Takes delivery of Trumpf TruLaser 5040 fiber laser with 8kW source.

Pretty much every service centre processing sheet and plate looks for process flexibility from the machine tools it selects. These companies need to be process agile because of the nature of the work that they do for their clients.

Service centres such as Pegasus Steel tend to be creative in ways that help streamline the metalworking process to maximise productive machining time and minimise costly non-productive time.

“Pegasus Steel believes that the only way you are going to stay ahead and satisfy the demands of clients is not to dream about the equipment you would like to have on your floor but rather to take action and invest,” said Alex Russell, joint owner of Pegasus Steel.

Pegasus Steel’s latest acquisition is a Trumpf TruLaser 5040 8kW fiber laser cutter with a 4 x 2 metre cutting bed

“Our latest acquisition is a Trumpf TruLaser 5040 8kW fiber laser cutter with a 4 x 2 metre cutting bed, which takes our Trumpf laser cutting machine tally to five. The new TruLaser 5040 fiber allows us to cut carbon steel sheets up to 25mm, stainless steel sheets up to 40mm, aluminium sheets up to 25mm and copper and brass up to 10mm.”

“The acquisition of this machine underwrites our philosophy of always having an investment programme in place and not having a shotgun attitude of we will invest in new equipment when the need arises or when we are forced to.”

“The way the development of modern equipment is advancing these days, with new features and capabilities being added all time, it does not take long for your equipment to be labelled out of date, slow and not accurate. It is an unfortunate situation for not only us in the metalworking industry but in most spheres of industry. We are in an era where technology is advancing so fast that keeping up with it is daunting.”

The machine has been coupled with automation – a LiftMaster Compact. At the heart of the LiftMaster Compact is the synchronous loader, which loads and unloads in parallel

“When I look back at the first laser that we purchased in 2006 and the specifications and capabilities of it as compared to our latest machine from Trumpf the differences are vastly different.”

“It is not that the materials that we cut have changed much therefore demanding changes in the way the machines have to cut the material, it is rather the requirements of accuracy and speed. This is nothing new and these requirements will always be a demand from us as service centres and from our clients.”

Game changer
“It is an old cliché but we really believe that this new Trumpf fiber laser is going to take us to another level. It is one of the first of its kind to be installed in South Africa and will put us at the forefront of the companies that use Trumpf equipment.”

Universal cutting head

“We are always looking at ways of improving the company’s metal cutting and plate forming capabilities. Besides adding new and updated lasers over the years we have always added and improved our efficiencies for high definition plasma cutting, CNC bending, CNC oxyfuel cutting, CNC punching, guillotine cutting, rolling and fabrication. We are so serious about our service that we even went the route of investing in a Haas gantry router just to primarily carry out our chamfering and beveling work.”

“Another advantage of that machine is that it gave us the opportunity to offer clients surface facing of plate, as well as being able to add grooves, holes and slots. On the drilling side we are also able to add thread.”

Trumpf TruLaser 5040 fiber laser – fusion cut up to 100% faster than standard cutting
“Short lead-times have become a necessity for business survival these days. It’s necessary to manufacture efficiently to have a chance of getting the job in the first place. We also work to the principle of trying to do everything, where possible, in house. Once in house, making good parts in ways that make the shop money becomes job one. Besides, if we are given more opportunities to add additional beneficiation to a component, the client will save time and money.”

Nitrogen cutting at record speed with a solid-state laser: The sheet throughput for medium to thick sheets is increased by up to 100%. At the same time, the gas consumption goes down – by as much as 70% with Highspeed Eco

“The performance capacities of the 2D laser machines and the solid-state lasers made by Trumpf continue to advance. With the Trumpf 5040 fiber laser, the machine we have purchased, it is now possible to fusion cut up to 100% faster than standard cutting using TruDisc 8001 with as much as 70% gas reduction. This is made possible by using the new feature High Speed Eco Cut.”

“With a patented touch down nozzle design not only can we reach ridiculous cutting speeds with as little as 10 bar cutting gas pressure but we can use compressed air as a cutting gas on mild steel up to 12mm.”

“With the TruDisc 8kW laser source we are able to use maximum laser power to cut thick mild steel up to 25mm with exceptional cut quality using the BrightLine Fibre feature. This is made possible by changing the spot size of the laser beam at the cutting point directly at the laser source, allowing us to have a larger kerf width so thick parts fall out from the skeleton without the need for tools (hammers) seen in use in the field. This is unheard of in the field of laser cutting, even on higher laser powered machines.”

“Solid-state lasers can as much as triple feed rates. Yet taking advantage of this benefit and achieving rapid part processing requires a highly dynamic system. Thanks to its direct drives, this TruLaser 5040 makes optimum use of the fiber-guided TruDisk laser’s high feed rates which translates to the shortest part processing times. The efficiency of the fiber-guided TruDisk 8001 is twice that of a CO2 beam source, which means less power consumption. This slashes the machine’s total connected load paring down costs even further.”

CoolLine: The selective cooling of the workpiece during the cutting process allows new geometries and significantly increases process reliability in the processing of thick mild steel

“Once again Trumpf have introduced new innovations that will make a decisive advance in laser cutting. Among these features is the intelligent beam monitoring system – Smart Beam Control. It lends even greater reliability to the solid-state laser machines in the TruLaser Series 5000. Smart Beam Control automatically regulates the laser’s focal position during the cutting process itself. This function makes for constant superior reliability and makes it possible, in addition, to carry out a diagnosis of the cutting system. This can also be done from a remote location, using Teleservice.”

The new Condition Guide function for the TruLaser Series 5000 enhances transparency. A single glance is enough to determine the machine’s status. A traffic light system provides information on the condition of key elements that affect the machine’s cutting capacity. The Condition Guide can, if desired, provide information on corrective actions to be taken by the operator. Line charts show the history of the particular condition and simplify forecasting the need for intervention. Consequently, maintenance work can be planned both efficiently and in harmony with actual needs.

Stainless steel 40mm
“BrightLine Fibre also allows us to cut thick stainless steel with extremely high quality edges up to 40mm. With all the safety and productivity features on this machine type, it is safe to say that the TL 5040 fiber 8kW range of machines when coupled with automation – our machine has a LiftMaster Compact – are the most productive / process safe machines on the market.”

DetectLine is an optical measuring system that uses several test points to determine the position of individual blanks and automatically determines the optimum focal position. To this end, contours are cut in a small area of the sheet using different focal positions. The camera system checks the width of the gaps and transmits the correction value for the focal position to the control unit. This means the loaded blank can be further processed with the laser, offering a high degree of precision

“Our success has been achieved by our friendly approach, listening to our customers’ requirements and providing effective solutions within budgetary constraints. Our unrivalled depth of experience and extensive range of equipment enables us to provide innovative solutions to save our customers time, labour, material and money,” Alex Russell was proud to finish off with.

Pegasus Steel is a one-stop three-shift, 24-hour seven-day-a-week steel working service centre specialising in CNC laser cutting, high definition plasma cutting, CNC bending, CNC oxyfuel cutting, CNC punching, guillotine cutting, rolling, forming and fabrication. The company is ISO 9001 certified and has a level 3 BBBEE.

For more information contact Retecon Machine Tools on TEL: 011 976 8600 or visit www.retecon.co.za or Pegasus Steel on TEL: 087 310 2863 or visit www.pegasussteel.co.za