By acquiring a new AMADA VENTIS-3015AJ, the Bremen-based Jürgen Klose Industrietechnik GmbH took the step from CO2 to fiber laser cutting. This means that the company can now cut aluminum and nonferrous metal sheets extremely quickly and in a quality never previously achieved by a fiber laser. And thanks to its outstanding energy efficiency, the 4-kW system ensures cost-efficient machining and increased profitability.
Whether in the field of tank and plant engineering or the manufacturing of pipeline systems: Ever since it was founded in 1994, the Bremen-based company Jürgen Klose Industrietechnik GmbH has concentrated on the machining of steel, stainless steel and aluminum sheets. The products manufactured by the company, which currently has a workforce of 66 employees, are used in the foodstuffs and chemical industries as well as in industrial plant and equipment, shipbuilding and yacht building, and tank interior cleaning systems. “These are often outsize parts with a large surface area, requiring us to cut sheets of 8 m², machine pipes of up to 6 m in length and handle base and cover geometries of up to 1.5 m in diameter, for example in the case of circular tanks,” explains Managing Director Jürgen Klose. “With our AMADA systems, we are very well placed to meet these requirements.” More specifically, the on-site AMADA machine pool comprises 15 AMADA systems, including five AMADA HG-2204ATC press brakes with automatic tool changer, four AMADA FO-3015NT and AMADA LC-4020F1NT flatbed lasers equipped with automation solutions, an AMADA FLW 4-kW welding laser and an AMADA AC-2510NT punch. “We have been working with AMADA since 2005,” reports Klose. “AMADA simply offers us better performance and is the ideal partner for us as a mid-sized company.”
Extremely low electricity costs
Ende 2019 wagte die Jürgen Klose Industrietechnik GmbH den Schritt vom CO2-Schneiden hin zum At the end of 2019, Jürgen Klose Industrietechnik GmbH decided to take the step from CO2 cutting to fiber laser cutting – in the form of a new AMADA VENTIS-3015AJ combined with the AMADA MP Flexit automatic loading and unloading system. This is the first fiber laser that the company has used for cutting tasks. The company was particularly impressed by the results of cutting operations, in particular in aluminum and stainless steel, which clearly set the system apart from all the other fiber lasers available on the market – and indeed, before the AMADA VENTIS, this cutting quality could not be achieved by any conventional fiber laser. The outstanding cutting quality of the new system is due, in particular, to the Locus Beam Control Technology which allows the laser beam to follow a variety of trajectories within a millisecond timeframe. And this beam quality very quickly pays for itself in practice: “Unlike in the past, we can now cut even quite thick materials, such as aluminum of up to 15 mm, in perfect quality even when the product requires large numbers of holes to be cut. Another vital factor was the VENTIS’s extremely low energy requirements which result in exceptionally low electricity costs per hour of operation. These are not in the slightest bit comparable with the costs, for example, of a CO2 laser with approximately five times the electricity consumption,” affirms the Managing Director. “We were naturally also very impressed by the outstanding cutting quality of the VENTIS, which is able to produce gaps of up to 2 mm – and do so at its incredible cutting speed.”
Outstanding beam quality
The exceptional efficiency of the AMADA VENTIS-3015AJ in terms of cutting quality and energy consumption is possible thanks to the 4-kW fiber module which is equipped with LBC technology. Thanks to the possibility of controlling the variable laser beam trajectories, LBC opens up potential applications that were not previously possible using solid-state lasers. “The 4-kW fiber laser module achieves the best beam quality available in this class worldwide and permits cutting performances, in particular in the field of nonferrous metals, that are otherwise only comparable with systems offering 6 kW or more,” stresses Mathias Raulf, Sales Executive Northern Area at AMADA GmbH.
In addition to LBC Technology, other advantages of the AMADA VENTIS-3015AJ included the automatic nozzle changer and the AMADA AMNC 3i control capability. The company has implemented this controller, together with the AMADA V-Factory concept, on all its more recent AMADA systems. In addition, a number of proprietary interfaces to the in-house ERP system have been subsequently programmed. In this way, Jürgen Klose Industrietechnik GmbH can map and administer all finished parts on the basis of CSV files in the ERP system.
Sales Executive
Northern Area at
AMADA GmbH
Unstaffed and versatile
On-site, the value creation due to the new AMADA VENTIS-3015AJ is further boosted by the use of the AMADA MP Flexit automatic loading and unloading system. The personnel fill this from the neighboring AMADA CS rack system. “We use the
entire load capacity of three tonnes and can handle a complete stacking unit unstaffed using the MPF system. This type of volume is perfectly adequate for us because we only handle relatively few different materials at any one time,” explains Jürgen Klose. The new AMADA VENTIS was installed and commissioned without problems and the new fiber laser system has been in continuous use ever since.
The right investment
Nach rund anderthalb Jahren Einsatzzeit fällt das Fazit zur neuen Laserschneidanlage durchweg positiv aus. „After approximately one and a half years of use, opinions concerning the new laser cutting system are extremely positive. “The AMADA VENTIS has allowed us to make significant progress, in particular in the field of the machining of aluminum and nonferrous metals In our nonferrous operations in particular, we can now cut much faster, more economically and therefore more profitably than we could in the past using our CO2 lasers,” is how Klose sums things up. “This justifies the investment and directly benefit us and our customers. This tells us that the investment in the new AMADA VENTIS was exactly the right choice and we wouldn’t hesitate to make the same decision again.
Images: mk Medienmanufaktur/Steffi Behrmann
