Flexibility, productivity and lights out running

E and R Moffat is one of the largest UK-based designers and manufacturers of commercial catering equipment. The company’s stainless steel products for the preparation, display and serving of food can be found in schools, hospitals, cruise ships, oil rigs and gourmet restaurants the world over. Although it still appreciates the value of craft skills for certain aspects of its production, it has not been slow to invest in advanced technology and purchased a Trumpf L3030 laser system with LiftMaster automatic sheet handling.

The Trumpf system not only provides flexibility, productivity and lights out running, but running costs for high speed cutting are slashed by using compressed shop air instead of high pressure nitrogen.

As R and D Technician Scott Hamilton explains, ‘We do a lot of one-off bespoke equipment such as ranges and serveries where the architect or chef will specify exactly the layout they want - so you can end up with some quite fancy cut shapes.

We have Cat Eye on it as well which means we can put a sheet back on and make further modifications if the customer decides to change their specification.’ Before the laser was installed this work was done on a Trumpf TC500 punch press, and as Scott says, using tool rotation they could cut almost anything on the TC500 that they can on the laser, but on the type of work they are doing the laser is much quicker.

‘The speed is unbelievable,’ says Scott.

‘The normal thickness for our stainless counter tops is 2mm and with normal shop compressed air we can cut this at around 12 to 13 metres per minute.

On lighter gauge material - and we go down to 0.9mm - we are cutting at up to 28 metres per minute.

‘When you cut with shop compressed air you get a gold finish on the edge rather than the conventional edge you get with high pressure nitrogen.

These edges are perfectly acceptable for welding without any further preparation, but most of our edges are turned under anyway, and once they are hidden it doesn’t matter.’ What does matter though are the cost savings.