Answers To Commonly Asked Questions About Hilliard Precision Products' Bystronic 3500 Watt Bystar Laser and Bytrans Load/Unload


Isn't turret punching faster than laser cutting?

Yes, in most cases you can make individual holes faster with a turret punch, but the set-up time is the killer. Increasingly our customers want to buy small quantities and they want JIT deliveries. The typical set-up time on a turret punch is 30-45 minutes versus five minutes on a laser. Very often we can run the entire job in the time it took to set up the punch.


Doesn't a laser cost more to buy and operate than a turret punch?

Yes it does, but there are several areas of savings. The Laser will eliminate:

• Material handling of pallets to the shear
• Shearing, picking up and stacking cut material
• Material handling over to the turret punch
• Queue time for the turret punch
• Deburring

We believe these savings will offset the labor costs of these operations and will speed up our delivery while enabling us to handle smaller lot sizes.


I've never heard of Bystronic before. Why didn't you buy a laser from Amada, Mazak or Mitsubishi - a name we've heard of?

Bystronic Lasers are Swiss engineered and crafted. They are in a totally different class of quality and productivity than the others. We spent 18 months studying all the available lasers and visited many shops before deciding on Bystronic.

A few of the reasons we chose the Bystar are:

Maximum available Watts. We opted to go for 3500 Watts. Watts equal cutting speed and time is money.

Gas cost. A 3500W laser uses very little more Nitrogen assist gas than a 2000W laser, yet it goes nearly 3X faster

The Bystar 3500 is a Flying optic laser. This means that the laser optic cutting head moves over the work piece, while other machines move the work piece under the laser much like a turret punch moves the metal around the table. Movement = vibration = bad tolerance and bad edge quality.

The Bystronic is a DC laser. Most lasers are RF. It would take a long time to explain the technical difference between them. Suffice it to say that although an RF laser is less expensive to build and slightly less to operate, the DC laser is more "stabile" which means better cut quality, and it can be "Pulsed" allowing for short bursts of power that are 125% of its rated power, so we can actually get 4300W for starting cuts in thick material.

The Bystronic machine weighs 28,000 Lbs. While most others weighed in at 20,000 lbs. At the rapid speeds that the Flying optic moves, the "mass" of the machine has a vibration absorbing effect that gives better edge quality.

The Bystar has a totally enclosed cutting area with a large easy opening access door on the 10 ft side. The enclosure protects the eyesight of our employees. The European version of OSHA requires vision protection enclosures, the USA does not currently require it, and none of the Japanese machines offer enclosures.


Why has HPP put in a Bytrans Automated Load/Unload system when no one else has them?

Hilliard Precision Products has chosen to invest heavily in Automation. We believe this is the key to cost control. It may cost more initially, but it will pay off later.

The key to small quantity orders and Just in Time Delivery is quick set-up and unmanned operation.

Material handling and shearing is slow and costly.

Heavy lifting and sharp edged sheets put our employees at risk. Automation does away with these slow and dangerous operations.

Automation allows our equipment to work continuously. Our Load/Unload system doesn’t mind working through coffee break, lunch or nights, weekends and holidays!

Our Automation will cost the same next year and the year after, while employee pay and benefits always seem to go up every year!


Why did HPP buy such a big laser?

Many shops have lasers, but most have only 4 foot x 8 foot capacity and 1500-2000Watt capacity. This is just fine for 95% of their work since they do smaller and lighter sheets. HPP has chosen to be a "niche player" and we do a lot of stainless steel and some very large cabinets. The 5 ft x 10 ft. Bystar gives us not only capacity for bigger sheet size but it gives us more power and speed.

The higher the wattage the faster the cutting speed. It is not a matter of laser brand name, it’s the law of physics. We can cut stainless 60% faster due to the 3500 Watts.


Many shops cut with oxygen or compressed air. Why did HPP put in such a big nitrogen tank?

All lasers require "assist gas" to blow away the molten metal. We have a choice of three gasses. Shops that cut mostly steel can get away with oxygen or compressed air, and it is cheaper, but the cut edge is oxidized and oxidized edges don’t hold powder coat paint well. We don’t always know what paint finish our customers will use and so to avoid rejected parts we’d rather go with the good stuff and use nitrogen for all steel and stainless parts. That way we’ll always be right and the edge quality will be better.

Nitrogen gives the best edge quality but it IS the most expensive so most shops buy it in small bottles. Because Hilliard Precision Products does so much stainless cutting and quality is crucial to us, we decided to use Nitrogen almost all the time and we have installed a 1500 gallon tank which allows us to buy in bulk and keep the cost way down! We have negotiated a low 3 year fixed cost contract so the operating cost difference for us between nitrogen and oxygen is about only $2.85/hr. The speed of the Bystar will make the added cost per piece miniscule. We think the quality will impress you!


What do you mean when you talk about nesting?

Nesting is when we take a lot of dissimilar parts that have only two things in common (material type and thickness) and fit as many pieces together on one sheet as possible. This method of nesting parts together like a jig saw puzzle means we can cut our material waste by close to $20,000/yr.

We plan to run 3 day groups of parts. This minimizes set-ups on both the laser and the press brakes since they run all similar metals and die set ups for everything we need to make for 3 day time periods.

The Majestic software we have just purchased is a $35,000 program. We believe it is magnitudes better than the software most of our competitors have. It would take a 3 day seminar to begin to explain its capabilities to you!


How do we reduce manufacturing cost if we've spent so much on equipment?

This is how your company saves money, improves quality and speeds delivery:

The Bystar laser allows us to:

• Bring entire pallets of metal from the storage rack to the Laser unmanned!
• Nest many different products all into the same sheet
• Laser optic head changes in less than 5 minutes

It eliminates:

• Shearing
• Material handling
• Machine down time while being unloaded
• Unloading labor
• Long turret punch set-up time
• Punch & dies tooling cost
• Tool sharpening
• Deburring
• Milling & drilling thick plate
• Queue time between shearing & punching

Automation

It works all night and weekend at straight time, and it doesn’t get a pay raise next year or the year after!

Low Gas Cost

Because of our huge volume, we’ve negotiated a 3 year Nitrogen gas supply contract at a low fixed cost.


Can a laser cut through a stack of sheets?

No. The laser beam has to be focused (usually in the middle of the material thickness. With a stack of material the molten metal from the cut on the top sheet would shoot out between the sheets and would effectively weld them together.


Can the laser cut non ferrous materials like copper, brass, aluminum, and titanium?

Yes! One of the reasons Hilliard went for the maximum available 3500 Watt laser was to provide the power to cut these difficult to laser materials.

Materials that are good conductors of energy (and heat is energy) tend to draw the heat away from the cut area thus making it more difficult to "melt" the metal under the laser beam.

Electrical wires and contacts are made of copper, brass and aluminum because they are good conductors, that is why they’re not made of steel and stainless.

Generally the "Harder" the material, the better it laser cuts.


Can it cut non-metallic materials like plastic, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and wood?

Yes, but we do not expect to be able to process these materials for a year until we learn more about it and install vent hoods and environmental exhaust scrubbers.


How does the laser actually cut?

The simple explanation is that the process is just like when you were a kid and you used a magnifying glass to burn ants and leaves! You focused the sunlight to a point and created intense heat at that point.

The 3500Watts is like having a bright sunny summer day, you get an intense hot beam of light. Having a 1500 Watt laser is like trying to focus the sunlight on a hazy winter day.

Once the laser beam has melted the metal, the "assist gas" blows the molten metal through.

The size of the cut is about .008" (eight/ one thousandths of an inch).