To further enhance rapid prototyping capabilities, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) Prototype Fabrication Facility recently added a laser cutter to their toolbox.

The LVD Strippit CNC Laser is an automated, self-feeding machine that is capable of positioning speeds up to 4,000 inches per minute on a rapid setting. This is a significant improvement over to the standard water jet process.

In terms of automation and self-feeding, the machine determines the wattage of the operation and selects it automatically, based on the thickness of the material to be cut.

According to James Green, Prototype Fabrication Facility branch head, the machine is faster than anything in the shops presently.

"The laser cutter has a rapid capability in its Z axis, which is always a vertical spindle. In this case, 700 inches a minute," Green said. "The machine's speed capabilities are so accelerated that it makes it priceless for any operation that the shops are called on to do."

Green said the machine's rapid rate of operation allows employees in the division's shop to produce multiple-piece parts very quickly, and can produce hundreds of parts within just a few hours.

Not only is the LVD Strippit CNC Laser very fast when it comes to operation and production, it is also very cost effective and timely. Creating various-piece parts within the shops saves time and money. It also keeps the manufacturing in-house so that supplies can be readily available, or quickly produced, when needed.

The laser has a wide variety of cutting capabilities unlike any machine that the shops have thus far.

"It will cut stainless steel up to five-eighths of an inch thick, stainless with a modifier up to half of an inch, aluminum alloy up to three-eighths of an inch thick, and from a 1040 series up to a A936 series of steel," said Green.

According to John Leroy, prototype shop water jet operator/laser operator, another benefit of the laser is its extremely impressive accuracy and finishing.

"The laser is powered in congruence with gases, which act as a pressure annex to purify the precision and quality of the laser's cut," he said. "As far as finishing is concerned, the laser leaves such a smooth finish on the material that additional adjustments are not required."

The machine is to laser cut various materials, and is capable of engraving as well. The laser can cut the part out of the materials, and then engrave the same part, all at once.

Green said what he finds interesting about the engraving process is that materials can be engraved on hard materials.

"A benefit of having the laser engraver is that it enables the operator to manufacture the material in three-dimensional shapes," he added.

The Prototype Fabrication Shop's doors will be opened for all NSWC PCD employees later this month, with the goal of educating employees about all of the rapid prototype capabilities available to them for research, development, testing, and evaluation projects.

For more news from Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, visit www.navy.mil/local/NSWC/