Board logo

Laser or water cutting
mccsp - 29/1/11 at 07:47 PM

Looking to get some plates cut, with weight saving holes and mounting holes in aluminium approx 8mm thick. Which method is best and what is the minimum diameter hole that can be accurately cut?

andyw7de - 29/1/11 at 08:04 PM

Could'nt really comment on laser as i dont have one, but water cuts aluminium very well.

Aluminium is probably the most common metal we cut, especially thick aluminium, from memory we have cut up to 75mm thick but could cut thicker (up to 150mm), you wont get a laser to do that as far as i know.

smallest hole would probably be approx 2mm which is slightly bigger than the pierce

If you need a price let me know

cheers

Andy

plentywahalla - 29/1/11 at 08:26 PM

I used to run a laser profiler and aluminium was the hardest material to cut accurately. From what I remember it was something to do with the reflectivity of the surface which would occasionally 'bounce' the beam back. Plasma is brilliant on alluminium and we often found that the humble plasma cutter did a better job than the laser.

I have no experience of water jet but I would guess it is the best option.

koiking125 - 29/1/11 at 11:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mccsp
Looking to get some plates cut, with weight saving holes and mounting holes in aluminium approx 8mm thick. Which method is best and what is the minimum diameter hole that can be accurately cut?


Try Fab-tech, there in Crowland just near Crowland Cranes, sorry dont know the number they will be in the book.

Kev

indykid - 30/1/11 at 12:37 AM

quote:
Originally posted by andyw7de
Could'nt really comment on laser as i dont have one, but water cuts aluminium very well.

Aluminium is probably the most common metal we cut, especially thick aluminium, from memory we have cut up to 75mm thick but could cut thicker (up to 150mm), you wont get a laser to do that as far as i know.

smallest hole would probably be approx 2mm which is slightly bigger than the pierce

If you need a price let me know

cheers

Andy

just out of curiosity, how far off perpendicular is the face of the cut on that sort of thickness?

anyway mccsp, if you want waterjet, i'm sure i won't be the last to recommend this man ^ .

absolutely fantastic service and very reasonably priced

andyw7de - 30/1/11 at 01:11 AM


just out of curiosity, how far off perpendicular is the face of the cut on that sort of thickness?



The quality and squareness of the cut are all dependant on the speed of cut.

If you just want a rough finish that has a bit of an angle to it then its cut at a quicker speed hence its cheaper.

however i have cut some 75mm really hard tool steel which had to be vey square and have a good quality cut that would not require any further machining to finish.

We ended up with a cut speed of 2.8mm per minute.. very slow but the customer was well chuffed with it, but obviously not cheap at that speed.

cheers

Andy

trikerneil - 30/1/11 at 07:49 AM

Andyw7de waterjet cut some 25mm alloy for me and the finish was similar to a sandblast effect.

Andy has always given good service and price, I'd highly recommend him.

HTH

Neil