CVC Cuts Customer’s Welding & Assembly Time

Home > Mazak 3D Laser Cutting SpaceGear > Mazak Spacegear Case Study for CVC

CVC is a job shop in Florence, KY, fabricating component parts, assemblies and complete products. In 2001, the company installed a 2000w, 5' x 10', 3D rotary laser (Mazak’s Space Gear) to do pipe and structural work. CVC President Kevin Martin talks about two parts produced on the versatile machine–one that takes advantage of the laser’s large bed and the other of the rotary chuck.

What is the steel tubing part (Left & close-up) used for?
Two of these parts are welded together to make the frame for a litter (bed) for the medical industry. The material is 2" x 1" rectangular steel tubing, 16-gauge wall. Before the tube is bent it is 112" long. The web of the litter frame is 84" and the flanges approximately 12". There are 50 holes in total, in six or seven different sizes, on all four sides of the part.

How was this part made before you put it on your 3D laser?
Our customer was making this part internally. His process was to saw the tube to length, form it, drill the holes manually and then deburr. He came to us because he wanted to reduce his cost and improve the accuracy to cut his welding and assembly time.

What problems did your customer have producing this part?
He could saw to length accurately, but then forming was an issue. He had to make sure his gauging was exactly right. Also this was a hand drilling process, so with 50 holes of varying sizes, the operators were constantly picking up and laying down drills and changing drill bits. Accuracy on a hole placement and size was harder to maintain, too.

How do you make the part on the 3D laser?
We purchase a millrun of the tubing and bring it in here sawed slightly oversized. Our first step is to form the part. There are some large holes in the area where the tube is bent, and the tubing would collapse if we formed it with the holes in there first. After the part is formed, we laser cut all the holes and trim the ends on the Space Gear.

How does the laser machine cut holes on all four sides?
We built two fixtures to hold two formed tubes on the bed of the laser. During one cycle, we’re cutting the holes on three sides of the part that is in the first fixture while we’re cutting the holes on the fourth side and trimming the ends of another part in the second fixture. At the end of the cycle, we unload the finished tube and move the tube that has been cut on three sides into the second fixture. We load a new tube into the first fixture.

What are the advantages of making this part on a 3D laser?
First of all, since we bring in a slightly oversized tube, form the part first and then trim the flanges, the length of the flanges is very consistent and accurate. The only thing we have to be concerned about when we form the part is ensuring that the web is accurate and that we form it up at 90 degrees. If one flange is a little shorter or longer, it doesn’t matter because we know after we laser cut it, the flanges will be the same.

When the customer sawed the part to length, he could throw off the squareness. The part we provide makes their fit up easier and gives them a very good joint to weld. Second, the lasercut holes need no deburring, so that step is eliminated completely.

How would you have made this part in your shop if you did not have a 3D laser?
This part is perfect for the Space Gear because we need a large bed to sit the parts on. The formed part is about 8' long, and the laser bed is 10' long. So we utilize all that space to be able to cut this part. The other reason this part is a good fit for the Space Gear is the fact that there are holes of varying sizes on all four sides.

If we did not have the Space Gear, we would have sawed the tubes to length and used our 2D [flatbed]laser machine to cut as many holes as we could before the tube was bent. After bending, we would have drilled the balance of the holes. Doing this part on the Space Gear saves us two operations, and more importantly, the time we save lets us pass on a cost savings to our customer.

Let’s talk about the other part.. What is it and what are the specs?
This is an inner column support. The material is 6" x 6" square steel tubing, 7-gauge wall. The part is 15" long, and there are 32 holes of three different sizes on all four sides.

How was the customer making this part?
Our customer went through six operations to make this part. He sheared the material, punched the holes using a turret punch press, deburred and notched out the edge. He’d do this again for another sheared blank. Then he would form each piece into an angle and weld the legs of the two angles together to make the square tube shape.

And how does CVC make the part?
The part happens to be the shape of available tubing. That was the key. We buy the tubing cut to a length that is slightly oversized. We mount it on the chuck of the Space Gear with the straight edge against the chuck. By the time the part rotates three times, we have the completed part–32 holes and notched end cuts–all in one operation. We paint it and ship it to the customer.

How much time do you save making this part on the 3D laser?
The time it takes to make one part on the Space Gear would be 1/4 to 1/3 of what it took before. The quality of the holes and other cuts also is more consistently accurate and speeds up assembly. Most significant, however, is that we have eliminated the shearing, deburring, forming and welding processes altogether by using a standard mill tube as our raw material.

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