Manufacturing Machinery World May 2020

LASER
EWAG BRINGS LASER PRECISION AND SPEED TO
INSERT PRODUCTION
The installation of an Ewag Laser Line
Precision laser-cutting insert machine at
MICTU has seen this specialist manufacturer
of eyewear, dental, aerospace and
automotive components halve production
times and improve cutting edge quality by a
factor of three on PCD and brazed tooling,
compared with ‘traditional’ CNC tool
production machines!
Founded in northern Italy in 1986 and
today with 14 employees, MICTU has
extensive knowledge in cutting tool
manufacture and it is now benefiting from
the speed and accuracy of the Laser Line
Precision mainly on form tools of 3 mm to 60
mm diameter – and especially on tooling
used to produce complex geometries, such as
concave profiles, for the machining of
eyewear workpieces.
In addition to shorter cycle times and
improved quality, the company is also
finding that laser technology enables very
short set-up times, with programming
carried out remotely and machining files
being quickly transferred to minimise
downtime. Small batches are therefore very
economic.
Indeed, its tools are programmed in just
10-20 minutes then machined in another 10-
20 minutes, thanks to the tooling being
specifically designed for lasering – tool body
designs have been adapted to provide
optimal laser beam accessibility to the cutting
edges.
This is where Ewag’s integrated LaserSoft
software is of particular advantage, being
used for automatic 3D model generation
based on a simple DXF curve of the tool -
without modelling axial or radial angles. “It’s
a big advantage to have such software which
allows multiple tests and the freedom of
shapes and forms,” says the company’s
Product Development Engineer, Andrea
Collavo.
One of Ewag’s comprehensive range of
tool production and regrinding, and insert
production machines – and available in the
UK from Walter Ewag UK, a member of the
United Grinding Group - the five-axis Laser
Line Precision is a cost-effective entry-level
machine for processing all commercially
available diamond cutting materials
including CBN, PKD and CVC-D.
The machine can accommodate
rotationally symmetrical tools of up to 200
mm diameter and up to 250 mm long, as well
as indexable inserts with inscribed diameters
from 3 mm and circumscribed diameters up
to 50 mm.
Laser Line Precision utilises modern
short-pulse fibre-laser technology in the
green wavelength range (532 nm) for highly
efficient and effective machining, with the
resulting vapourised material being
suctioned away to a suction/filter system.
Incorporating the innovative and
patented Laser Touch Machining process, the
result is excellent surface quality, even on
tools with complex or delicate geometries.
Indeed, any type of cutting contour,
clearance and three-dimensional chipbreaker
geometry can be produced in a single
clamping operation.
With a footprint of only 5 m2, the machine
is the most compact and cost-efficient laser
production centre available for super hard
tools. An optional six-axis robot offers the
highest levels of flexibility during minimally
manned, multi-shift operation.
MICTU founder Antonello Collavo (left)
and son Andrea, Product Development
Engineer, test a new tool on the Laser Line
Precision
Laser-processed tools for eyewear
industry workpieces – above: PCD tools of 4
mm to 8 mm diameter and, below, brazed
tools of 6 mm to 30 mm diameter
Tel: 01926 485047
neil.whittingham@waltermachines.de
www.walter-machines.com
8 Manufacturing Machinery World, May 2020