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Flat mild steel part. Laser or punch?

huleo

Hot Rolled
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Location
UT
Have a mundane part that we need done that is a bit outside our scope. We have to duplicate a little OEM part for an assembly. The previous part is punched and works just fine. Part is roughly .850x1.750 and .08"thick. There are two holes that are approx 3/8" diam. I am sure A36 would be just fine for this but we can look at other alloys. Not just stress on it.

I will say that the previous part is case hardened but due to the thickness, it is pretty much through hardened. It is more for abrasion resistance than anything but I think engineering is look at possibly punching a higher grade steel and foregoing the HT for it.


I can only estimate that we will probably need 300-500 of them for now. We really don't want to even order that many until we know all is a go.

Regarding tolerance, the OD of the part is fine at +/- .010 or so. the holes we would like to see +/- .005 but if that is an issue, we can shoot for bottom of tolerance and give them a quick ream.
 
Ha, thanks, I fixed that typo. .080" thick. I think my only issue with laser is the heat affected zone if we want to use higher grade material. However, I am am not sure how well high strength steel does in a punch anyway. I assume it wears them pretty good and annealed is preferred.

I also have concern if they will try to curl up from the heat of the laser. They must remain nice and flat.
 
the turret punches do stainless without issue, do not see why not ar sheet. Ar punches easier than stainless for us, but we do not punch thin sheet. The haz with a laser on steel that thin is minimal with a good machine cutting at crazy speeds.
With holes being only tolerance issue laser is likely going to be cheaper in those numbers. The number of lasers has driven that price down considerably.
 
.080 with a good laser house, needing abrasion resistance, and not knowing anything else, I would request hardened spring steel. 1075 or 1095
 
Sounds like a laser part to me, should be dirt cheap in that size and quantity. How much abrasion resistance do you need? Like A514 resistance? Or like AR500 resistance?
 
I'd go out for quotes from laser and punch shops with your material of choice and see what they say. And if there are concerns about the HAZ, is there a test you can do? I'm guessing at that thickness in a tougher steel, laser would be the choice but you have to see.
 
If you heat treat after laser cutting then the HAZ will not be a factor. Millions of lasered knife blades are done that way. HAZ will not affect abrasion resistance in any case. Would only be a fatigue issue.
 
Honestly laser in chromweld, its a abrasion resistant low grade stainless used in the quarry industry for sand hopper lining and such, very tough and abrasion resistant, cut on nitrogen with stainless haz is low single digit thousandths of a inch, there will be no part curl at these sizes. No need for any post heat treat and no need for any paint or plateing, so some significant cost saveings to be had there, material only costs about double to tripple what cr sheet steel does so not much cost, over here i could probably get those cut in the low hundred qty range for sub $1 a piece.

If the supplier had to get a sheet in probaly be far more cost effective to get the whole sheets worth cut though.
 
At this point, I could sure use some USA references for both punching and laser! We are striking out. Apparently business is good enough that they don't want to touch them unless making thousands, or putting a ridiculous number on them.

The other issue is material. We determined the thickness is .087". We we use something close, but that appears to be 13ga, which of course no one stocks. The last place wants to order a full 4x10 sheet and will not allow us to bring our own material.... We are also looking for a higher grade, and seems most just stock bubblegum steel.....
 
If you want an abrasion resistant steel in that dimension I would fully expect them to have you buy a full sheet, which is not that much money in the grand scheme of that quantity. Check with LaserNut in California and see what pricing is like with pallet shipping.
 
You are going to buy a full sheet, such an off size and alloy. Ryerson or specialty steel (ohio based?) both sell ar and offer laser cutting at consumer quantities.
 
You can get 4130 in .080" and .090". That is a material many laser cutters should stock in the normalized condition. At least here in SoCal with all the motorsport stuff it's common. You can heat if you need more hardness. You need to work around what they have if you want small quantities at a good price. Need to be flexible on timeframe too so they can run your parts when they are running someone else's of the same material/thickness.
 
^^^^ That's all I am looking for! Any 4000 series steel can be made to work here and happy to couple this job on another. 2 shops now have made it appear this is a "big deal" to program and setup. We runs jets and routers, I know the drill and that is 30min for programming AND setup, max.

I even told the last company I am happy to weed and detab the parts..... they were like "oh, no, we MUST do that for you"...... Seriously, we are inching closer to finding a good reason to just own a laser and forget these hassles. I would just jet them if we didn't have them setup for other stuff.
 
There is no* programing on this. Just a dxf file, no poly lines, no splines, single layer, no dimensions. Dstv maybe if they want to be dragging. Pulling a sheet on and off is going to be the majority of the time. Material is going to be most of the cost, it is a processing job - still tabs? what archaic machines are these people running?

Local to me, they will ship... Morgan Steel Company Memphis TN
O'neal steel, Laser Cutting - Kloeckner Metals Corporation, the company formally known as phoenix (just sold in the past month, same foreman - Lonie (901) 948-3351 [my laser/sheet metal shop of choice], Southern Steel (Southern Steel Supply - Home | Facebook) [large steel supply house, fairly quick turnaround, has buyers that will find your material, not the best laser machine],
closer to you, really cool guy, not scared of anything - Waterjet Cutting Austin | Dynamic Waterjet Cutting | Heart of Texas Metalworks . Lee has older waterjet and works on blacksmith time, but is cool, a person (like human, not corp.) and has always been more than fair on pricing.
and you have almost emptied my rolodex on this front, which is scarey.
 
oshcut.com. They are in Utah and you can upload your DXF and get instant pricing. They seem to have spring steel in 0.083" as a stock material.
 
We've had great service from FedTech in MN. We have sent them all manner of questionable drawings, and they always send us good parts at a very fair price.
 
If it is a critical part where the heat zone won't let you laser use water jet. Punching will introduce stresses you don't want.
 








 
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