At the beginning of June, Porsche and Schuler opened a fully connected press shop in the East German city of Halle. Apart from a servo press line with an output of up to 20 strokes per min, the ‘Smart Press Shop’ features a ‘state of the art’ blanking line which is equipped with two cutting heads for processing strip material with a width of up to 1,880mm.

Blanking lines with lasers do not require expensive and heavy blanking dies, which is why they are particularly suitable for the production of new parts or small batch sizes with frequent product changes.

The continuously moving coil material is processed into blanks at high cutting speeds. Thanks to tooling-free scrap separation, a high output is also achieved. A gentle transport of sensitive materials such as aluminum is also ensured.

The laser blanking line is considered to be an ideal solution for the Smart Press Shop, which focuses on the production of aluminum outer skin parts in small batch sizes. By recording various measured values of the system as well as the coil material and by smart marking of the blank, the line which supplies the blanks for the servo press line forms the point of departure for a ‘track and trace’ system.