Automatic weld edge preparation

With the EdgeLine Bevel technology, a Trumpf standard machine for laser cutting produces bevelled cutting edges on the contours of the component. © Trumpf / Martin Stollberg
With the EdgeLine Bevel technology, a Trumpf standard machine for laser cutting produces bevelled cutting edges on the contours of the component. © Trumpf / Martin Stollberg

“EdgeLine Bevel” from Trumpf automatically generates bevels in the components during laser cutting, thereby preparing them for the welding process. Trumpf product manager Patrick Schüle: “This technology is unique in sheet metal processing to date.”

An employee removes a part with chamfers from a Trumpf standard machine for laser cutting. © Trumpf / Martin Stollberg
An employee removes a part with chamfers from a Trumpf standard machine for laser cutting.
© Trumpf / Martin Stollberg

With “EdgeLine Bevel”, Trumpf presented for the first time at Blechexpo a solution that automatically prepares components for welding during the cutting process. With this technology, even Trumpf standard machines for laser cutting can produce bevelled cutting edges on the contours of the components. During welding, liquid metal penetrates these so-called chamfers and then ensures a high-quality weld seam.

Until now, employees have had to manually insert the chamfers into the component in an additional work step using a milling machine, a grinding machine or an angle grinder. This is tedious and time consuming. Until now, only technologically more complex machines equipped with a special 3D cutting head were able to produce chamfers automatically. However, smaller companies in particular rarely have such machines in their halls. With EdgeLine Bevel, Trumpf has succeeded for the first time in automatically generating bevels directly on simpler standard machines for laser cutting.

The technology also allows chamfers to be applied to the inner contours of the component, which an employee with an angle grinder would not be able to reach at all. “This option for saving downstream processes is unique in the sheet metal processing market. As a solution provider for the entire sheet metal process chain, Trumpf is thus helping to make its customers’ production even more efficient,” says Trumpf Product Manager Patrick Schüle.

An employee checks a component that she has chamfered using Trumpf EdgeLine Bevel technology. © Trumpf / Martin Stollberg
An employee checks a component that she has chamfered using Trumpf EdgeLine Bevel technology.
© Trumpf / Martin Stollberg

Can also be used for countersinking

In addition to chamfers, EdgeLine Bevel also automatically generates countersinks with which components can be screwed together. This means that this downstream process can also be saved. The technology is suitable for all companies in the sheet metal manufacturing industry that use joining processes in their production or require countersinks for screw connections.

“Thanks to the fast and simple programming, the function is also suitable for companies that only occasionally produce components with chamfers and countersinks,” adds Schüle. At Blechexpo, Trumpf launched the new technology for its standard TruLaser 3000 fiber and TruLaser 5000 fiber series machines. From spring 2022, users who already own a latest-generation laser cutting machine from Trumpf will be able to retrofit it with EdgeLine Bevel.

About Trump
The high-tech company Trumpf offers manufacturing solutions in the fields of machine tools and laser technology. The company is driving forward the digital networking of the manufacturing industry through consulting, platform and software offerings. Trumpf is the technology and market leader in machine tools for flexible sheet metal processing and in industrial lasers.

In the 2019/20 financial year, the company generated revenues of €3.5 billion with around 14,300 employees. With more than 70 subsidiaries, the Group is represented in almost all European countries, in North and South America and in Asia. Production sites are located in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland, in Poland, the Czech Republic, the USA, Mexico and China.

Web:
www.Trumpf.com