Man you fact sure ring

Well I just finished flipping through this season's copy of Micro Manufacturing (Fall 2009) and there were a few good articles but what always catches my eye are those tiny little parts that can be made from huge machines. These parts (page 12 and 13 if you have the magazine, otherwise I'll describe them) are apparently about 1/15 the size of a dime. Then on the other page, is an intricate 3/32" diameter bar that was machined on the end to a 60* angle from Harvey Tool. The machined tip of these parts are comparable to the size of a letter on an aspirin apparently. It's crazy.

Anyways, I was just impressed with the tiny, tiny parts. But I'll move on to the questions of the week here.

"How thick of metal can laser cut?"
It depends on the material, but typically it's 5/8" for carbon steel or stainless steel and 1/8" for aluminum.

In manufacturing, when people say, "rounds", what does that mean?
Well basically a round is a thick circle part cut from a long bar of material. Most often seen in stainless steel (sst). I'll attach a photo here to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Where can I see photos or videos of waterjet cutting?
That's an easy one. You can either google waterjet cutting and click the tab for images or videos... or you can visit Fedtech's site for waterjet cutting images or waterjet cutting videos.

Or if you want to videos of laser cutting too, you can visit our YouTube channel and see all of our videos that we have taken here at Fedtech. Our YouTube name is "Waterjetter08".

Well that's all I have time for this week to answer. Remember if you have a question, you can email me at sarahw@fedtech.com and maybe your question or statement will be featured in next week's blog! :)

Thanks for visiting!
Sarah