Hemel Hempstead-based ATA Engineering Processes Ltd (www.ataeng.com) was established in 1963 by Terry Stafford, who served his apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce in Derby.

The company established itself as a leading supplier of aerospace tooling, and over the years it expanded into other areas; these included CNC routers and router cutters — and, more recently, fibre lasers.

Now available is the ATACAM AF1313FL, which features a Swiss made 1,000/1,500W fibre laser cutting head from Raytools, a 1,300 x 1,300mm working area, a maximum traverse speed of 1,400mm/sec via a dual rack and pinion drive powered by Schneider servo motors, and a Cypcut control system; this has a 17in screen and allows AutoCAD drawings to be directly input to the system. Positioning accuracy is ±0.05mm. Auxiliary gasses can be oxygen, nitrogen or air.

The AF1313FL can cut mild steel up to 10mm thick (using oxygen) at a speed of 0.7m/min, while 1mm material can be cut at 15m/min.

With nitrogen, 5mm-thick stainless steel can be cut at 0.8mm/min (1mm-thick stainless at 17m/min); and with oxygen, 3mm-thick aluminium alloy sheet can be cut at 1.2m/min.

Brass and galvanised sheet can also be processed.