Why can't we get this? Trotec, Epilog, you listening?

[Jacob John]

I find this topic fascinating and I know robotic arm fibers exist for cutting tube metal. This is a half serious topic, but I am genuinely interested if we'll ever see something like this offered in a CO2 or fiber at the small business level. These look like those dangerous ones you see offered on Facebook.

Beam delivery might be a design issue.

https://www.ufactory.cc/#/en/uarmswift

[Scott Shepherd]

They've been in use for a long time. There used to be a video on the interweb that showed a laser running apple products in a factory that made them. I think I recall that it had no lid (why would it need one?). I suspect there's a lot of them that are automated, but we just don't see them and don't have pockets deep enough to entertain the thought of them. I've worked in some very sophisticated plants that used robots to load and unload parts. There's not much easy about it. They require a lot of things to make work well. Lots of sensors, cameras, etc. It makes it very difficult to be useful unless you have a very high quantity. We made millions of parts. It wasn't uncommon to make 1,000,000 of one part number a year. For that, it makes sense. For 100? Not so much.

[Gary Hair]

The accuracy and working area of those particular machines wouldn't work for me. One has 5mm precision and the other .2mm, and a working area of 50mm x 320mm - 2" x 12". My guess is that to get the precision I need, .001 and working area, at least 5" X 5", would cost a small to medium fortune.

[Trey Tull]

I'm just getting into automation and have already found out that its just not worth it unless you are doing thousands of items. I couldn't imagine the time and energy it takes to program a robot and the quantities it would require to pay for it. I would just be happy with linear rails or ball screws in a laser. I could put so many more parts in the machine if it would hold +- .001 across its travel.

[Brian Lamb]

I'm not sure why you can't hold tolerance with your Universal... I wouldn't say +-.001 but I do a 24" ruler with mine on the squares I make and compared to a precision rule, they are dead nuts to size across the 24". I also routinely laser 24"-32" long row of parts stacked in the machine and have the first part be as well centered as the last part in the row... of course all the parts have to measure the same when you butt them part to part.

[Trey Tull]

I'm not sure why you can't hold tolerance with your Universal... I wouldn't say +-.001 but I do a 24" ruler with mine on the squares I make and compared to a precision rule, they are dead nuts to size across the 24". I also routinely laser 24"-32" long row of parts stacked in the machine and have the first part be as well centered as the last part in the row... of course all the parts have to measure the same when you butt them part to part.

Yea, I have some tiny parts that require text in close proximity to holes. I have .003" total to play with and I have figured it over about 10" but I'm don't trust the machine to hold that tolerance over 32". Universal and Trotec..... linear rails and ball screws. Belts are so 1900.

[Scott Shepherd]

Universal and Trotec..... linear rails and ball screws. Belts are so 1900.

You won't see the speeds lasers run at with a ball screw. Belts have delivered some pretty great tolerances for a lot of equipment for a long, long time. Sounds like your ULS needs some loving (and some parts).

[Brian Lamb]

I can agree with the linear rails over the wheeled rollers against an aluminum extrusion that my old ULS uses.... but like Scott says, I don't think you'll replace the belt drive with lead screws and have any better accuracy. The lead screw necessary to drive the X axis fast enough would be a multiple lead, very coarse pitch, like multiple inches per turn... which isn't going to hold +-.001 accuracy anyway. You won't see .001" or so accuracy until you get to 5 turns per inch or so.

[Scott Shepherd]

We did about 100,000 of these plugs. Customer wanted their website engraved on them. It was down in a pocket with high walls on each side. Text was about .030" tall. .003" one way or the other and the text would hit the wall. You can see how many we had per fixture. We had 4 fixtures that we'd swap in and out and they all worked dead on. We scrapped none of them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it :)

398176

[Brian Lamb]

How would you read text .030" tall? I could have my glasses and my four eye's and probably still have trouble with that... Nice set up, but I'd bump into something and dump a whole tray on the floor... I just know I would... :-)

[Scott Shepherd]

How would you read text .030" tall? I could have my glasses and my four eye's and probably still have trouble with that... Nice set up, but I'd bump into something and dump a whole tray on the floor... I just know I would... :-)

I couldn't read it either unless it was under magnification. It was some connector they had made for a special purpose and they wanted their name on it somewhere, readable or not :)

They sat down inside a square hole so you could have tripped and still be okay :) Took 2 people loading them to keep up with the machine. It was very fast.

[Trey Tull]

I couldn't read it either unless it was under magnification. It was some connector they had made for a special purpose and they wanted their name on it somewhere, readable or not :)

They sat down inside a square hole so you could have tripped and still be okay :) Took 2 people loading them to keep up with the machine. It was very fast.

Thats a cool setup. What machine were you using?

[Scott Shepherd]

When we started, it was on a Universal PLS 4.60. We got out first Trotec during that period and we quickly moved it to that machine, running them on a Speedy 300.