By: Dr. Charles Caristan and Jay Finn
Air Liquide Industrial US LP, Automatic Feed Company
The blanking process consisting of cutting flat panels directly out of a metal coil is practiced in the automotive industry to the tune of 10 MM tons of steel coils processed each year for the North American market alone. Up until now, CO2 laser-cutting technology is almost exclusively used to produce low-volume prototype blanks, whereas when it comes to high volume production, nearly 100% is still manufactured exclusively mechanically with shears and press die-blanking systems which hold high throughput and piece cost advantages.