Highest performance in 3D metal cutting at smallest footprint - benchmark of a robot based system vs. parameters of gantry systems

摘要

In the automotive industry as well as in other industries ecological aspects regarding energy savings are driving new technologies and materials, e.g. lightweight materials as aluminium or press hardened steels. Processing such parts especially complex 3D shaped parts laser manufacturing has become the key process offering highest efficiency. The most established systems for 3D cutting applications are based on gantry systems. The disadvantage of those systems is their huge footprint to realize the required stability and work envelope. Alternatively a robot based system might be of advantage if accuracy, speed and overall performance would be capable processing automotive parts.rnWith the BIM "beam in motion" system, JENOPTIK Automatisierungstechnik GmbH has developed a modular robot based laser processing machine, which meets all OEM specs processing press hardened steel parts. A benchmark of the BIM versus a gantry system was done regarding all required parameters to fulfil OEM specifications for press hardened steel parts. As a result a highly productive, accurate and efficient system can be described based on one or multiple robot modules working simultaneously together.rnThe paper presents the improvements on the robot machine concept BIM addressed in 2012 leading to an industrial proven system approach for the automotive industry. It further compares the performance and the parameters for 3D cutting applications of the BIM system versus a gantry system by samples of applied parts. Finally an overview of suitable applications for processing complex 3D parts with high productivity at small footprint is given.