Ashtech Toolings & Stampings won several business orders using laser-cutting technology over conventional methods | BY TEAM MT | Lasers have seen one of the fastest developmentsin terms of growth. The automotive was one of the fastest industries to adopt this technology mainly because of the flexibility it offers in the manufacturing arena. Also, the rising requirements of legislations in many countries to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of motor vehicles have started a global trend that increases the pressure on the auto industry to significantly reduce the weight of its products. At the same time, demands on performance and crash safety are also continuing to rise. This has given birth to use of light weight materials like hot formed manganese-boron steel in automotive manufacturing.
The hot formed boron steel used in chassis and ABC pillars are hard and not possible to be trimmed with conventional mechanical trimming operations and should be machined in unhardened microstructure zones. As this is not possible, lasers have proven widely successful as a “wear-free”tool. In other applications like cutting blanks to size, a number of factors favour trimming by laser rather than by mechanical press.
One such company that saw multiple benefits after using a laser machine isAshtech Toolings & Stampings. The company based in Pune is a commercial tool room engaged in the manufacturing of sheet metal dies for the automotive and non-automotive sector. They also offer end to end services for all activities required for sheet metal tooling industry starting from design to analysis (hyper form) to reverse engineering(laser scanning) to CMM (portable arm)to machining (five CNC machines up to four metres. x 2.6 metres capacity) to five axis laser cutting and laser welding.
Being in the sheet metal tool manufacturing line, five axis laser cutting activity was their frequent requirement during submission of initial components as well as for the development of trim line of components.
“However, the laser machines available near our premises were not really meeting the exacting requirements of our customers. This invariably led to last minute fine tuning and adjustments, thereby hampering our schedules and brand name,” informed Ravi Gera,director, Ashtech Toolings & Stampings.
Moreover, the off loading options available were also not really conducive. Gera agreed, “The OEMs expect prototype components not only within short lead time but also want the same to be CMM certified with PIST level of more than 90%. To achieve this laser machines that ensure the hole positions and trim lines within desired tolerances and good repeat ability is mandatory. We experienced a huge gap here and this led to internal brain storming sessions to equip ourselves with state-of the-art solution.”
The company turned to Trumpf’s laser machines to solve their problems.When it came to developing tools and dies for stamping of automotive body parts,Ash tech’s primary pain areas were accuracy and repeatability. “Initially they used conventional methods to manufacture prototypes of dies that are used to press the car body parts,” said M Hidayath, national sales manager, Trumpf (India).
“The hydro formed or punch pressed body parts need holes and shapes to be pressed and the edges need to be trimmed for final assembly. But when the holes and shapes on pressed parts were misaligned due to pressing force, Ashtech adapted modern laser cutting technology for trimming edges and making holes on the pressed carbody parts.”
Ashtech initially started by hiring time on Trumpf’s 3D laser cutting machine – Tru-Laser Cell 7040 – that is installed at a government owned job shop ‘Auto Cluster’ in Pune. “During this they realised that there is a need for a private job shop to serve customers like Volkswagen, Mahindra, Tata,Maruti etc. Hence, they decided to invest on a TruLaser Cell 7040 at their own facility in Bhosari,” mentioned Hidayath.
Tru Laser Cell 7040 is a five axis laser machine with the capability to cut and weld sheet metal parts in 3D form. Different components can be combined according to a modular principle and easily upgraded when needs change. “Its configuration depends on the specific application, for example,if the application would be best served with a CO2 or solid-state laser. The perfectly attuned safety concept allows one to implement a two-station solution, even when using solid-state lasers which require greater safety precautions, ” asserted Hidayath.
Two or dual station operation means two table stations on the machine and with this the efficiency of the machine is doubled since the waiting time for loading and unloading the part is reduced drastically.
Gera elaborates, “We selected a machine with four metres travel so that not only large size jobs can be accommodated but also multiple jobs can be loaded parallelly.This coupled with two stations,helps us to minimise non-productive time of loading and unloading of components from the machine. This was a unique feature of Trumpf.”
This has also helped them do CMM activity after the first component is cut. “In the time in which the CMM is being done the machine is engaged in cutting another component. This ensures we deliver CMM certified parts without stopping the machine.This in fact has become our USP,”affirmed Gera.
Any capital asset performance is weighed against its initial and operating cost in addition to operating efficiency. While Trumpf was shortlisted by Ash tech as the best in its class it was also marked as the costliest among the competitors.
“Hence, before taking any decision, its efficiency was closely evaluated and only after we were thoroughly confident about its operating efficiency, we gave a go ahead.The speed of cutting offered by their machine is simply unmatched. It is a workhorse and always keeps the pressure on our marketing department, to get more orders,”chuckled Gera.
Hidayath further put in, “The investment on this machine was around €800,000, which is big for a small scale industry like Ashtech. But we appreciate the calculated risks taken by them to go ahead with this big investment. With their dedicated hard work and innovative ideas they have been able to recover this investment within three years.”