Gunner Asch writes:


On Fri, 24 Jan 2020 21:26:15 +0000, Richard Smith
wrote:

Laser'ing is really the great thing - assume it's gone even more that
way in the States?

Laser cutting is still expensive, so most heavy large items that can
be toleranced with a tape measure are still punched or torch cut.
Laser cutting (except for aerospace and medical) tends to still be
part and parcel "small parts with lots of details"...much like large
EDM. EDM has lost so much ground in the past 20 yrs its actually
becoming rather rare to find in shops. If you need something
EDM'd...send it out is the trend.
CNC plasma cutting does the yoemans share of this sort of work. Its
about the cheapest bulk cutting method out there. Getting to be a
fraction of torch cutting if you have details. You simply have to
hire a minimum wage kid to run a big angle grinder to clear off the
slag and any ridges. What wetback...er..undocumented aliens are
for..least here in Californiastan.

Avoid having to debur punched holes, flatten plates again, etc.
Holes all there laser'ed.
Get a pallet-load of plates with identities "etched" with defocussed
laser beam.

Ayup..that is one of the handy things you can do with lasers. Or water
jets. Water jetting is spendy..but much less spendy than laser
cutting these days. Its not so much the cost per hour of the two..but
the inititial cost of the machine and service costs. Water jet has
become much cheaper over the past 15 yrs. But laser is catching
up..slowly.


Gunner - you are almost certainly right. We say "lasered", but it is
probably plasma-cut.
Transfer CAD files to profiler and the CNC cutting machine makes them
to-drawing.