Recently, at a customer base in Changzhou, a laser uncoiling and feeding automation line is being unpacked. This product is independently developed by HGTECH and will be used for cutting sheet metal parts for cabinets in the power and telecommunications industry.

Machinery manufacturing, communication electronics, automobile manufacturing, smart home......the figure of sheet metal parts are everywhere.

According to statistics, the existing number of enterprises in China's sheet metal processing industry exceeds 30,000, employing more than 1.8 million people, with annual consumption of sheet metal parts exceeding 40 million tons and total sales exceeding 500 billion yuan, accounting for 20%-30% in metal processing.

 Recommended Guide on Equipment Selection

The metal blanking process is the basic process of sheet metal processing. Processing cost, efficiency and quality are all necessary factors to be considered in the procurement of equipment.

What are the general options for purchasing sheet metal blanking processing equipment?

1. Uncoiling and shearing lines

• Product Description

After the coil is leveled and cut to a certain length and then palletized, the purchase cost is low, but the subsequent laser processing can only be cut in a single sheet, the production efficiency is low, the plate specifications are limited, and the coil material is wasted seriously.

• Recommendation index

2.Unwinding and blanking line

• Product Description

After the coil is leveled and fed into the press for die stamping, the production efficiency is high, suitable for mass production, but the purchase price is high, the cost of the drop die is high (about 18 million yuan per year for medium-sized factories), and the nominal pressure of the equipped press is up to 800 tons, which is more demanding on the factory's usage environment.

• Recommendation index

Whether shearing or blanking, there is always a series of small cracks near the cut edge of the final sheet obtained. In particular, the application of new materials such as high-strength steel and aluminium alloys has made this problem even more pronounced.

The high tensile steel is very damaging to the undercutting die and the mechanical undercutting action can cause cracks in the cut high tensile steel blanks, leading to their breakage during the subsequent stamping process.

Therefore, the above traditional undercutting methods need to be upgraded in order to meet the technological developments in the relevant industries and the increasing service standards in the market.

Following the trend and leading the way

In 2013, the laser uncoiling line was first launched in Germany, which innovatively combines laser cutting + uncoiling feeding technology to effectively improve the processing efficiency and accuracy of sheet metal parts. However, although foreign equipment is good, the price has dissuaded a number of favourites. At present, the unit price of imported laser uncoiling and feeding lines is as high as around 80 million.

Laser cutting technology does not have to consider whether the metal is hard or not, whether it is 560MPa, 980MPa or 1500MPa, it is effortless for the laser.

In 2013, the first domestic single-head dynamic laser uncoiling and unloading line independently developed by HGTECH was also successfully launched and delivered to a customer site in Zhejiang after years of dedicated research and development.

In 2020, the HGTECH laser high-speed three-head uncoiling and unloading line was successfully accepted at the site of customer Y, a core supplier of Hyundai Motor in South Korea. The product adopts the three-head nesting software and multi-head dynamic cutting technology independently developed by HGTECH laser, and the efficiency is increased by 2.5 times on the basis of single-head equipment.

At present, the product has obtained a number of national utility model patents, as well as patents in Korea and Japan.

2021 also saw the successful launch of HGTECH's latest laser double-head uncoiling and unloading line, which is now in stable operation at a customer site in Kunshan, mainly for the production of automotive body-in-white parts. The product adopts a full belt type conveyor belt, the production efficiency is more than 2 times higher than that of a single head laser uncoiling line, and the cutting performance is comparable to that of imported equipment.

Laser uncoiling The best choice

To do a good job, you need to have the right tools. The laser uncoiling line provides an overall system for coil uncoiling - levelling - dynamic cutting up to undercutting, replacing traditional pressure and moulds to achieve automatic undercutting of metal strips, breaking the process bottleneck that the original laser cutting equipment can only cut a single sheet.

At the same time, the laser follower cutting technology solves the problem of rapid blanking of continuous metal and non-metal strip material without moulds, reducing the investment in equipment and mould consumption for blanking, and has become the third and optimal choice for the sheet metal processing industry.

• Recommendation index

At present, China's manufacturing industry is in the transition period of structural adjustment and industrial upgrading, and the demand for sheet metal processing capacity in various industries is constantly rising, especially the change in processing technology brought about by the market demand for lightweighting of automobiles.In the future, the sheet metal processing manufacturing industry will also develop in the direction of automation, integration, flexibility and intelligence, and HGTECH will continue to work with you in the future.