Economical, Efficient Cutting

Canadian Industrial Machinery asked Cincinnati Incorporated Marketing Manager Ed Bosse to describe the role the shear plays in fabrication shops.

CIM: How has the use of shears changed as technology has evolved?

Bosse: The shear business has definitely been affected by both laser sales and the economy. While shear sales may not be what they were 10 years ago, surprisingly they have been steady.

CIM: Why do shops still make use of this type of cutting technology?

Bosse: Nothing can compare to the simplicity, convenience, and efficiency of a shear. It is also a very economical type of cutting as far as capital equipment cost is concerned. You can put a shear on your shop floor for an outlay of around $100,000, while other machines can cost many times that amount. It’s sheet metal shop 101. You use a shear for cutting, a press brake for bending, and a welding system for welding.

CIM: What if the cutting job is complex?

Bosse: If you need to cut profiles, holes, or notches, you should then consider a laser cutter. But for fast, simple cutting, nothing can compete with the shear.

CIM: What type of customer is buying shears today?

Bosse: The orders I’m seeing are coming from a wider spectrum of customers. Yes, the service centers are still buying shears, which have been workhorses for them over the years, but smaller job shops are upgrading as well. It’s been very unique.

CIM: Is this simply a replacement cycle for old, worn-out equipment?

Bosse: In some cases that is true, but a need for improvements in productivity and accuracy is driving the industry as well. And, with the advent of lasers, the bar has been raised in terms of accuracy. This means gauging is becoming increasingly important on shears.

Also, what happens over time to the control technology is that certain components of the control will become obsolete. It happens in your home computer and also to industrial computing technology. With a shear, the control becomes obsolete faster than the equipment that it is attached to.

There has been a trend recently to upgrade an existing press brake with a new control to upgrade existing technology without necessarily replacing the entire machine. This is an idea that recently moved into the shearing industry as well.

We can take a shear that cuts well and cuts straight and put a new control on it to make it more productive.

CIM: How is gauging used on the shear?

Bosse: The concept of setting up the shear more quickly has been around for many years.

Typically, it has been backgauging that is used on a shear, but now there is programmable gauging available for the front of the machine that resquares the material to ensure you are starting with a square blank.

Fast setup and accurate gauging helps smooth out the process.

CIM: Other than gauging, how can a fabricator get the most out of the shear?

Bosse: Conveying systems are popular in the service center industry. Material supports in the converyor improve backgauging accuracy.

With conveyors it’s also possible to separate parts from scrap into two different areas at the back of the machine. This means there is less handling of the trim cuts and the smaller scrap that you don’t need.

CIM: Is offline setup and scheduling common in shear cutting?

Bosse: While a press brake is now often programmed and scheduled offline, the same cannot be said about the shear.

Most shops that I see do not have shears being scheduled offline or have the setup functions sent down to the machine from an office like a press brake does.

People like to simply walk up to their shear, put their metal in, and make their cut.

For more information, visit www.e-ci.com.