Redesign of an industrial laser cutting machine’s gantry in composite material

• Autor(a) principal: Sá, Ricardo
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Hattum, F. W. J. van, Sá, J. M. A. César de, Oliveira, L., Nunes, J. P.
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/36094
• topic: Composite materials; Laser cutting; FEM; Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais

This work is focused in the design stage of a composite structure intended to replace a metallic critical component in a 2D Industrial Laser Cutting Machine (ILCM). The component is the gantry, largely responsible for most of the ILCM’s characteristics. These include precision and maximum acceleration, which are critical. The dimensioning of the component is initially performed based on analytical models, but latter stages use the numerical capabilities of Finite Elements Method. In the end it is possible to take advantage of the higher specific rigidity of composite materials to increase the maximum acceleration that the machine allows for while maintaining the precision.