A LASER ROBOT FOR CUTTING AND TRIMMING DEEPLY STAMPED METAL SHEETS

Abstract

The present paper describes a robotized system, called ZAC, designed for cutting and trimming pre-formed metal sheets and plastic parts deeply stamped. At the beginning this robot was designed, at the end of 1977, to solve the following problem: the trimming of 3-D thin plastic pieces, covered with carpets, for internal fittings of motorcars. The parts under consideration are obtained by vacuum thermoforming. When the moulded part is obtained, the problem is to trim it clean from the scrap; this operation cannot be performed with traditional blanking dies (apart from economic considerations), it is difficult and complex to be obtained with other kinds of machines, and it is hard and unpleasant to be done manually. To face the problem we preferred to develop a new robotic system of sequential cutting. We have chosen this solution aware of the fact that the cutting time, though inevitably longer compared with a parallel cutting, would have been largely rewarded by the flexibility that only a sequential cutting performed by a robot could have given to the system.