The number of sheets you process in a day will be determined by several factors.
The type of cabinet construction you use, most importantly the number of Z axis movements you use. The Z axis is the slowest moving of all the axis on your machine if you are constantly moving into and out of the panel your cycle time will be slower. The more holes you drill, this is also often the process with slowest feed speed, the slower your cycle times.
The software you use is also going to be extremely important as some software will use bridge cutting and keep the tooling in the panel while other software is constantly moving the tooling up and down, sometimes cutting each part to completion before moving to the next part. The software you use and cutting options will be a key factor in your cycle times.
The acceleration/deceleration of your axis is also key. Most parts are square, and you have to slow down for corners and accelerate for the linear cutting line after finishing the corner. The faster your acc/dec is the faster your cycle times will be and the faster you can cut in those linear lines. When you calculate the feed speed for cutting you should be using a chip load calculation to increase the life of your tooling. Chip load is determined by material type and tooling diameter. The feed and rpm of the spindle are set to give the proper chip size. There are plenty of CNCs out there that will allow you to cut fast in a linear line but the acc/dec isn’t fast enough and you will end up burning up your bits in the corners.
The organization of your shop will also determine your success in volume cutting. If your machine has to wait an excessive amount of time on materials, you’re losing production time. There needs to be good communication between operator and forklift driver to minimize the time spent waiting.
The most important factor in producing more parts is the offload table. This allows parts to be unloaded while parts are being cut. The load/unload cycle of a machine will likely be in the 45-70 second range. If you have adequate dust collection and your table is clean you can start cutting. If your dust collection isn’t up to snuff, you’ll have to clean the table to pull a good vacuum, meaning you won’t be able to load/unload simultaneously and you will lose production time.
There are a few other ways to increase production. If you are running the same program more than once and all drilled holes are through holes you can stack cut those parts provided you have the right machine. This will require you to manually load multiple panels since you can’t use an auto loader to do it but if your can cut 2 or 3 panels high you will ultimately produce more parts in less time. You won’t cut at the same feed rate as you would cutting one high, but the end result will still be more parts cut in less time. This will require organization and planning on your part. You have to recognize which parts you require would allow you to do this and make certain all the parts on the sheet lend to stack cutting production. It will take a little time to get the hang of it, but the reward is better production efficiency. Many shops are all custom though and this type of production won’t fit their needs.
Depending on your process there may be more efficient ways to process panels through out your shop. Sometimes a better solution is a beam saw paired with a vertical machining center.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions or if you want to discuss the CNC we offer. We are currently finishing negotiations to bring a well known Italian CNC and Beam Saw line to the U.S. market. Our expertise is practical, in plant production expertise with a focus on providing well-built reliable European machinery.
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