Putting laser slits in solid parts

[huey1d]

We do a lot of sheet metal parts with small (.10") laser slits on bends that will be formed by hand in the shop at assembly.

Any ideas on how to insert the single line slits in the solid sheet metal parts?

We don't want to create a rectangle or narrow obround because the laser would want to go all around them (back and forth) on the sheet metal, and cause a scorch mark or discolored area on our white pre-painted material.

If we add the slits to the drawing, they are not tied to the part, and if the part is redesigned, we sometimed lose the slit information.

 

[MadMango]

You can place these sketch segments on the part face. You can even define the line to the other features to make it parametric. I've had to do this in the past.

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[aamoroso]

Several ways to do it.

We provide the kerf width in the drawing and it is read by our CAM program. Problem is we wrote our own program in house and not sure if that helps anyone else. By stating the kerf width is .006 we draw our slices at that size and the laser cuts them straight and only one time.

Another option we sometimes use in a rush is to draw the lines on the flat in the drawing. This creates a path the laser will follow. I am guessing this is the way most will have to do it.

Yet another option would be to contact your CAM software company and find out why the laser would try to cut a .01 path two times, it should realize the laser has width and only cut it once, perhaps there is a setting in the cam program you could change.



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[CorBlimeyLimey]

We do a lot of sheet metal parts with small (.10") laser slits

.10" or .01" slit width?


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[huey1d]

We tried doing as MadMango suggested, placing the sketch segments on the part face, and it works. The only problem is, some of the laser slits are on the bend lines, and when you hide them, all are hidden, even the ones you want on the drawing. We just recreated them on the drawing.

aamoroso: When we put a rectangle or obround on the drawing, no matter how narrow, the laser follows the complete path around the rectangle or obround. It doesn't know to go only along the length of it, it has a starting point and a finish point.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[huey1d]

CorBlimeyLimey: They are .10 long to .40 long slits, the width of the laser kerf.