The installation of an Ewag Laser Line Precision machine (www.walter-machines.com) at MICTU has seen this specialist manufacturer of eyewear, dental, aerospace and automotive components halve production times and improve cutting-edge quality by a factor of three on PCD and brazed tooling, compared with ‘traditional’ CNC tool production machines.

Founded in northern Italy in 1986 and today employing 14 people, MICTU has extensive experience of cutting-tool manufacture and is now benefiting from the speed and accuracy of the Laser Line Precision.

It is used mainly for the production of form tools with diameters from 3 to 60mm — and especially on tooling with complex geometries, such as concave profiles, for the machining of eyewear workpieces.

In addition to shorter cycle times and improved quality, MICTU is also finding that laser technology allows very short set-up times; and with programming carried out remotely and machining files being quickly transferred, down-time is minimised, so small batches are economic. Indeed, the company says that its tools are programmed in just 10-20min, then machined in another 10-20min.

Available in the UK from Warwick-based Walter Ewag UK Ltd, which is a member of the United Grinding Group, the five-axis Laser Line Precision is a cost-effective entry-level machine for processing all commercially available diamond cutting materials — including CBN, PKD and CVC-D.

It can accommodate rotationally symmetrical tools up to 200mm in diameter and up to 250mm long, as well as indexable inserts with inscribed diameters from 3mm and circumscribed diameters up to 50mm.

It uses short-pulse fibre-laser technology in the green wavelength range (532nm), and the vapourised material is removed by a suction/filter system.

An optional six-axis robot offers high levels of flexibility during minimally manned multi-shift operation.