Cutting methods are divided into flame cutting, plasma cutting, laser cutting, and water jet cutting. At present, our company uses flame cutting and plasma cutting. Flame cutting is suitable for low carbon steel but not for stainless steel and aluminum. For carbon steel over 50mm, flame-cutting can only be used. Plasma cutting is used for conductive metal materials such as low carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum.
Fastcam nesting software use process
(1) Use Solid Edge ST5 drawing software to draw and save as a DXF file.
(2) Read in the DXF file in Fastcam, do "CAD clear, CAD compression" and "check contour," and then save it as a DXF file.
(3) Use FastNEST nesting software for nesting.
(4) Output, NC file, usually suffix TXT file, copy this TXT file to the cutting machine to start cutting.
Cutting process and matters needing attention
(1) Compensation: It is generally customary to use left compensation. In the case of left compensation, the inner contour travels in a counterclockwise direction, and the outer contour is clockwise. The slit width is twice the slit compensation; half of the slit width is compensation.
(2) Perforation position (lead-in position): Generally speaking, the relationship between thermal deformation and contour walking direction is considered. If the cutting start position is "lower left," the outer boundary lead-in position should be placed at "lower right." And the long side of the part should be connected with the entire steel plate as much as possible, otherwise unnecessary thermal deformation will occur. Avoid the size to be guaranteed when the last slot is cut, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
(3) Cutting workpieces of different sizes When cutting workpieces of different sizes on a steel plate, the small pieces should be cut first, and then the large pieces.
(4) Automatic continuous cutting As long as in the FastPATH setting, check the "cut short gap line" and enter the short gap length to achieve this efficient cutting. Only pierce once and cut continuously to reduce gun head loss.
(5) Common edge cutting is suitable for flame cutting, not for plasma cutting because the cutting surface of plasma cutting is relatively oblique, and the angle is larger. If some parts in the nesting need to be co-edged and some do not need to be co-edged, when adding parts that require co-edging, the value of "parts to parts" is set to the slit value, such as 2mm. When adding parts that do not need co-edging, "Part Adjust the value of "Part to part" to the standard cutting interval, such as 10mm, but remember when outputting the code, change the value of "Part to part" back to the slit value and then output the code, because the part will use the last set value before output as the part Cutting compensation. The incorrect value of the final "part to part" value will cause the wrong size of the whole board.
(6) Sealing: When cutting the inner hole, because of the lead-in and lead-out lines, sometimes there will be a notch, which will damage the contour of the workpiece and fill in later. After the sealing is increased, it will be reduced, or not this circumstance occurs.
(7) Lead-in length: Generally, the thicker the board, the longer the lead-in and the lead-in length above 40mm should be at least 20mm.
(8) Cutting sequence: It can be from left to right or bottom to top. Assuming that a steel plate is about 10m long when it is cut to the end, sometimes the end steel plate will lift up, which affects the cutting quality of the end parts, so when cutting from left to right When half of the steel plate is 5m away, you can jump directly to the end, cut the end parts first, and then return to the steel plate 5m to continue cutting.
(9) Outer sharp angle: Because plasma can not cut right angles (or the right cutting angles are of poor quality), to achieve the right angles required by the pattern, "sharp external angles" must be used, so that right angles can be cut (see Figure 3).
The above content is some of the skills and experience summarized in the use of Fastcam nesting programming. Only the nesting staff skillfully use the nesting software can the CNC cutting machine achieve "cutting fast, cutting well, cutting saving."
