BLM GROUP Blog

In this short interview Lorenzo Carminato, Business Development Manager of LT-FREE at BLM GROUP USA, discusses the benefits of 5-axis laser cutting for aerospace applications.

During the early years of the 21st century, architecture has shifted towards ever greater freedom of styles and shapes. In many countries, large structures and buildings appear to defy the laws of physics with unique shapes and designs.

Advanced processes for tube manufacturing, the result of growing demand for increased productivity and above all, flexibility, has led to the creation of systems capable of performing complex and precision operations on pre- bent, hydroformed or shaped tubes. 3D laser cutting technology is playing an increasingly important role in this type of processes.

“I didn’t know anything about having my own company,” begins Cullen Raichart, Founder & CEO of GreenBroz, an emerging agricultural machine manufacturer. He continues, “I was a Chief Engineer at a Fortune 500 company and didn’t have real knowledge about building a company. I’ve always been an inventor, always someone who tinkered with stuff, and always could fix things.”

Many tube fabricators use a different programming platform for each machine, which leads to some specific inefficiencies. Connecting two or more processes together using Industry 4.0 technology platforms provides a seamless operation in programming, fabricating, and process validation.

Manufacturers are continually looking for ways to eliminate waste in their manufacturing process and save cost. Tube fabricators are no different. This becomes even more evident when multiple tubes are required to build an assembly.

One of the most cumbersome challenges faced by tube fabricators is the joining of tube components. Difficulties are often encountered with fit-up, fixturing and assembly.

This is especially true when secondary process operations, such coping and mitering, are required after the bending process.

Since its establishment 25 years ago in a garage in Kings Lynn, Norfolk in the UK, Optimal Metal Services has followed the relatively simple, yet effective, growth strategy of constantly adding value to the products offered to their customers mainly by continuously investing in new sheet processing machinery for punching, laser-cutting, bending, etc.

The precision and technological features of laser cutting are opening new perspectives in the production of welded joints for the structural applications, making it possible to create complex geometry connections with greater accuracy and speed than in the past.