A wide variety of materials are used in the automotive industry, including reinforced plastics, textiles, glass and rubber; all of which can be successfully processed using Luxinar lasers.
Processing plastic automotive parts, such as interior and dashboard panels, trims and light housings are the most widespread applications. These components are made from a variety of plastics as well as various composites and laminates. Typical processes include cutting holes, trimming excess plastic left over from the injection moulding/forming process, and surface texturing and/or paint removal from selected areas. For these applications, typically a Luxinar SR series laser or SCX 35, is usually mounted on a robot arm in order to steer the beam around the 3-dimensional contours of the part. In some cases, several laser processes may be performed within a single robot cell, improving production efficiency.
Headlamp housings and lenses made from clear plastic sometimes require laser trimming, usually to remove tabs of waste plastic left by the injection moulding process.
Luxinar lasers cut a variety of textiles used in automotive manufacturing. The most common application for the lasers is cutting cloth for car seats, but they can also be used to trim excess material from fabric-covered dashboards and interior pillars. Other textile applications include cutting webbing for seat belts and fabric for airbags, as well as cutting and texturing real and synthetic leather for seats and trim, and carpet and mat cutting.
Finally, in rubber seals around car doors or tailgates, there are small drainage holes, each a few millimetres in diameter. These are drilled in the hollow rubber extrusion on the fly, using the MULTISCAN® from Luxinar to track the moving product. Rubber for windscreen wiper blades may be processed in a similar way. The MULTISCAN® may also be used for marking various automotive parts with information; these include plastic components, wiper blades, and car windows.
