Fiber Laser machine bed steel fabricated structure and casting structure?

There are many laser machine brands on market. Many laser machine end users want the laser cutting machine with good performance, low price ,durale and short lead time. Of all factors that affect the metal laser cuttng machine performance ,machine bed is one of the important . Here we look to the cast versus fabricated structures in machine tool to see what are the difference and which type of Laser Machine Bed is better .

First of all ,most of manufacturers of machine tools laser cutting machine are building their products with  structure fabricated from steel plate and steel tube .The structure has folowing features:

1/There are four main processes in the manufacture of a fabricated structure. They are fabrication, stress relieving, machining, and painting.

1/The fabricated structure has the lead time advantage.The manufacturer that can deliver quickly often gets the order.End user wants short lead time

2/ a well-designed steel fabrication can meet the performance characteristics of a cast iron structure.

3/A structure that is fabricated from steel plate and steel tube requires little if any fixed tooling. Each structure that is designed can be unique.

4/ There will be welding cost in a fabricated structure that is not present in a cast structure. The variable cost of the fabricated structure may be higher than the cast structure. It will depend on the design of each.fabricated structure not cheap structure.

5/fabricated structure does not need a mold or pattern, the fabricated structure has the advantage in terms of design flexibility-laser machine bed can be complicated

6/ flexibility in machine design，offering customers the ability to customize each machine

the ability to incorporate new features and technology quickly

7/Easier for assembling and quality control.

Figure 1:well designed steel fabricated structure for laser cutting machine from one of south China laser machine tool builder.

casting structure

1/ There are three main processes in the manufacture of a cast structure. They are casting, machining and painting.

2/Cast iron structures will transfer heat less effectively than fabricated structures,Cast iron dampens vibration better than steel.

3/Cast iron components require a casting mold or pattern. Design, build and qualification of a casting mold or pattern takes time. If a change in design to the structure is required the mold or pattern must be modified or replaced. The requirement for a mold or pattern limits the flexibility for design changes.

4/The lead time to produce a cast structure is longer than the lead time to produce a fabricated structure.

Which is better ? Cast structure  is better?  or Should I take laser machine with fabricated structure？

Actually hard to say cast structure is better ,it depends.you can see some so-so cast iron structure.Such structures made by simple easy mode and ligher weight .

figture2.laser machine bed with simple thin casting structure

At present most fiber laser cutting machines are made of fabricated structure from steel sheet or tube. Laser cutting is a non-contact processing ,total weght of the crossbeam with cutting head is not so heavy ,and when cutting thin steel ,the max cutting speed is around 40-60m/min ,quite often 10-30m/min ,and total weight of the machine bed will reach at least  3500KG (single flatbed table 3000*1500mm) to 9500kg (3000*1500 cutting table with pallet changer) and even more for bigger size tables, therefore the vibaration becomes less of a problem.Laser cutting will produce much heat ,for lower power laser ,the fabricated structure has proved to be ok and for high powered laser ,there are some solution on the machine tools ,like graphite sheet on the ulnerable locations ,like bottom,slats support structures...All these solution allow a laser cutting machine with a fabricated structure become the most choice of machine tool buiders.

Figures 3:A large cutting table fiber laser with fabricatted structure for high power laser .6000*2000mm shuttle table ,fully enclosed cover in fabricator's shop.Foshan Baisheng laser brand.