Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Laser to drill wide range of components

Laser system delivered to EBTEC has the capability to drill a wide range and size of parts and products range from sheet metal combustors to nozzle guide vanes.

Prima North America has announced that Laserdyne Systems, the world leader in precision multi-axis laser machining systems, delivered a Laserdyne 790XL BeamDirector Nd:YAG drilling system to EBTEC Corporation, Agawam, Massachusetts. Dr Paolo Cigna, president and CEO of PRIMA North America, announced the shipment saying the delivery was made to EBTEC to expand their capacity for laser drilling with the latest system technology. 'We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide this system to EBTEC, a pioneer in high energy beam processing.' stated Dr Cigna.

'EBTEC has over 40 years of experience providing parts for the aerospace, medical, defense, power generation and commercial industries.

We are grateful for their positive evaluation of our system technology and the Convergent P50L laser, another product of Prima North America.

Laserdyne products are in use in aerospace and turbine engine manufacturing sites around the world.' stated Dr Cigna.

EBTEC Corporation is owned by Aquasium Technology, Cambridge, England, and has been a supplier of electron beam welding and laser processing services to North American industry since 1963.

As an early user of these processes it has developed an expertise in the supply of difficult to weld and drill components.

According to John Leveille, president of EBTEC Corporation, the Laserdyne 790XL system was purchased as the first new laser system outlined in an equipment phase replacement plan.

The 790XL was chosen over other systems primarily for overall processing versatility.

The 790XL system is a 6-axis system with a 2m x 1m x 1m (40in x 40in x 40in) work envelope with a 25in diameter high accuracy rotary table and Laserdyne's latest software features including Optical Focus Control (OFC) and BreakThrough Detection.

OFC complements the 790 BeamDirector's patented Automatic Focus Control (AFC) and BreakThrough Detection has been shown to not only produce parts with a shorter cycle time but with a better flow consistency.

This will enhance EBTEC's capability to provide precision drilling of cooling holes in thermal barrier coated turbine engine components.

An additional feature of the EBTEC system is the ability to drill parts programmed for Laserdyne's new 450 systems on the 790 as a result of the Part Surface Coordinate, or PSC, programming feature of the Laserdyne control.

Laserdyne products have become the technology standard for the aerospace industry and are used in turbine engine manufacturing facilities across North America, Europe and Asia.