Open door days show future of plate processing

On the eve of Blechexpo, LVD opened the doors of its Xperience Center in Gullegem to welcome customers and partners. "Traditional trade shows are often very busy, both for visitors and for us. Here we have all the time and space we need to discuss customers' concrete projects and upcoming market developments. But of course they also got a glimpse of the latest developments here," says LVD sales director Kurt Debbaut. 

One you literally and figuratively could not look past was the new Phoenix FL-6525 fiber laser cutting machine with a 12 kW source and equipped with bevel cutting head. With its capacity to cut 6.5×2.5 m sheets, it was an imposing sight. But the blacksmith's secret, of course, was inside. 

"Due to the higher cutting capacities, the fiber laser is increasingly emerging as a competitor to plasma cutting in thicker plates. This is why an evolution to bevel cutting was essential. Something for which many customers had already shown an interest," adds Debbaut. Positive and negative bevels, in V, Y or K, adjustable up to 45°, the Phoenix delivers them all flawlessly in material up to 25 mm thick. Thanks to the intelligent control system, programming the machine and its bevel cutting head is child's play. However, the operator does have to think carefully about the order of the pieces. After all, some bevels require multiple passes over the surface.

Ideal balance between nitrogen and oxygen

A second novelty that companies came eager to discover in laser cutting was the Mixed Gas story. Depending on the thickness of the material and the dynamics of the machine, nitrogen or oxygen may be the better choice to achieve sufficient speed and still achieve the right cut quality. LVD makes it easier for its customers to offer the Mixed Gas option on laser cutting systems from 10 mm. A certain amount of oxygen is then added to the nitrogen to push the limit without sacrificing quality. 

Tom Verhaeghe, laser product manager at LVD, says: "Tests showed a huge boost in speed was possible, especially in thicker plate. From 12 mm up, it certainly pays to investigate what it can do, at 20 mm it can even double the speed. But we should add that it is highly material-dependent and certainly not blissful."

Entry into robotic folding

Moving on to bending, LVD has not been standing still in that area either in recent months. Have you already seen the Dyna-Cell and the Ulti-Form robotic bending cells? This time its smaller brother, the D-Cell, was also in the spotlight. 

"With LRS (LVD Robotic Solutions), we have a lot of know-how to make robots and bending machines work perfectly together. Knowledge that we want to use to put standardized products on the market and keep the cost price for customers as low as possible. From simple to advanced. The D-Cell is very competitively priced. The press brake is hydraulic, with a working length of 2 m and 50 tons of pressure force, and can autonomously handle and fold a wide variety of small to medium-sized pieces. Thus, the threshold for making work of robotic bending is now completely lowered. Automation doesn't have to be expensive," says LVD Group marketer Stefanie Vandemoortele.

New CADMAN: faster, smarter and more intuitive

And when you say automation, you also say digitization. An area where LVD took the lead years ago with the development of its CADMAN Suite. CADMAN sales manager Roman Dequidt gave visitors a preview of what to expect soon in the new version of CADMAN-FLOW and CADMAN-B. "With the higher processing speed, we meet the biggest sigh of users. Everything now happens within seconds. Faster, smarter and more intuitive." 

There will also be a number of interesting smart features added. The most notable? The ability to optimize the bending sequence according to the pieces and tools. "Always from the premise of reducing tool changes as much as possible. The more products, the higher the possible profit, but we make the case that we can thus reduce the number of changes by half. The next step will be to perform this optimization across different bending machines," Dequidt says. But with this new version, customers will be able to work faster and more efficiently as early as 2024.

LVD can be visited during Blechexpo in Hall 1, booth 1808.