Plastic components reduce weight and costs in glass processing

Profile

• What was needed: various drylin® products
• Requirements: Reduce weight, quiet running, significant price savings
• Industry: Mechanical engineering
• Success for the customer: plastic components help to reduce weight and costs

The laser engraving machines from Cerion GmbH in Minden, Westphalia, can be found in shops all over the world. For example, on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, in various Disney parks, at Madame Tussaud's in London, at the Trevi Fountain in Rome or in the shopping mecca "Mall of the Emirates" in Dubai. Around 15 employees work for the specialised supplier in Minden. Its laser engraving systems are not just about hardware; the software for processing images is also very important. To this end, the company offers powerful programmes and provides training for its customers. A hotline has also been set up, which is manned almost around the clock.

Cerion has launched a special process for glass processing. Intense laser light is used to engrave the inside of the material. The process leaves the glass surfaces completely undamaged and opens up a wide range of possible applications. Customers for such machines include laser shops, for example, which primarily produce 3D portraits in glass measuring 50 x 50 x 80 mm or key rings measuring 15 x 20 x 30 mm and which live from walk-in customers.

Furthermore, Cerion is currently establishing a second mainstay and also offers machines for industrial processing below the surface. This process has been developed to such an extent that it can now be used for glass formats measuring 3.20 x 2.20 metres in high quality and at high processing speeds. Decors and markings are applied below the surface and open up a wide range of architectural design options. The surface of the glass pane also remains completely undamaged and smooth. This process can replace sandblasting, which is still commonly used today.

Cerion trade show was under extremely high cost pressure for its main sales driver, a small, portable machine for the souvenir industry. On the one hand, competing products from China are considerably cheaper, and on the other, customers generally enter this business model as start-ups. They base their investment primarily on price. The issues of reliability, service life and service would initially play a subordinate role. It was therefore necessary to react urgently and significantly reduce the price of the engraving system without compromising on performance. In addition, ninety per cent of engraving systems are sold abroad. This means that the product must be competitive and absolutely reliable. When designing this new machine, it was clear from the outset that no compromises could be made in terms of quality. Service life and reliability had to remain unaffected. It is important for the user that the machines work very quietly. And, secondly, that the image structure always corresponds exactly to that of the previous model. There must be no joints or edges in the glass that would result in a loss of quality.

What followed was a complete "redesign": many oversized components were replaced by more economical plastic components. Since then, demand for the engraving systems has increased again. The portable laser system "c-jet" enables the engraving of larger glass objects and the use of multi-mode operation for batch production. At the same time, it is easy to transport so that it can also be used at trade fairs and other events. Thanks to its compact design and large viewing window, it attracts a lot of attention. The machine was successively redesigned from the ground up. As a result, it can now be offered at half the price. The overall weight has also been reduced by around 40 kg.

Use of drylin®
The large motorised viewing window with laser protection now contains drylin® N miniature guideways with polymer sliding elements, used in a rail width of 40 mm. They fit perfectly on standard aluminium profiles. As with all linear guides, the carriages run in anodised aluminium profiles during dry operation. This is a sliding guide system that is both cost-effective and flexible. In addition, tribologically optimised iglidur® J polymer plain bearings are also installed in the viewing window area. They are used for the drive of the window and in the deflection of the toothed belt drive. Bearings made of iglidur® J are lubricant- and maintenance-free and combine an extremely low coefficient of friction with a very high service life on many shafts.
 
Centrepiece of the laser optics
The centrepiece of the system is the laser optics. This is where the actual layer build-up of the resulting glass product takes place. The workpiece table can be adjusted not only horizontally but also vertically, which ultimately determines the quality of the end product. The laser optics move up and down during the machining process. A drylin® W-double rail and housing bearings as well as other individual components from the extensive modular system are used for this purpose. These range from torque supports for additional protection to the drylin® trapezoidal thread nuts, which are very important for the engraving result. Due to the layered structure of the engraving, the laser beam has to reach layers that are very close together. The drylin® trapezoidal thread nuts also perform these tasks successfully in automated operation and impress with smooth running with small spindle movements and hardly any measurable wear. All components are low-noise, insensitive to dirt and dust, corrosion-free and particularly lightweight. The quiet linear guides are efficient and work so well that they are now also used in an industrial laser system.