For efficient and continuous flow of material when cutting pipes, the pipe cutting machines of MicroStep® can be equipped with an automatic loading and unloading system. The tubes or profiles are fed to a stacker via a charging device of a tube magazine. If necessary, the cutting system of this tube magazine is provisioned and new pipes are automatically clamped in the jaw chuck.

Once a pipe segment is cut this is transported via a carrying system. If required further transport via a tethered conveyor system can be used to carry the pipe segment to the next work station.

Coiled Sheets are an efficient and space-saving solution for transporting and storing thin sheets. Normally, these must first be unrolled, directed and eventually shortened by means of tape cut to a desired metal plate format.

With the automatic coil solution from MicroStep® the unrolled material may be further processed by plasma or laser directly on the strip. This saves time and makes manual handling of individual metal sheets unnecessary. The de-coiler wraps the tape directly on the cutting table. For absolute precise cutting results the cutting system, using laser scanners surveys the exact alignment of the coiled section of the strip and adjusts the current cutting plan on it. Subsequently, the desired contours are cut.

Upon completion of the cutting operation the conveyor system equipped with a cutting table transports the finished cut section of the sheet metal. In the next step the cut strip from the sheet metal can then be removed either manually or using a robot. The remainder of the sheet is cut into smaller parts using a guillotine.

Using an individual machine for each task is a thing of the past. Because of the increasing demands on high quality needs of existing and potential customers, companies in the industry are increasingly seeking automation on multi-functional machine solutions. This saves production time and space and provides much needed flexibility to adapt to ever-changing customer needs.

In the product range of CNC cutting machines, solutions are needed that allow automated, multifunctional processing of sheets, pipes, profiles or dished ends. Precisely for these requirements the system manufacturer MicroStep has developed the plasma cutting machines. The cutting system allows for the combination of different processing technologies: contour cutting, weld preparations, holes and drilling, countersinking, tapping, marking and punching.

In order to draw maximum efficiency from an automated cutting system, a reliable software solution for the organization of the cutting process is necessary. The MicroStep Production Management, mpm® offers this.

The mpm® manages customer orders and components contained therein and these are nested automatically according to priority, material type, material thickness and machining processes. These cutting plans are given to a suitable cutting machine for processing via the mpm® software. If a connection to a storage system that consists of automatic material feed exists, the cutting machine is equipped with the required equal semi-finished part and then automatically acquires the execution of the plan.