HD Laser Tech ~ 403-901-1830
How to decrease your laser costs and improve design using laser technology...
Our focus at HD Laser Tech is to develop a comprehensive parts management system for our customers. By developing this system we hope to better manage our customers drawing inventory and hereby improve their cutting turn around times and minimize set up costs.
Properly preparing your drawing for the laser can save you money...
By preparing your drawing before you email them to us can dramatically reduce the programming and set up time required to produce your laser cut parts. Here are a few tips that will reduce your costs;
- All parts drawings should be emailed to HD Laser Tech in a "dwg" format.
- Each drawing should only have one part on it, one part number and revision number. The best way is to devise a system that assigns a new part number entirely every time a part is revised or a new part is created. This is the best way to insure that only the most current part is cut.
- Drawings should also only be sent in layer "0" on AutoCad.
- All drawings should be prepared using imperial dimensions.
- All parts should be prepared using imperial dimensions.
- All parts should be sent in a 2D format. The Laser only understands 2D sheet metal components. Therefore parts should be laid out flat. All forming and machining processes are done after and are not recognized by the laser.
By prepping your drawing in this format prior to forwarding them to us will reduce the amount of setup and programming time required to input your parts into the laser, therefore reducing your costs.
Improving Nesting Strategies reduces production costs...
Nesting is what is referred to when we take all components of a similar material type and thickness and lay them out on a sheet of steel to be cut. Therefore, in order for a customer to minimize their costs the more pieces of a similar material type and thickness that can be ordered at the same time will reduce the cost of the overall job. The best way to do this is either to increase the quantity of pieces per order to fully utilize the sheet or to combine several parts into one group and order them at the same time. The following example will better explain these principals in action. In this scenario we are cutting a 5'x10' sheet of material.
In summary better drawing, parts preparation and nesting strategies are the keys to reducing production costs.