Cutting

The Z options handle the distance between the head and the sheet; i.e., the movement of the head along the Z axis. You can define these parameters globally or set them specifically for the current entity/chain/contour:

• Laser head sensor – for piercing and for cutting
• Height of the head when it moves between holes or parts
• Height of the head when marking

cncKad supports head-down cutting, minimizing the cutting head movement along the Z axis, for these Trumpf machines:

• SprintLas, where the head rises only slightly and moves at an angled trajectory from one cut to another
• SprintLas+, where the head does not rise above the cutting height but remains at the cutting gap

You can define default settings for handling parts, thereby streamlining their automatic cutting with AutoCut by cncKad.

You can add an unlimited number of contour sizes defined by X and Y dimensions, and for each defined contour size, you assign an action for a part or a hole, depending on your machine’s abilities. You can preset defaults such as

• Place MicroJoints/WireJoints
• Set MicroJoint/ WireJoint width
• Assign Push Out
• Pick up the part or hole (scrap)
• Slice holes
• Stop the machine after specific processing

All part handling settings pertain to a specific material and thickness combination for a particular machine.

cncKad allows you to slice the interior part of a hole before cutting it, thereby preventing a large cut hole from tilting and damaging the machine.
You can perform this operation manually when creating a cut, or performing automatic cutting with AutoCut, using the Part Handling tables.

cncKad AutoCut provides many possibilities for automatic and manual placement of MicroJoints and WireJoints on entities to be processed.

You can place them:

• At corners and on part sides
• At designated intervals
• Using specific tools and approaches

You can then show/hide them, edit them, and delete them.

cncKad supports two directions of cutting: clockwise (CW) or counter clockwise (CCW). This is useful for plasma machines, when you must determine which side of the processed part should be straight.

You can also instruct cncKad to choose the best direction.

Cutting corners is often problematic; corners can be easily damaged if not handled carefully, ruining the entire part.

cncKad has several strategies to handle this issue and avoid burning the parts:

• Rounding: Rounds the sharp corners while cutting them.
• Loops: You can define the size of loops in the cutting tables and then add loops to the outer corners of the contour.
• Slow Down: Decelerates the head movement.
• Cool Down: Stops the machine for the specified time period to allow the material to cool down.

While running automatic processing, cncKad checks for conditions that need to be met in order to determine whether to apply corner treatment, and executes the treatment accordingly.

Corner treatment can be defined on three levels:

•   For a corner
•   For a cut
•   For the entire sheet

This part was processed using loops, rounding, and cool down (marked in brown)

cncKad supports fly cut (also known as fly line and F-Cut), where the head does not make additional pierces between holes, so the parts are cut faster. This feature is useful for thin material.

When the sheet is covered with protective coating or rust, cncKad can program the machine to make a low-power pass over the parts to burn it off, and then passes a second time with actual cutting. This provides cleaner cuts and less debris from the coating.

You can choose whether to perform all the vaporizations on a sheet at once, per part, or per cut.

cncKad lets you engrave the metal by burning it with the laser beam at low power.

cncKad supports cutting and engraving entities and texts written with Windows and True Type fonts. You can cut and engrave text such as part number or manufacturer name when placed on a part.

The example shows a part with both cutting and engraving of text.

You can use marking to pinpoint drilling or piercing positions, bend lines, or denote undersized holes or points you are not interested in cutting.

The picture shows bend lines and undersized hole markings.

You can create special processing profiles, and attach them to the current material and thickness combination.

With this type of processing you can create special cutting for particular cases of unusual round or polygon-shaped holes, which may be very large or very small. This causes the holes to be cut differently, according to geometry definitions.

The picture shows both round and polygon geometry with smaller cut holes.