.
Since its installation in October 2011, the machine has impacted significantly on CEL’s operations and, as the company’s Operations Director Lee Painter explains, there has been an additional bonus due to the software that controls the ‘nesting’ operations.
“Nesting is the term we use for planning the optimum layout of the components – or ranges of components – from a sheet and we have been highly impressed with the capabilities of the Bystronic Bysoft software and its quick programming capabilities,” he says.
“It is vital that we optimise every square centimetre of the sheet and this machine has been fantastic in that respect. The onus is on the operator to minimise waste and the ease-of-use of the software and the machines interactive control panel have meant our team have responded to the challenge of maximum efficiency very quickly,” he explains.
“In the sub-contract environment productivity and maximum sheet utilisation are all important,” adds Lee Painter. “Currently we have six operators being trained to use the machine, a necessary number as we work a 24 hour shift.”
Among its many features the 3015 laser is also equipped with a dynamic drive system which gives very high speed and acceleration values on the axes positioning, Positioning speed on the x and y axes is simultaneously 140m/min while still offering positioning accuracy of 0.1mm
Predominantly CEL works with ferrous material up to 20cm thick – typically mild steel, stainless, aluminium, brass and Intec – and batch quantities can vary from very few to high volumes.
“The nature of our business dictates we often don’t know our workload from day to day and we invariably need to respond quickly. Hence our investment on machines that offer the widest scope. The 3015 certainly meets that criteria and we feel it has exceeded our expectations in a number of areas and it has rapidly established itself in the centre of our laser cutting operations,” adds Lee Painter.
