Start with a part your customer would accept or reject
A mounting plate can meet its outer dimensions and still fail to fit the assembly pins. Choose a production drawing with at least one feature your team checks before releasing the part.
Send both suppliers the same drawing revision and flat pattern. Mark the material grade, thickness, sheet size, number of parts per sheet and order quantity. Call out the smallest hole and the tightest functional hole separately. An undersized vent hole and an undersized locating hole may have very different consequences on that drawing.
Record the outer contour and the number and sizes of holes, slots and cutouts. Closely spaced features, like the holes on the GV test plate shown at 0:12 on YouTube, require short moves that total cut length alone cannot describe. Save the nest layout and the programmed pierce count. The number of circles in the drawing can differ from the number of starts in the program.
What does a 16.93-second demo tell you?
In GWEIKE’s split-screen demonstration on YouTube (0:12), both runs use 6 kW to cut 1 mm stainless steel with nitrogen. In the first clip below, the GV finishes in 16.93 seconds at 3.0 G / 10 Hz. The comparison run takes 27.54 seconds at 0.6 G / 6 Hz. On the GV, 10 Hz refers to the motion-control filter setting.
Those timers cover the cut. To measure good parts per hour, run a complete nest of your own parts and keep timing through unloading and final inspection.
Give both machines the same start and finish line
For a first comparison, fix the stock, nest, batch size, edge requirements and inspection plan. Record the machine configuration, process gas, program revision and number of operators. If a supplier proposes a faster nest or a different handling arrangement, run it as a second trial. Keep both records so you can see which change helped.
| Clock or record | Start and stop | What to note |
|---|---|---|
| Whole batch | Start when the crew begins the agreed setup or first-sheet loading. Stop when the last required inspection or disposition is recorded. | Write down both timestamps. If the test starts with stock staged and the program ready, use that condition for both runs. |
| Machine program | Program start to program end for each sheet. | Use the controller log for pierces, cutting and non-cutting moves where it separates them. Record stops for tipped cutouts, clearing slugs or restarting a cut. |
| Unload and release | From opening the cell or receiving the pallet to clearing, checking and sorting the parts. | Include any edge finishing required by the drawing. Identify parts still waiting on a gauge, a cleanup operation or a decision. |
Use elapsed time for the batch. When an operator unloads one pallet while the laser cuts the next, those minutes count once. Report different lot sizes separately because setup takes a larger share of a short run.
Agree on “good” before the first sheet goes on
Ask the person who receives these parts to mark the features that matter. A go/no-go pin can check an agreed size limit, but a pin that passes through a loose part says little about hole position relative to a mounting edge. If the drawing specifies position, agree on a datum-based measurement or an appropriate functional fixture. If the drawing specifies roundness or taper, choose a method that actually measures it.
- Fit and edges. Check critical holes, slots, burrs on the mating face and any flatness requirement against the drawing. Record whether routine edge cleanup is allowed. A vent opening and a fastener hole need not have identical acceptance criteria.
- Where the samples came from. Mark the sheet, nest position and run number. Include parts near the center and edge and from earlier and later sheets. Agree in advance how sampled results release a batch. A single well-cut plate cannot establish the yield for every sheet.
- What happened to each piece. Record first-pass accepts, accepts after rework, scrap and pieces still on hold. Once the batch is closed, first-pass yield is the number accepted without rework divided by the total produced. Count each accepted part once. If a repaired piece enters the final count, include the elapsed time up to its reinspection and release.
When a small hole fails, keep the failed part with its nest position and controller record. The fiber laser cutting parameter guide can help the process engineer investigate. Save the revised settings as a new run so that the production comparison stays traceable.
The faster program can deliver fewer good parts
In this worked example, each machine cuts 20 mounting plates. Timing starts at loading and ends when all 20 plates have been inspected.
| Same drawing, same 20-piece batch | Trial A | Trial B |
|---|---|---|
| Program time | 10 min | 12 min |
| Elapsed batch time | 24 min | 22 min |
| First-pass accepted / produced | 18 / 20 (90%) | 20 / 20 (100%) |
| Rework accepted / scrapped | 0 / 2 | 0 / 0 |
| Good parts per elapsed hour | 45.0 | 54.5 |
Trial B delivers two more usable plates in two fewer minutes despite its longer cutting program. For repeat trials, divide the total accepted pieces by the total elapsed hours across comparable, non-overlapping runs.
Choose the next comparison from the time record
If the head spends most of the cycle moving between holes and cutting short contours, repeat the same nest on the shortlisted high-speed machine. Compare accepted counts and check the holes from the corners of the sheet as well as those from the middle.
If the laser finishes on time but stands idle while the crew clears the bed or fetches the next plate, put your recorded handling minutes into the exchange-table timing model. Where loading and unloading whole sheets account for the delay, review the GAS Series with automatic sheet loading and unloading and test it with your actual sheet format and weight.
Good parts per hour: shop-floor trial record
Agree the job and inspection limits together. Use one column per configuration and a fresh copy for every repeat. Attach the nest, program log and inspection record.
| Item to record | Trial A | Trial B |
|---|---|---|
| Stock grade / thickness / sheet size | ||
| Critical hole sizes / positions / other limits | ||
| Nest revision / parts per sheet / sheets run | ||
| Machine / cutting program / gas / crew | ||
| Batch start / end event and clock times | ||
| Pierces / program time / handling or stops | ||
| Gauges / sampling plan / inspection reference | ||
| Produced / first-pass accepted / accepted after rework / scrap / on hold | ||
| Elapsed min / accepted parts per hour / first-pass yield (%) | ||
| Receiving operation / release / open issues |
Have a drawing that slows your laser down?
Send GWEIKE a DXF you can share, the material grade and thickness, your usual batch size and the hole or edge requirements that decide whether the part passes. Tell us where your production clock starts and stops. Ask for the nest, elapsed batch time and inspection results alongside the cut sample.
