CNC machine developer and producer Kimla (Czestochowa. Poland) sells fiber laser flat sheet cutters in Central and Eastern Europe, with over 100 such systems installed in Poland alone. The company, planning an expansion into a 25,000 m2 production facility, has teamed with profiling service company MBA Engineering (Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England) to introduce Kimla's Flashcut fiber laser-powered linear cutter into the laser cutting-receptive UK market.
Kimla introduced their fiber laser cutter to the European market in 2014 with a system said to be two times faster than any other laser cutter in the market at EuroBLECH 2014, where its demonstrated high-speed cutting converted disbelievers (to see the unit in action, please visit www.kimla.pl).
Speed seems to be the buzzword with all laser system suppliers, so what makes Kimla a contender for top speed honors? First, the company cut its teeth in the market for high-speed CNC processing systems by designing—from the floor up—lightweight, strong, and precise motion systems with speeds to 5m/s at 6G acceleration rates. Results were made possible by the company's own CNC controls in a linear laser cutter unit with CAD/CAM built into the CNC controls, operating in a Windows program. So Kimla knows high speed (1m/s), and using this knowledge and experience builds a linear-motor-drive laser cutter with an ultra-modern absolute position measuring system with a resolution of 1–6mm.
Kimla is tuned into the market and has just introduced an 8kW fiber laser that, when coupled to a linear motor drive system, is considered to be the fastest flat sheet laser cutter with a three-pallet loading and unloading system, based on the company's survey at the Fabtech 2015 show in Chicago, IL. Kimla claims to be the only company in the world that has made a three-pallet system. A company spokesperson says, "The reason for it (the 3rd pallet) is because if you have such a fast laser system, then you are bottlenecking during the loading and unloading stage. This way, with the 3rd pallet system, you are constantly running the machine."
With market expansion in its sights, the company—now distributing 20% of the laser cutters into the international market—has made its first step in the UK. Bradley McBain, managing director of MBA Engineering Systems, says Kimla didn't "just take a machine and bolt on the market-leading IPG source—they really thought about the advantages of the fiber source and how it can benefit laser users when designing their machine. An extremely small footprint, incredibly fast with insane accuracy, not to mention their control system—Kimla's fiber laser was something we were keen to bring to the UK market."
For more information, please visit www.kimla.pl.