Help with Vacuum

[redvanth]

Hi

We have been having some problem cutting on our machine.

We cut many small parts, approx 200mm x100mm. Normally we are cutting into a 3600x1200mm sheets of 6mm MDF. For example we would have approx 10-15 pieces of this size amoung many larger pieces.

We have been trialing a few vacuum pumps, We have tried 2 x Busch Claw pumps, each being 250cfm.

We could not hold these small parts, we made sure to start cutting on the straight not the corner and also onion skinned to help but still no luck.

We added to this a 7.5kw side channel blower rated at 480cfm and seemed to get the job done. So in total we had nearly 1000cfm.

Basically im asking what is more important, a vacuum pump with a higher vacuum or a pump/blower with a higher CFM. It appears in our testing we needed a much larger CFM rather than vacuum hold down. Given we cut so many small pieces we end up with lots of leaking/bleeding

Any help would be great, dont want to blast $20K on low CFm/high Vacuum pumps if what we really need is a Higher CFM if can help it.

Thanks in advance
Anthony

[Butterknife]

Hi Anthony,

Why not leave bridges to hold the parts in? With MDF you should be able to take a Dremil and zip the parts out in seconds. Then use a small upright belt sander and knock any leftover off.

I don't know what software you're using to do your CAD/CAM but something like VCarve Pro (if your stuff doesn't need 3D) is very reasonable (about $600 US) and it can leave tabs. Cut as many parts as you like and as long as your major material holds down, the small parts stay in place.

$600 has two less zeros than $20,000.