Structural stainless steel is one of the finest and highly sustainable building materials utilized in various industry functions. It finds application in construction, oil and gas, manufacturing, infrastructure and many more industrial sectors. This versatile metal is the preferred building material for metal fabrication specialists and metal works industries across the world. It is cost-effective and offers great mechanical functionality. This quality of structural steel makes the building process swift and simpler. So, let’s take a quick look at why structural steel is considered as a preferred material for the fabrication process in shop floors.
Strength & Durability
Structural stainless steel is tensile i.e., it has a high strength to weight ratio. It also weighs less compared to other metals used for fabrication. It’s also stronger compared to other building materials, even concrete. These attributes make it easy to work with. Its strength also makes it reliable to withstand and resist any types of disasters such as fire or storms.
Another key attribute that helps steel take precedence over other building materials is its long lifespan. The final product fabricated from structural steel is strong and capable enough to withstand any external pressure. It is capable to withstand wear and tear of all kind of weather conditions. This significantly reduces the headache of maintenance of the buildings and equipment.
Flexibility
Steel can be bent or molded into an endless number of shapes, thanks to its malleable and ductile nature. This makes it an ideal material for preparing custom designs. Structural steel, being an alloy, can be adapted to give different properties Designers can work on various designs ranging from simple to complex with ease, making it a popular choice in the construction industry. It offers designers a flexibility to make changes in the planning stages without impacting the project cost.
Speed of Construction
Structures that are fabricated from structural steel can be erected speedily. This leads to reduced construction time that is often one of the main criteria of the industries during project planning. The short construction time can lead to savings in site preliminaries, reduced project costs and ultimately, improved ROI.
Stainless steel plays a huge role in improving the productivity of construction because of shop fabrication. It enables maintenance of tight construction tolerances. Structural Steel serves as a shop based technology enhancement, thereby offering significant productivity enhancement in construction.
Welding
Welding is one of the most important parts of the metal fabrication process. With the application of the right welding techniques, the strength of structural steel can be enhanced. This makes steel a perfect material for use in high-pressure applications such as columns and I-beams of commercial buildings.
Affordability
Apart from the attributes of strength and reliability that structural steel encompasses, clients also prefer structural steel because it’s cheap compared to other raw materials. Add to this, even the overall cost of the structural steel fabrication process is cost-effective. Its lightweight also contributes to reduced shipping cost. With higher cost-savings, usage of steel offers a higher probability of improved ROI to businesses than other building materials.
Environmentally Safe
As more and more businesses are now inclined towards ‘going green’, steel has gained more popularity among businesses thanks to its sustainable and flexible nature. Steel can be used over and over without compromising on quality. Steel has limited carbon content and is recyclable. Over the years, the process of producing stainless steel in Singapore has become environmentally safe with an increased focus on higher recycle rate and reduction of waste.
With the increased use of steel for structural frames and flooring, more forests can be preserved. It is also effective in blocking out environmental pollutants, resulting in a healthier workplace or commercial space. Modern-day steel plants are designed in a manner that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is energy-efficient. Even the water used during the manufacturing process of steel is recycled.
For more information on structural stainless steel fabrication in Singapore, get in touch with us at www.fmbtne.com.sg
We are Structural Steel Fabricators, offering metal works and stainless steel fabrication services to industries in Singapore.
System engineering or Engineering System Design (ESD) is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and technical management that aims at designing and managing complex systems over the life cycles. Complicated issues such as requirements engineering, logistics, reliability, coordination of different groups, evaluation and testing, maintainability and lots of other disciplines necessary for a successful system modification, development, implementation, design and ultimate decommission became more and more difficult when dealing with such complex projects. FMB will not only be focusing just on laser cutting, bending and fabrication works in stainless steel, mild steel, and aluminium, but also sharing companies that provide such system design services.
This is a work for professionals and there are many leading companies out there who are determined to support you in your need. Here are the list top 20 companies around the world who are giving engineering system design related services at an economical rate yet, with a high standard.
Energy System Design, Inc.
The majority of ESD’s engineering and Design staff are LEED Accredited Professionals, who speaks for the sustainable, innovative engineering design approach. As leading experts in sustainable designing, they incorporate a responsible and worldwide view of energy consumption by using low energy building systems & renewable technology wherever and whenever possible. Besides, they also offer engineering related consultancy to help decide many crucial decision that requires an eye from professional engineers.
Design Systems, Inc.
They are a multi-disciplined engineering design company with more than 300 pairs of sharp eyes and genius intellect. For about 35 years, Design System is providing engineering solution efficiently and making the facilities and plants more efficient. They believe that their success is measured by their client’s success and this is what sets Design System, Inc apart from any other engineering system design service providers.
Environmental System Design, Inc.
Since its foundation in 1967 by Hem Gupta, ESD, a global engineering solution company has been dedicated to building sustainable tools and machines for your workshop. Other than designing and making them in their factory, they also provide, electrical, plumbing, mechanical engineering related services and fire protection. With their services, they are determined to embrace technological change to build more developed infrastructures.
East China Engineering Science and Technology Co., Ltd
This Chinese company has been a landmark due to its years of experience in engineering design services. Since 1963, the company has successfully finished 2000+ projects for national international clients.
Their team consists of some of the world’s best engineers who not only have the skills to get everything done and going but also have vast experience to know where the production can go wrong and how to fix it.
EUROSOL
With cutting-edge German technology, EUROSOL is an efficient solution to all your engineering needs that requires a balanced between high standard and cost efficiency. Their team is extremely skilled and have years of experience designing plants and projects which made the best use of the resources.
Air Systems Engineering, Inc.
Air Systems Engineering, Inc. has been providing fabrication, design, installation, maintenance, and services of ventilation, heating, air condition, etc. for industrial and commercial facilities since 1973. With their 40 years of experience, they have built a customer base around the globe. Their main expertise lies in reducing energy loss to cut production cost for factories and workshop.
AECOM Since 1990, AECOM is making plans for different businesses, companies, and government and helping them get over any engineering dilemma. They make sure that your infrastructures are in the best condition to utilize your resources. Their consultancy team consists of some of the genius minds who think of doing something innovative every single day.
Woolpert
Woolpert is an AEG firm (Architecture, Engineering, and geospatial) that provides value to their clients by strategically combining Woolpert’s engineering excellence with their leading-edge technology and the geospatial applications. Their motto is to help their client’s progress and to become more progressive. Clearly, they have been successful in doing so over the 100 years of their business establishment.
HDR
HDR is a respected global leader which is ranked No. 9 among the world’s biggest design firms, specializing in engineering, environmental, architectural and construction service. They are the largest health-care design firm too. And they prefer to lead by their strength of their values & the culture formed by employee ownership. Their co-operative and expert team build on each other’s contribution and collaboration that makes great things possible.
WSP
WSP is a leading engineering professional services and design consulting firm who is dedicated to the local communities & run by international brainpower. They have strategic advisors and technical experts including environmental specialists, engineers, surveyors, planners, architect, scientists, and technicians, as well as other construction management, program, design professionals. With more than 42000 employees all over the world, they are really a ruler of this industry.
System design Consultants Inc.
SDC is an electrical and mechanical engineering firm which is committed to providing clients with creative and personal services since 1988. System Design Consultant has successfully designed electrical and mechanical systems for new and existing retail, office, and industrial facilities, etc. SDC personnel deliver a wide range of technical and engineering services in the fields of plumbing, electrical, lighting and mechanical design analysis and the implementation.
Synergy Process Systems
Synergy Process Systems is basically a partnership company, which was incorporated in 2002 at India. They offer comprehensive solutions in the Separations & Thermal Technology. Also, Services in detailed engineering, basic engineering, process design for Chemical and relevant Industries. Their detailed engineering services include mechanical, instrumental, piping, structural, civil, and electrical works. With its wide array of associations in supply and engineering, Synergy Process Systems is able to offer most suitable services from concept till commissioning stage, under a single roof.
Clark Patterson Lee
Anything related to engineering, planning, and architecture, Clark Patterson Lee will get it done with its team of highly experienced planners and engineers. From the year 1975, they have proven their worth and place in this engineering system design industry and they have a long plan for their future where they contribute to safe, efficient, convenient engineering solutions throughout the world.
Stantec
The Stantec community has over 22,000 employees who are working in more than 400 locations across 6 continents. They collaborate across industries to bring mechanical, infrastructure, environmental, resource, energy, building projects to life. Their local strength, relationships, and knowledge, coupled with their world-class expertise, have allowed them to go anywhere and meet their clients’ needs in a more personalized and creative ways.
Engineering Design Systems, Inc
Engineering Design Systems Inc. is a well-known local Autodesk Authorized Reseller which is dedicated to serving the Eastern part of United States by providing a large number of services including, technical, instructional, implementation, consulting, and installation support. They have experienced personnel who are specialized in Mechanical, Architecture, Civil, Mapping, and MEP applications.
Neilsoft
Neilsoft is a renowned Engineering Services and Solutions Company who are serving their clients with a wide range of engineering implementation to help improve their engineering proficiency, support the global footprints and improving their competitiveness. Domain knowledge, leveraging technology and their robust work planning methodology ensures an efficient worldwide delivery model for the engineering services project. For this, Neisoft has appeared as a company-of-choice for the leading multinational companies.
Drive Design System
Drive System Design is one of the award-winning engineering services and consultancy, specialized in designing, developing and controlling the transmission & future driveline system. They were founded in 2007 and the company’s staffs have years of experience working on designing new technology and solving problem that makes their products even more competitive. By working closely with their customers through the technical center in North America and Europe, DSD is recognized as one of the leading experts in the industry.
HKS, Inc.
HKS is a design firm with more than 1,400 anthropologists, architects, artists, scientists, urban designers, interior designers and more. They work all together across different industries and different countries to create places that stimulate the peak performance. HKS also have their dedicated research team who are devoted to discovering ideas and processes that improve the outcome for everyone.
Design and Engineering Systems
Design and Engineering Systems is another leading infrastructure development, engineering, a construction company in Pakistan. They use cutting-edge technology and experienced engineers to solve your engineering related problems.
Baker Barrios Architects
Since Baker Barrios Architects’ inception in 1993, it continued to enrich communities by contributing to next generation of designs. Due to their recent successful projects, they are highlighted amongst the leading companies who deal with mechanical, architectural, industrial constructions.
In FMB, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
Leadership is a subject where many leadership scholars struggle to find the right definition. Some may say leadership is not similar to management or management is simply leadership. In this analytical essay, I will argue that leadership is truly distinct from management however, they co-exist in all organizations. Leadership and management do not function independently but rather interdependent of each other. I will include one of the Chinese classical book from the Yin-Yang Theory of The Book of Changes (Yijing) in explaining how leadership and management needs to co-exist to ensure that organizations remains efficient and effective.
The second part of this analytical essay, I will be arguing that moral principles makes leaders more effective rather than hindering them from executing a task effectively with support from the Five Factor Model. The proposition for this argument is directed at ethical leadership will only work if other characteristic comes into play, which will in turn boost the effectiveness of a leader. Morality and ethics plays high importance in leadership as leaders are portrayed as the perfect person, extraordinary beings compared to their followers that makes the leader outstanding from the rest. However in some cases, it may not be that the leaders exemplify great ethics and morals. Some scenarios and examples will also be discussed in this analytical essay.
Lastly, I will finalize my both my arguments by summing up effective distinctive leadership with management, through right morals principles and ethics, and the possible a positions an organization could undertake in the context of leadership and general management.
Leadership is truly distinct from management
Leadership is never similar to management. Leadership can be described and explained as a set of thinking that is created to play a helping role in which blame can be effectively pointed towards a right direction (Gemmill & Oakley, 1992). However, leadership scholars do not have a clear definition on the exact term on leaderships and its functions, which fails to separate popular beliefs from the exact meaning of leadership and its functions (Rost, 1991). Therefore, it is essential to clearly state and outline the roles that leaders play which greatly differ from managers. The ideas in practice for leaders and managers are generally a few folds.
Managers and leaders perception towards achieving goals
Firstly, leaders and managers have different attitudes and aspirations towards achieving their goals (Zaleznik, 1986). Basically, they think differently, act differently and execute differently. Manager’s goals are formulated through what must be achieved rather than achieving them through personal desires and pro-activeness. As such, it would be fair to say that they act towards what must be done to keep their key performance index in check. One good example to exemplify such concept happened in my organization. My role in the company as an Account Manager, is to execute task effectively under the instructions of my Chief Executive Officer. My company, Hitachi Critical Facilities Protection Pte Ltd provides our clients with state of the art lightning protection system which is extremely difficult to sell. However, my CEO managed to formulate goals and aims, with sales strategy penetration into untapped markets by using different sales channels and partners to increase our support. This was done out of the context as a leader, creating a direction and brought our purpose in this organization to the whole new level. Such motivation and attitudes towards work is totally different from what managers can do.
Managers and leaders perception towards work
Secondly, their views on work is very different. Managers make decisions through selecting the right people with the right collaboration, and with the correct strategies in place executed by right men, that is the expected outcome of what managers should do and must do (Zaleznik, 1986). However, leader have a different views on work. What they do is basically to be selective on their choices, always thinking out of the box, and not afraid to open another can of worms into outstanding problems (Zaleznik, 1986). It is very clear that managers and leaders play their role differently into problem solving and managing expectations. Managers manages expectations while leader creates expectations (Smircich & Morgan, 1982). It is a clear standing signal that leaders and managers react differently to problems and their thought process greatly differs as mentioned in this paragraph. I could cite another workplace example of mine to display a strong difference between leaders and managers. We all have a set of Key Performance Index to meet which was laid down by the top management and the human resource department. In an organization like mine, we have managers throughout and everyone is concerned of their key performance index. Managers like me, would avoid problems as much as possible and to ensure there is no extra ingredients added to our portfolio. However, one of the top management, who is the General Manager of the organization, constantly pushes us and ensure we develop new ideas according to his strategy, which ensures the survival of the organization. A true leader does not know only how to solve problem, but the fundamental of a being a leader is to recognize there is a problem. What I see in my organization is that the General Manager is not afraid of facing the problem because he sees a different purpose that require him to address. It is an essential measure to take on for the long term. With such a visionary leader, many could not see his vision and begins to detest him. In the long term, when the effects takes shape, everyone will enjoy the fruits of labour because of his vision. Thereby, a clear distinction between a leader and a manager towards work.
Managers and leaders perception towards relationship building
Thirdly, relationship building methodology and approach is different for leaders and managers. Managers require support from others, and they do enjoy working with people. Although they do enjoy working with people, they do not take empathy into play as much as leaders do. Managers lack empathy, they are not sensitive towards feelings of others (Zaleznik, 1986). For empathy to come into the picture, it is not merely just about taking detail into people. It is essential to take feelings into the relationship to make them mean something (Zaleznik, 1986). What we have defined leadership may have a vast difference on what we may have experienced (Rost, 1991). It was also mentioned in one of the journal by Burns that leaders is constantly fixing issues that fulfills needs and the wants of people (Burns, 1978). As such, relationship building between followers and leaders are complex as many different leadership styles come into the picture to formulate and foster relationship building. To simply put the distinction between the relationship methodology between managers and leaders, managers are concerned and focus how to get tasks completed while leaders focused their attention on the process and situations that followers undergo (Zaleznik, 1986). A good example to showcase both leader and manager’s relationship building technique would be using another example in my workplace. My head of engineering is pretty hot headed but get things done effectively. She plays no role in being empathetic to people’s family problems but to only demand people to complete the task which was assigned to her. Besides, jumping authority to get things done is extremely common in my workplace. As such, such person’s personality and character created a negative atmosphere in the company and all co-workers are extremely unhappy about the way she handle things. The only two person who appreciate the work done up is the chief executive officer and the chairman. Rapport among colleagues and inter-department head are extremely thaw and negative, though she gets all the credits for completing the job beautifully. In contrast, my human resource department director plays a role of being empathetic towards our cause and attends our team bonding very often. She tries to attend all rapport building activities and constant ask how the company’s human resource policies can better improve over time to ensure a lower staff turnover rate. The human resource director is constantly on the ground, gathering feedbacks to ensure everyone is satisfied in the workplace. From my example listed above, it is very obvious that both belong to the top management but one exemplify a manager’s characteristic and the other exemplify leadership qualities.
Leadership is somewhat mix of both managers and leaders
There may be many heated arguments on the nature of leaders and managers and the roles they play, where distinction is a must to distinguish these two types of people, we cannot deny that a leader can also be trained and groomed to become a manager, vice-versa. In some instances, we have virtually forgotten that organizations are ran by managers (Nicolls, 2002). Organization just cannot simply live on leaders neither can it only live on managers. One of the principal fundamentals of running an organization is administration (Nicolls, 2002).
Theory of Yin and Yang with Leadership and Management
The theory of Yin and Yang is one of the most important concept of the ancient Chinese philosophy. The philosophical importance lies with the two opposing forces that becomes stronger and then weaker, and at the same time nourishing one another, turning one another into cyclically, that is constantly supporting and helping each other (Yang, 2008).
The symbol shown above illustrates that within Yang, there is a tiny dot of Yin. Within Yin, there is tiny dot of Yang. To put it simply, in every Yang, there will be Yin. And in every Yin, there will be Yang. The contradictory elements, Yin and Yang, are the ingredients and fundamentals that must be present for harmony to be established. If Yin is present without Yang, there is no harmony, and the rules are vice-versa (Yang, 2008) This theory is presented and discussed in the Book Of Changes (Yijing), that an independent Yin will have no interaction and an independent Yang cannot interact on its own (Yang, 2008). The ultimate goal is to achieve harmony as depicted by the symbol above.
The theory on Yin and Yang introduced into this analytical essay on leadership was solely due to the fact that organizations cannot solely run on managers neither could organizations run on leaders. I take for an example, leaders are Yang while Managers are Yin, in every leader, a small part of them may be managers and in every managers, a small part of them may be leaders. This concept applies to many things in life, not solely restrictive to the corporate industrialized world.
Managers are also leaders
In another school of thought, instead of differentiating the abilities and the traits between leaders and managers, High profile management may be just the right term to use on managers who possess abilities and traits of a leader. Basically, they are also leaders. High profile management outline and state key things that managers need to do that bend beyond administration (Nicolls, 2002).
We are well aware that one of the roles of leaders is to inspire and motivate, create a direction for its follow and lead them towards that particular direction (Nicolls, 2002). What about managers? Do they not inspire and motivate? The fact that good managers provide three most important factor to be good which inspiration, direction are and supervision (Nicolls, 2002). Such qualities are seen equally on leaders as well. And not forgetting the actual fact that organizations are ran by managers: chairman, chief executive, supervisors, captains (Nicolls, 2002).
Ultimately, top managers take on leadership position as we do see Chief Executive Officer but not Chief Leadership Officer (Nicolls, 2002). The basis for the existence of an organization is administration. Administration deals with planning, monitoring, which forms part of managing. Without administration, organization would stall (Nicolls, 2002). Understanding this particular concept would help us better understand that management and leadership is never far apart from each other, and they are always inherent of each other.
I take on another example from my previous workplace, a much smaller organization with a total manpower of 60 in total. The organizational structure is very flat and every one of us reports directly to the managing director. Due to the limited number of people in the organization, resources are pretty limited. Being the head of the company, he has to formulate strategies, possess empathy in times to come. He is the manager as well as the leader. In actual fact, he is maximizing his resources to the fullest extent, and taking full control of all situations. There may be negative impacts for playing both a role of a manager and a leader but, it boils down to the managing director ability to use both a manager’s traits as well as a leader’s traits to steer the organization to new heights.
Values, moral and ethical principles make leaders more effective:
Planting the seed of good culture and eliminating negative values
Values and moral principles are essential characteristics a leader must possess. The reasons and purpose of having such qualities and values are many folds.
Moral and value principles consist of the first step to ethical decision making. (Jones, 1991) If ethical decision making did not build or substantiate on the basis where moral and principles are the primary foundation, the process of ethical thoughts will not be present in the first place (Jones 1991).
A leader with good moral and value principles will ensure organization is not infested with bad habits and cultures (Lozano, 2000). Leaders with higher levels of moral reasoning with moral principles, are less vulnerable from organizational culture (Trevino, 1986). Thus, resistance to change or steered towards creating a negative culture in the organization is lowered.
Leaders are often associated with powers and authorities, moral and value principles and it is important to ensure that such authorities and power are not being abused. A classic example where leaders may ended up being abusive in power, it has a co-relation with Machiavellian. In contrast to ethical leaders, Machiavellian leaders are inclined having to make use of followers in order to achieve own selfish agenda benefitting only himself. The trust level towards people around him is low (Brown & Trevino, 2006). As such, leaders of such quality have no morals and principles. It has detrimental effects on both their followers and the organization. As such, Machiavellianism is not having a positive relation to good value and moral principles.
It is also important to note that being ethical is not enough to contribute to the effectiveness of leadership. We also need to take into consideration of the leader’s characteristics and personality in order for leaders to be efficient and effective with regards to ethical leadership. One of the key model, the Five Factor Model, conceptualizes leader’s traits that that linked within these five factors that includes openness, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism (Tupes & Christal, 1961). Among these five traits, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism will be related to ethics in leadership effectiveness (Brown & Treviño, 2006). The trait that make the strongest impact to ethical leadership is the agreeableness (Brown & Treviño, 2006). Agreeableness is directly related to being trustworthy, cooperative and altruistic. Ethical leaders are known to be altruistically motivated, showing empathy, and concerning their followers even outside their work and the caring for the society (Treviño, 2003). Social learning school of thought may give us another perspective on leaders with the agreeableness traits. It states that they are more effective as role models, linked to ethical leadership, as they attract and keep observer’s attention in check, than those who did not possess the agreeableness traits (Yussen & Levy, 1975).
In my organization, the tendency for people to form small clan within the organization are people who have worked for many years. The leader of the clan, who is head of the department, is the Indian chief of the clan and everybody within that particular department is there to pledge loyalty to him. Getting favoured by the Indian chief within the department will receive promotion and other perks. Thereby, such cultures are pretty toxic as one person is in power for too long, the morality and values are simply non-existence, all for the love of power. Besides, people who does not pledge loyalty towards him gets axed within the next few weeks through dirty methods. As such, it is very obvious that leadership without ethics will form a pretty negative culture that I had laid down in this paragraph. Corrective actions to these problems may include occasion job rotation, preventing the head of department from amassing power which can led to toxic organization cultures, benefitting himself of his selfish agenda only. The ultimate results and outcome must cater to employees’ satisfaction at work and creating value not only for these workers but also for the organization.
On the other hand, I must re-emphasize the point that being ethical with right moral values and principles may not make a leader effective as it seems. Another good example I would want to showcase is to bring forth the conflict that happened among inter-department with the engineering department. The head of the engineering department is a very professional lady with high morality and principles. She is highly intellectual but is always in conflict with other people in the company as she is not someone who is altruistic, trusting, kind and cooperative. These traits are defined as someone who has the traits of agreeableness (Tupes & Christal, 1961). Besides, she is highly favoured by the board of directors who thinks that she is highly capable. Though she is a leader by “appointment”, there is no openness and trust, which we had many communications problems and barrier. Thereby, this example is used to showcase that being ethical with right moral principles will not necessary be effective. It has to go hand in hand with other personalities and characteristics of a leader listed out above.
Importance of morality and ethics in leadership
Ethical leadership deals with making decision with leader possessing righteous conduct, displaying such conduct through interactions and communications with his followers that is morally right and acceptable (Brown et al., 2005). To go deeper on the concept of ethical leadership, in layman terms, ethical leadership from a simple perspective, it is a behavioral requirement on how leaders should behave (Ciulla, 2004). The basis of ethical leadership builds on leader’s personality such as integrity, honesty and trustworthiness. This has also been linked to the leader’s effectiveness. (Den Hartog et al., 1999; Kirkpatrick & Locke,
1991; Kouzes & Posner, 1993; Posner & Schmidt, 1992)
It is very important for leaders to possess the right ethics in leadership as ethical leaders frequently interacts and communicate with their followers about ethics, benchmarking clear directions on the standards on ethical issues, using systems of punishment and rewards to ensure that followers adhered to those standards set by leaders (Treviño, 2003). Leaders with ethics do not talk the walk, they walk the talk and took great amounts of initiative on ethical conduct. Such traits is extremely important in being an ethical leader as it will influence decision making process and set a baseline for future decision makings, and creating a positive culture in the organization.
Ultimately, ethical leadership is closely linked with positivity in the attitudes of followers (Brown & Trevino, 2006) One example of positivity in the attitudes of the followers is supported by a research done on transformational leadership, which received high ratings that was related with followers’ commitment, satisfaction and motivation (Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996). Such positive attitudes of the followers can only be realized should the leader do what was preached by displaying trustworthiness, care and concern towards its fellow workers, being honest with its dealings and most importantly, making decision on a basis on fairness and principled center values (Brown & Trevino, 2006).
How ethical leadership coupled with principles and morals will affect the followers and the organization: the domino effect
The importance of morality and ethics in leadership is very straight forward. One of leader’s key roles is to make sound decision, supported with morality and ethics that will in turn bring forth positive outcome benefitting his followers and organization. Ethical decision making is said to be one of the longest standing key decision making process that was scrutinized and practiced (Hill, 1986).
There’s a Chinese saying that if the top beam of a building is not straight, the lower beam of the building will also be crooked. This theory applies to leaders and followers as well. Leaders being the top beam and followers being the bottom beam. Therefore, it is essential for the leader to set forth good positive examples and carry the right values and identity.
There is a special relationship between worker’s perception of an ethical climate in the organization and its commitment in the organization (Cullen, Paboteeah, & Victor, 2003). In addition, some other research shows that ethical climate dimension, influenced the ethical decision making of the organization’s managers (Flannery & May, 2000). On the positive note, ethical climate dimensions are not positively associated to the motivation to lie (Ross & Robertson, 2000). As such, these important findings do provide us with an insight on how ethical climate dimension can positively influence the right values in ensuring positive culture within an organization.
Managers and leaders: How ethics, moral and values principles steer them on their daily tasks
As the essay is particularly aimed at differentiating leadership and managers with ethics, morality and value principle a leader should have, there is an important relation among becoming a manager or leader. These people needs to have a certain degree of positive traits coupled with ethics in order to carry out task effectively. Becoming someone who is highly effective, we need to understand which area of effectiveness are managers and leaders pin pointing at? Is it solely tasks orientated or relationship orientated? Although both leaders and managers have different work attitudes towards their job, both leaders and managers must possess ethics in their work with high morality and principles for them to gain respect from their subordinates and their followers in the long run. These principles and morality guide them to make sound humane decision, preventing them from abusing their powers and caused harm to people. Managers and leaders can never be separated on the topic of the basic intrinsic or moral principles and work ethics.
Summary
I hope this piece of analytical essay intrigue readers with my workplace experience and my standpoint. My standpoint is pretty clear in sense where managers are also leaders as there is no separation of roles in organizations although their attitudes and mindset towards work is very different. Ancient Chinese literature that was used for more than five thousands year was used in this analytical essay to support my arguments that managers can also be leader role. I also discuss that ethical leadership with morality cannot achieve higher effectiveness should other ingredient stated in the Five Factor Model is missing. Leadership is an extremely wide topic where different factors makes one a good and effective leader. It is a combination of positive traits coupled with other external factors such as the quality of followers. Our sole purpose to understand the concept of leadership is to enable us to create value for our organization and our society, and most importantly to lead with the correct mindset and purpose.
There’s no denying the fact that designing a mechanical product isn’t as easy as it seems. Engineers and designer would know it better because they do it for a living. Most of the time they need to push their limits to ensure that the product they are designing is economical and efficient at whatever it is supposed to do. In FMB, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
But sometimes even the out-of-the-box thinkers find themselves in a place where they don’t really know what or how to get their designed product to perform better.
And if they are thinking about proceeding with their uneconomical porotype, they will be fooling themselves only. There is no way a company can rule the industry without making their products “The Best”. But if you are thinking that a good design may cause additional production cost, you will be happy to know that you are wrong.
However, if you are not yet convinced that designing is a key factor to the product’s success, you need some serious re-thinking to do. But if you are onboard with the fact that nothing can compensate a faulty designed product, here are some tips that might make you efficient at designing metal products. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s divide the whole designing process into 2 stages.
Stage 1: The thought for product’s design
Stage 2: Actual digital design of the metal product
On the first stage, the engineer had to think of the general structure of the metal product. How to make it sturdy, how to control the rigidity, how the general structure can enhance the product’s performance, what type of metal will be suitable for, etc. are included in this stage.
Then comes actual designing part in a computer. This stage includes finding out the exact details for the product and then putting it on the PC for visual reference to the actual product.
First Stage:
Tip no 1: Understand the physics.
In this stage, engineers or designers need to pay full attention to physics. I mean, they need to figure out how the product should look like after suppressing the universal forces and obstacles.
For example, if you need to design a metal wing for an aircraft, you need to make sure that you know what kind of natural forces can become an obstacle for the wing. One of the biggest problems with an aircraft wing will be having to face the air flow. The wing designer will have to figure out a way to make the craft flying with the wings even in strong winds. So the wings will need some curves and bend. And here rise other questions. What kind of curves do you need on the wing and where do you need, etc. This kind of questions is completely physics related.
Although the product you are going to design may not be compatible with these question, you’ll always find Physics making it harder one way or another. Perhaps the angles or the twists on your design, but you’ll have to come across the physics and get the answers yourself.
You also need to be quick on solving the obstacle that your metal product might face. So, know the motion, know the forces. Know what you can do to get out of the obstacle. Once you find the answers to these questions, you’ll have an efficient structure in your mind for further detailing and processing.
Tip no 2: Draw it out.
I know that eventually you will need to design it using AutoCAD on your PC. But before that, it’s always better to sketch it out. If you are familiar with the product’s application, you’ll surely find some flaws in the basic design.
Tip no 3: Fix the flaws.
Once you find out the flaws in the primary draft of the product’s design, it’s time to get working on throwing out the flaws. Your basic design might not be accurate for the very first time you cross check but it’ll get better each time you pay a close attention to the details. So don’t freak out if you have to go through the draft product design 4-5 times. It’s okay.
Tip no 4: For the metal, look for something economical and efficient.
Although choosing the metal is not a part of the actual designing, the entire process of designing is correlated with the material in use. So it’s worth mentioning.
Almost everyone thinks of mild steel when it comes to picking a metal for manufacturing. It is because they are cheaper and available everywhere. But one thing that we should remember is having a quality material for any product to make the design work. Only making the product economical and inexpensive will do no good if the product itself is not the best out of your factory. Its efficiency is as important as making it affordable.
But it’s not easy to decide which metal will be the best choice for your final production. Besides, choosing the right metal can be technical. You need to know the tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and many other values related to the properties of that matter. Sometimes even the applications of that metal product may give you the answer for what metal should be used.
Second Stage: Designing digitally
Once you are done with the first stage, you will have a draft on paper that you would like to form into a 3D CAD file.
Tip no 1: Make sure you get the numbers right.
If you want to get your product done by the machine, you’ll need your 3D CAD file convert into machine code. That means you will get exactly what you put into the 3D CAD file. That’s why the draft should be accurate.
Use the numbers that you found by calculating for dimension, curve angle, bend, hole, etc. properly in the file. If you want, you can cross check the number just to be sure.
Tip no 2: Make the curves and bend smooth.
Depending on its use, your product may one or many bends and curve. For any metal product, it is important that the curvatures are smooth and nicely done. Also, using the angles in their places is important too. It’s up to the designer to make the curves as clean and smooth as possible. Remember uneven curvatures are bad for product design because if the curves are not smooth, the metal won’t look or work as good as you would have expected.
Tip no 3: Keep the holes and edges smooth.
It’s the same as having smooth curves. Only it’s much more important than the curves. Usually, the edges are the functioning part of anything. That’s why uneven edges are metal products’ worst enemy. Make sure you don’t have any.
Tip no 4: Know what’s wrong
Clearly, it’s not possible to get the design you wanted on the very first try. You should check as many times as possible for flaws in your design. Once you find them, work on them to solve the issue. Remember, even the tiniest details can hamper the efficiency of the metal product.
The bottom line
Designing a metal product is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires precision and details to work it out and if you pay heed to the tips given above, you’ll definitely notice how good you are getting at your job. So, don’t be ashamed to admit to your design’s flaws. Work on the flaws and practice a lot, you’ll get better results for sure.
Technologies on Press Brake Machine and achieving higher precision. In FMB, we always use the best bending machine in the market to carry out bending works. As such, the laser cutting process must be fast and accurate to achieve this.
Press brake is a machine to bend metal sheets and plates for specific needs. These machines are the onesto shape the metal sheets at specific angles for curved and angular use of those metal sheets.
The angles that a press machine can bend your metals are predetermined. Usually, two different C-frames form each side of a press brake. The sides are connected to the table below and on a flexible or movable beam at its top. Bottom side of the machine stays mounted on the table and the top tool stays mounted on the upper beam.
Types of Press Brake Machine
There are 2 major types of press brake machines available for use, Mechanical and Hydraulic.
Mechanical: In a mechanical press brake, a big flywheel spins at high velocity. Once the operator engages the clutch via pneumatic, the flywheel is mated to the crankshaft with which the Ram is attached. Then the crankshaft spins the ram up and down. This is how mechanical press brake machine functions.
Advantage of this type of mechanical press brake is that they are electronically simpler. The mechanical ones are perfect for punching application because the shock of the punching materials is equally distributed, thanks to the machine’s design.
The main disadvantage of the mechanical ones is that the ram needs to complete a full stroke or cycle and usually can’t be reversed while the process of bending is happening. And to operate a mechanical press brake, a heavily skilled operator is must.
Hydraulic: In these press brakes, hydraulic pressure is passed from the cylinders to force machine’s ram down. The hydraulic controls of machine, ram accuracy of the press brake are more precise than mechanical brakes. Number of cylinders controlling the press brake varies machine to machine.
The hydraulic ones utilize the electrohydraulic control, which is based on linear control systems and measurements. This provides precise and reliable operation in metal sheet work. However, hydraulic press brakes are comparatively expensive but they are safer than the mechanical ones.
Applications of Press Brake Machine
Shaping, bending, and curving metal sheet with press brake is a kind of art, which is vastly dependent on the operator and his skills. That’s why its application may vary for two different operators. But here are some basic universal application of Press brake machine:
Sheet metal bending: It’s obvious that press brake machines will be used for sheet bending the most. The resultant product can be used in different manufacturing industries.
Home appliances: Press brake machines can be usefulfor making the structure for different home appliances.
Vehicles: The structural bodies of car, bus, train, etc.have many curves and angles. It is important that the angles are précised and that’s why press brakes are used in vehicle industry.
Heavy Industrial Machine: Many industries have gigantic machines with bulky cover body. These are shaped with press brake machines for saving time and effort.
Press Brake Tooling
To ensure that the Press brake works properly each time when you punch and select a dye, it is important to check the tooling tolerance. But for the best and smooth result, using correct die is the most important thing. Here are some common dies to choose from.
Types of Bending
Two major categories of bending sheet metals are described below.
Bottom Bending: It is a simple operation of the punch or tool that is mounted in the ram of press brakes. In this type of bending, the workpiece is forced down in the bottom of dies, which is mounted to the bed over the press brake. Typically, the tools is forced slightly closer to its die than sheet’s thickness. The over bending “coins” the metal and uniformly “seats’ the bend.
The advantage of this bending is that the accuracy of bending depends mostly on the tools itself, rather than largely on the press brake.
Air bending: Air bending is a simple process of pressing down material into the die, just enough to achieve your desired angle. The material isn’t pressed up to the bottom of die, which leaves an air gap.
It is preferred between the two different bending types because in this method, the die needs to change only when the thickness of material is changed. But the main disadvantage of air bending is that the bending accuracy vastly depends on material thickness.
How Press Brake Machine can achieve high precision?
Precision bending came a long way in recent decades. What was considered “precision” in the 80s wouldn’t even pass the muster nowadays.
Although today’s press brake machines are far more advanced than the ones in early 2000s, the precision is not quite there that one would have expected. Here are few variables that can be the reason why the precision is not up to mark.
Machine variables:
Tooling variable:
Material variable:
To achieve higher precision:
Proper tooling is must. No matter how accurate the press machine is, if the tooling isn’t done properly, maximum precision can’t be expected. That’s why the press brake machine you are about to use, must be equipped with proper tooling.
Skilled operator should be recruited. Although it is true that nowadays, the press brake machines are smarter and even a low skilled operator can get the job done, it’s wise to have someone around the machine who is well aware of what he’s doing.
Ram repeatability. Ram repeatability is an important factor to consider if you want higher precision. So, it’s important to keep that on mind.
Conclusion
Although a press brake might seem a simple machinery for your factory, it’s much complicated than you’d think. That’s why it is important to know how it works and what type of press brake or which type of bending is suitable for you. Remember, in order to achieve high precision, there is no alternative to caring about even the smallest detail of the machine.
Finite Element Analysis is simply referred to FEA, which is a simulation of the one given physical phenomenon by using FEM (Finite Element Method).
Finite Element Method is a complex numerical method by which Mathematics related problems are solved efficiently. But Finite Element Method can do much more than just solving mathematics related problems. It can be used to solve Physics related problems and even Engineering problems very quickly. This numerical method is implied in Finite Element Analysis. In FMB, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
Product designers and Engineers use it minimize the number of physical beta or prototype products. Even the required number of experiments for a product decreases when Finite Element Analysis is implied for optimizing components in the product design period to make high-quality products. And the best part is, the entire process becomes much faster than it used to be.
It is mandatory to use Mathematics to comprehensively quantify and understand a physical phenomenon like fluid and structural behavior, wave progression, cell growth in living body, thermal transport, etc. Almost all these processes are defined using PDEs or Partial Differential Equations. To solve thing kind of Partial Differential Equations with a computer, many numerical method and techniques are developed over the last few years. Among all of them, Finite Element Analysis or FEA is the most promising.
The differential equation cannot just describe the processes of nature. It can also describe the engineering mechanics and the physical phenomenon. These Partial differential equations are much complicated than regular engineering equation that determines any products rigidity, Young’s modulus dimension etc. These PDEs need to be solved in order to calculate related quantities of any structure like strains, stress, etc. so that a particular behavior of the considerate component under the specified load can be estimated.
One thing to remember that Finite Element Analysis or FEA can only give you an approximate solution to the problem at hand, and it is just a numerical approach for finding the original results of the partial differential equations.
To put it in a simple way, Finite Element Analysis is simply a prediction of how a specific part or assembly would behave under some specified conditions. There is no denying the fact that Finite Element Analysis has brought a revolution to the modern simulations software. They are a great help to manufacturers who want to find out the area of tension, the weak spots, etc. in their prototype or final production. The final result of the simulation based on Finite Element Analysis are generally depicted via a color scale which shows, for example, the pressure distribution over a physical object.
Simulations use Finite Element methods to compute the stresses and displacement in the product due to operational loads like:
- Pressures
- Forces
- Accelerations
- Temperatures
- And contact between the components
How Finite Element Analysis was established?
If you want to consider any mathematical paper or documentation as the definite origin for Finite Element Analysis, the works by Courant (1943) and Schellbach (1851) is the answer of how it all started. But many believe that Finite Element Analysis has been in talks since the 16th century. They think that Euler’s works are the first chapter of today’s Finite Element Method and Finite Element Analysis.
Later, by different industries and companies, Finite Element Analysis was brought in development for addressing structural mechanics problem relevant to the civil engineering and aerospace sectors. In the mid-1950s the development for real-life use of Finite Element Analysis started through the papers by Turner, Martin, Clough, and Topp (1956), Aziz (1972), Babusuka, and Argyris (1957) show. Besides, the foundation for Finite Element Analysis was also strengthened by book written by Fix (1973), Strang, and Zienkiewicz (1971)
Stages of Finite Element Analysis
The Finite Element Analysis is comprised of 3 stages:
i) Before Processing: In this stage, analyst makes up a finite element mesh of material’s geometry & applies material’s properties, load, and boundary condition.
ii) Solution: In this part, the program derives its governing matrix equation ( Load = Stiffness X Displacement ) from product model. Then it solves for the strains, displacements, and strains.
iii) Post-Processing: Now, the analyst gets the result generally in deformed contour plots, shapes, etc. that shows how the actual result might look like. A wide range of reporting tools like text output, graphs, animations, vector plots, color contour, etc. are used to illustrate the analysis model’s behavior.
Why and where people use Finite Element Analysis?
At the beginning, Finite Element Analysis and Finite Element Method was developed for the betterment of Civil engineering and Aerospace industry. But its use has become limitless nowadays. It just started to reach towards its potential and everyone is positive that the use of Finite Element Analysis will keep increasing every day.
There are many industries that are benefiting from this numerical approach to solve problems because Finite Element Analysis is good at coupled problems like Thermo-mechanical, fluid-structure interaction, Thermo-chemo-mechanical problems piezoelectric, thermos-chemical, electromagnetics, ferroelectric, and many more relevant areas.
In short, Finite Element Analysis has at least something to offer to every sector that involves, engineering production, physics, mathematics, and relevant sectors.
Besides aeronautical and civil engineering, biochemical and automotive industries are now implementing Finite Element Analysis to design their resultant product more efficiently and faster. In any structural simulation, Finite Element Method helps a lot in producing strength and stiffness visualization and also in reducing weight, cost, and materials.
It lets you visualize where your structures bend, curve or twist, and also indicates you the distribution of stresses or displacements.
In short, these are the places where Finite Element Analysis is useful:
- Mechanical/Structural engineering design
- Manufacturing processes
- Product development
- Failure analysis investigation
- Improving the existing design’s efficiency
Limitations of Finite Element Analysis
As it was mentioned many times, Finite Element Analysis is an approximate numerical approach of solving engineering or mathematical problem. This means the result is close enough to the actual happening but not exact. The magnitude of error depends mostly on the size or type of model used for analysis.
Although approximate is not something that many manufacturers are against of, there are few industries where manufacturers want precision to take over approximate values and condition. These industries are too sensitive to be built upon any approximate value. In these cases, Finite Element Analysis won’t be the bar of reliability.
Bottom Line
Availability of Finite Element Analysis lets the engineers obtain objectives that they otherwise couldn’t have, for example, designing modification on the highly stressed area. That’s why FEA is of importance to product designers and engineer because it saves their valuable and time and their money.
Welding is a process by which, coalescing materials like thermoplastics or metals are seamlessly joined for different applications. The entire process is nothing but a controlled and ordered application of both pressure and heat. Like everything, the welding process has also evolved over the years. From heating iron, it became something more complex and efficient in joining metal alloys. In FMB, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
Throughout the evolution, welding became more and more useful in different industries, which led to the adoption of different methods of welding as needed. For industrial use of welding, it is of utmost importance that one understands these different methods of welding before taking any decision.
Gas Welding
In 1903, Gas welding was developed by Edmond and Charles, two French engineers. It was also known as Oxyfuel or Oxyacetylene welding because the welding required combining pure oxygen with fuel gas to increase flame’s temperature around 35000 Celsius.
Gas welding is surely one of the ancient welding methods, which is still being used in tube and pipe welding, as well as some repairing industries. Even metal artists nowadays use it to build their metal sculptures.
Resistance Welding
In this method, electric current is applied upon the surface in order to generate intensive heat. But before applying the electric current, this welding involves applying force to the adjacent surface.
There are different variations of this technique, like seam welding, spot welding, butt welding, upset welding, projection welding, flash welding, etc.
EBW (Energy Beam Welding)
This is a rather complex welding method that involves firing high-velocity electron particles on the material. The entire process needs to happen in total vacuum.
The energy that comes with the electrons is transformed into heat. The heat in terms melts the welding material and allows them to get fused together.
Common used EBW techniques are electron beam welding and laser beam welding.
Solid State Welding
In solid-state welding, no filler material is used. In this process, the temperature is increased up to the melting point of the material. It depends on the trifecta of time, pressure, and temperature, individually or just in a tandem to combine the metals without needing to melt them down.
Although it’s an old form of welding, many new welding methods are based on it.
Arc Welding
Arc welding usually involves using electrodes and power supply to form the welding arc between the material being welded (mostly metal) and the electrode, to melt down the material and join them together.
Most common type of Arc welding is Stick welding, TIG, and MIG welding. And all of the methods are divided into two groups, consumable & non-consumable method.
Consumable Electrode Methods:
- 1. MIG Welding (GMAW or Gas Metal Arc Welding)
MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding involves combining metals with a wire, connected to an electrode current. This wire gets through the welding stick that is shielded by any inert gas.
Advantages of MIG Welding includes lower degree of precision and ease of use. But MIG welding very much sensitive to the external factors such as dust, rain, wind, and even voltage and wire speed.
Porosity and Dross are two of the most common problems with MIG welding. If they are nor taken into consideration, the joint might become weaker than TIG welding.
However, MIG is much easier to gain mastery on as the electrodes automatically fed through torch. But unlike TIG welding, MIG only needs the welding gun to move across the place being welded.
This welding is mostly used in automotive repairing as it’s capable of giving you a sturdy, strong weld that is done properly and able to withstand the larger forces, giving you utmost versatility as well as strength required for such application. Apart from automotive, MIG welding also comes in handy for plumbing, robotics, construction, and the maritime industry.
- 2. Stick Welding or Shielded Metals Arc Welding (SMAW)
Stick welding is a manual process that uses consumable electrodes that are coated in flus and used for laying the weld. The process is named stick welding because welding rods or sticks are required as filler material and the flux.
Stick welding is comparatively a cost-efficient welding solution, which requires the least amount of equipment. But due to cracking, shallow penetration, vulnerability to severe weather, and porosity hamper the quality of Stick welding. Best use of Stick welding is in construction, automotive, plumbing, refrigeration, etc.
- 3. FCAW or Flux-Cored Arc (FCA) Welding
FCAW is quite similar to MIG welding, apart from these facts that FCAW uses a unique flux filled tubular wire and depending on the filler, shielding gas isn’t always mandatory.
Although it’s an easy technique to learn, the expense is gigantic and that’s why FCAW is not suitable for small production.
Flux-Cored Arc Welding is quite similar to MIG, except for the fact that it uses a unique tubular wire filled completely with flux and the shielding gas is not always needed, depending on what filler is being used. FCAW is notable for being extremely inexpensive and easy to learn, although there are several limitations in its applications and the results are often not as aesthetically pleasing as some of the other types of welding methods.
- 4. SAW or Submerged Arc (SA) Welding
SAW is a common type of arc welding, mostly used on nickel alloys and ferrous steel. Due to the low emission of welding arc lights and fume, it is much safer than others.
The whole welding process takes place beneath the flux and that’s why it is referred as Submerged Arc (SA) Welding.
Non-Consumable Electrode Methods
- 1. TIG Welding or Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW)
Tungsten Inert Gas or TIG is a process that is known for utilizing a non-consumable tungsten electrodes with the inert gas (mostly argon). As Tungsten is a rare and provides a high purity, the welding quality is quite impressive. That’s why TIG welding is the most popular welding technique used these days.
With TIG welding, temperature is raised by running the electric current via any tungsten electrode, which creates an arc to be used for melting metal wire and create weld pool.
- 2. ESW or Electro-Slag Welding
ESW is very efficient and mostly used in thick and nonferrous metals. The technique requires high skills and extreme precision. Mostly, ESW is used in aerospace and maritime applications.
- 3. AHW or Atomic Hydrogen Welding
AHW involves placing 2 tungsten electrodes inside a hydrogen atmosphere. Then the Hydrogen molecule breaks up and combines again with an explosion. The explosion cause the heat to reach 3000 degree Celsius.
- 4. CAW or Carbon Arc Welding
Carbon Arc Welding is the first ever arc welding process to be invented. But recently, it is being replaced by more efficient and time-0saving welding methods to save production cos, time, and effort. This welding process requires heating metal with a Carbon electrode (non-consumable). Gradually the temperature increases up to 3000 degrees Celsius.
- 5. EGW or Electrogas Welding
EGW is somewhat similar to ESW except for the fact that EGW doesn’t need any pressure. Besides, in EGW is not extinguished. The main use of Electrogas welding is in shipbuilding industry and storage tank factories.
Conclusion:
Before making the decision, it’s important to know what type and method of welding is profitable for you. Remember, a wrong decision about the welding process can be the game changer for you. So, it’s always better to research the welding method properly before implementing it in your workshop.
Since people realized the precision and efficiency of laser cutting in the early 1960s, industrialists are looking for ways to implement this cutting-edge technology to their respective industries. That’s why, from clinical to aerospace use, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
But what is this Laser Cutting that everyone is talking about?
Laser cutting is a process to cut or engrave any material precisely, using a high-powered beam. Mostly, the entire process is based on computer-controlled parameters, directed by Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machine from a vector CAD file.
The Laser cutting technology is used for many industrial purposes. Specifically, to cut metal plates, like Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Mild Steel, etc. On these types of steel, laser cutting process is very precise compared to any other metal sheet cutting process. Besides, Laser cutting process has a very small heat afterzone and also a small kerf width. That’s why it’s possible to delicate shapes and tiny holes for production.
How Laser Cutting Technology Works
Laser is a fancy acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, which is the main participant in this process, is a beam of heavily intensified light. This beam of light is formed by a single wavelength or single color.
The Laser machines use amplification and stimulation technique to transform electric energy into high density beam of light. The stimulation process happens as the electrons are excited via an external source, mostly an electric arc or a flash lamp.
The amplification process occurs within the optical resonator in the cavity, which is set between 2 mirrors. One of them is partially transmissive and the other one is reflective. The glasses allow beam’s energy to get back in the lasing medium and there it stimulates even more emissions. But if a photon isn’t aligned with machine’s resonator, the reflective and transmissive mirror do not redirect it. This ensures amplification of properly oriented photons only, thus creating a coherent beam.
The color or the wavelength of the laser that cuts through the metals depends on which type of laser is being used in the laser cutting process. But mostly, Carbon Di-oxide (CO2) gets to cut the metals which is a highly intensified beam of Infra-red part of the light spectrum.
This type of beam travels through the Laser resonator before going through metal sheet to give them shapes. But before the beam falls over the metal plates, the focused light beam undergoes the bore of a nozzle, just before it hits a surface.
But focusing the light beam is not so easy. The laser has to go through a specialized lens or any type of curved surface. This focusing part of the laser happens inside the laser-cutting tip. The focusing is crucial to this cutting process because if the beam is not focused concisely, the shape will not be as expected. The operators cross check the focus density and width many times before hitting the metal with it.
By focusing this huge beam into a single point-like area, the heat density is increased. Then the high-temperature beam, focused on a single point can cut through even the strongest of metals. This works like the magnifying glass. When the solar rays fall on the magnifying glass, the curved surface gathers them into a single point, which consequently produces extreme heat in a small area and that’s why the dry leaf under the magnifying glass burns out.
The laser cutting process work on the same principle. It gathers lights into a small area that starts rapid heating, partial or complete meltdown and even vaporization of the material completely. This heat from laser beam is so extreme that it can start a typical Oxy fuel burning process when the laser beam is cutting mild steel.
And when the laser beam hits Aluminium and Stainless steel surface, it simply melts down the metal. Then the pressurized Nitrogen blows away molten Aluminium or Steel to finish the industrial-grade clear and precise cutting.
On the CNC laser cutters, cutting tip/head is moved on the metal surface to create the desired shape. For maintaining accurate distance between the plate and the nozzle end, usually a capacitive height control system is adopted.
Maintaining this distance in this case is crucial because the distance determines where the focal area is relative to the surface of the metal plate. The precision of cutting can be diverted by lowering or raising the focal point from the surface.
Types of Laser in Laser Cutting Technology
Basically, there are 3 different types of lasers used in laser cutting process. Most common one is CO2 laser, which is suited for engraving, boring, and cutting. Then there is Neodymium (Nd) and the Neodymium Yttrium-Aluminium-Garnet or Nd:YAG for short. Nd and Nd:YAG is identical in style but have few dissimilarities in application. Where Nd is used for boring that required high energy but low repetition, Nd:YAG is used for both engraving and boring with high power.
All 3 types can be used for welding purpose.
Besides, laser cutting technology comes in 2 different formats. Gantry and the Galvanometer system. Where in Gantry system, position of laser is perpendicular to the surface and the machine directs the beam over the surface, in galvanometer system, the laser beams are repositioned by using mirrored angles.
This is the reason why gantry is comparatively slower and manufacturers usually adapt this format for prototyping. But galvanometer system is way faster. In this format, the machine can pierce through 100 feet of steel in a minute. That’s why Galvanometer system is more commonly used for full-on production work.
Designing for Laser Cutting
For automatic cutting, laser machines require CAD Vector files. These files are prepared in soft wares like InkScape, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCad, etc. These CAD (Computer Aided Design) files are exported as .eps, .pdf, .dff, and .aj formats.
Why use Laser Cutting Technology over any other process?
Laser cutting technology can be useful for both mass production and start-up order. Here’s why industrialist and entrepreneurs believe in laser cutting more than anything:
Cost efficiency
The cost efficiency of Laser cutting is something that is much rare in other metal curving technologies. In mass production, Laser cutting technology is very efficient in cutting a good chunk of manual engineering jobs, which helps you keep minimal production cost.
Time Saver
By sparing some really costly and time consuming engineering job for the laser machine, you can balance your production cost as well as save some precious time.
Precise Cutting
With laser cutting, you get even more precision in shaping your metals. The cutting technology is more efficient than plasma cutting, which is a compliment on its own. From getting exact replica of your design to smooth and clear finish, laser cutting does that for you with maximum precision.
Energy Efficiency
Apart from cutting a slack from the production cost, this cutting edge technology is also efficient in saving energy consumption while shaping the metals. While a traditional metal cutting machine will require around 40-50 KW of power, with laser cutting, you can get it done with 10 KW. That’s a lot of saving if it is being used for full-on production.
Reduced Contamination of Workpiece
Compared to other traditional metal cutting techniques, laser cutting technology is far more efficient in utilizing the most of your workpiece without wasting it while engraving, or cutting rounded edges.
Easy and Delicate Boring
Not only does it gives precise and clear-cut edges, but also, laser cutting technology is embraced when piercing through metal bodies with very small diameter. Even with such small width, you get precise holes. That’s why it’s best suited for delicate works in the factory.
Cuts almost anything in almost any shape
If you can design it, laser cutting technology can make that happen and that’s why industrialists are depending on laser machines for making prototypes for their product.
Conclusion
It’s no mystery why manufacturers constantly choose laser cutting for their prototype and their final production over any other traditional metal engraving process. With its precise cutting, smooth edge, cost and energy efficiency as well as many other profitable advantages, it seems like the use of laser cutting in different sectors and industries is not likely to decrease in next decade or so. And it is indeed a wise decision to shift from traditional expensive metal cutting technologies to this efficient process of shaping ideas. Click here to return to the main page.
