Large order question

[Doug Griffith]

I just quoted on an order that I am most likely going to get. It is for about 12000 laser cut pieces that take 1 minute and 20 seconds each. It will take around 33 days to do at 8 hours a day.

I would like to run double shifts to get it done quicker and wonder what type of abuse it will put on my machine.

Can an Epilog Mini 45 can take continual use for days on end?

Thanks,
Doug

[Sandra Force]

Are these pieces straight cuts or curves? If they are straight cuts did you use a common side for enough oiees to fill the table? I know that if I am cutting using a common side or grid cut system I can cut the laser time drasticly.

[Joe Pelonio]

I have run as much as 48 hours straight, sleeping with a timer to change material. You are talking 264 hours, a lot more, but I don't know why you couldn't do it. Maybe Peck will see this and respond. Keep in mind it will get a few minutes rest between sheets as it will take you a while to pick them all out.

Nice job!

[Doug Griffith]

Each run holds only 2 pieces of 1/8" material (12 x 12) and curvy shapes are cut out of the middle. There's not much I can do to optimize and am going to have to change out parts every 3 minutes or so. Kind of a brutal and labor intensive job but can't turn any away in this economy.

I'm also hoping I can do a part change in under 30 seconds so there won't be much cool off time.

Thanks again for the input.

[James Stokes]

The laser should be able to handle it no problem, The question is can you? That job would not be any fun. One thing you need to keep an eye on is keeping the lens clean.
I have run My Vitek laser for 3 weeks with out shutting down. But it is a differant laser.

[Scott Shepherd]

I wouldn't see where it would be a problem. It should be able to handle it.
One thing you might consider is setting up a couple of pieces that you can grab the entire thing and pull it out, then grab another one that's full of fresh material, and swap that in. That way all your time of picking out the little pieces from the grid will be non-existent. Just a thought. I don't know the piece, so it might not be helpful, but in general when trying to do things like that you want the part change time as little as possible (as you already pointed out).

I saw a video clip online one time that I thought was great idea. The guy was making an acrylic Christmas tree and had to cut a large number of the same small parts out, so he cut them all out and then used a mini hand held vacuum cleaner to suck up all the parts really quickly. Then they were all in the "dirt" collector bin and he could open that and dump out the parts. Very clever :)

Good luck, I hope you do well on it and you know there's always a load of people on here cheering you on.

Don't forget to feed the dog (or cat) while the job is running :)

[Joe Pelonio]

Each run holds only 2 pieces of 1/8" material (12 x 12) and curvy shapes are cut out of the middle. There's not much I can do to optimize and am going to have to change out parts every 3 minutes or so. Kind of a brutal and labor intensive job but can't turn any away in this economy.

I'm also hoping I can do a part change in under 30 seconds so there won't be much cool off time.

Thanks again for the input.
Wow, that's a lot of material changes, and you can't do much else while it's running. At least on the long on I did I had close to an hour. Hope you have a TV in there at least. Like Scott suggested, there are ways to make the changes faster, In this case since it's cutting you can just remove the vector grid parts and all and dump them, that's what I often do. Be careful not to go to fast and bump your belts with the edge when you put it back in.

[Doug Griffith]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sure I'll have to tag team this job and have an exercise bike at hand as well as the aforementioned TV. A 3 minute cycle time means I can't program or do other stuff while the machine is working. Just enough time to get bored though.

One thing I'm thinking of doing is creating a fixture where the scrap falls into a removable tray underneath. I'm also going to optimize the paths as much as humanly possible.

Cheers

[Scott Shepherd]

How about a lazy susan type unit on the table, with the front of the machine opened up, so 1/2 of it sticks out the front. You could rotate the lazy susan and have a few notches so it stops dead in the right place. Rotate it, the new piece is running while you're sitting in a chair in front of it, picking out the old piece and loading a new piece. Cycle finishes, pull a pin, rotate it, hit the button, start unloading all over again.

Just a thought. Might not work on your project, but at least it got my brain functioning for a minute or two today :)

[Doug Griffith]

That got me thinking as well.

No room for a lazy susan but multiple fixture "trays" that slide in and out with the front grill removed might just work. I'll have to do some measuring. It would be something like a pizza oven.

[Bruce Volden]

Doug

I had the same concerns one time. What I did was let my kids swap out the material when completed! I would set up the file and they would call it up and position it (jig made beforehand) and then "surf" and get paid $10 / hr.
Although my cycle times were longer (8 min.) the end results were the same. I was doing BBQ handles (fork, tong, spats) by the tens of thousands with my LMI machine 11" X 30" bed. From experience, as long as the exhaust is GOOD your optics should'nt need frequent cleaning, and yes the laser is MADE for this type of work!! Have fun and you will figure out the most time effecient way for doing this.

BTW- I had my kids doing this because I still held a full time job :D

Bruce

[Scott Shepherd]

Good idea Doug! If you could do a left and right module, when the left is cutting, you can unload and load the right, right is running, load and unload the left. Might make it virtually no down time, other than pushing the go button each cycle.

Good thinking.

[Charlie Bice]

Sliding in and out is a good way to do it.

But, be careful. With the front open you now have a laser eye protection issue. Be best if you can hinge the cover somehow (duct tape) while running.

We used to 'abuse' our Mini24 (45W) quite a bit and it hung in there very well.

As said before, optics cleaning is going to be an issue too.

charlie

[martin g. boekers]

Being on a military base I tend to do alot of name tags. The problem is that they don't come in all at once. I usually make them up on the spot as part of my service.

I came up with this idea and had Mike cut me a small vector grid (11X14) which I then made a wood frame for. Then when I needed to do small vector items I just slide this grid into place and cut away!

It saves time and wear & tear on taking the table out and putting the full grid back in place.

It is a cheap fix for what I needed. This might work for your needs.

Just a thought I'd pass on


Marty