Due to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), data centersare springing up like mushrooms worldwide. Numerous special fans are needed tocool them. So many that their manufacturer – GEHA from Nieuw-Amsterdam – wasable to fulfil a long-cherished wish: the purchase of its own laser cuttingmachine. The decision was made in favor of the fiber laser of the MasterLINE series from ACCURL with 6 kWpower.

GEHA is oneof the largest European suppliers in the field of industrial air cooling. Thecompany, which is based in Drenthe – a province in the northeast of theNetherlands – develops, produces and supplies components for cooling industrialprocesses. Fan housings up to a diameter of over seven meters and componentssuch as drives, bearing blocks, blind flaps and air boxes form the core of theextensive portfolio. These products are used, for example, in cooling systemsin the energy and (petro)chemical industries – and thus also in data centers.

Major order enables investment

In thisgrowth market for fans, GEHA has secured a major project that will run for anentire year. Every week, 30 specially developed fans are produced, ten of whichfit into a shipping container. An order with many positive consequences: forexample, the number of employees has risen from 25 to 45 in a short time. Inaddition, the project made it possible to concrete the long-planned desire forour own laser cutting system. "For us, it was a question of now ornever," says Pieter Tent, head of technology at GEHA. "This order wasso big that it was important to bring the cutting in-house for that reasonalone." So far, all cut parts have been purchased from the company.However, the quality varied from cutting company to cutting company. Inaddition, there were long delivery times, high transport costs and purchasingmeant an immense amount of time. With the certainty of the large order, thecompany dared to invest and started looking for the right cutting solution interms of ease of use and reliability.

MasterLINE convinces at the tradefair

At theTechniShow, a trade fair for industrial manufacturing technologies in Utrecht,Tent saw the MasterLINE fiber laser for the first time at his long-standingsupplier Tuwi (ACCURL partner in Benelux) and immediately liked the system:good quality, a complete enclosure and smoke extraction. "As a technician,I saw all the European components: motors, drives, linear guides." He wasalso convinced by the price of the smart laser. "We are not a contract cutter,but only cut for ourselves. You have to be able to take that intoaccount." Then things went quickly: Configuration of the laser with 6 kWpower for the cutting of mainly sheet steel with 8 to 15 mm, signing of thepurchase contract and only two months after the trade fair, the system wasinstalled at GEHA. "We put Tuwi under a lot of pressure. Because we didn'tjust want the machine today, but yesterday. After all, the data center projecthad already begun and we were still in the process of buying the cutting partsfor it," Tent reported, adding: "It all happened surprisinglyquickly. After only one and a half weeks, the first parts were ready. We nowcut all our parts on this machine and are very happy with it."

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Powerfullaser cutting machine of the MasterLINE series with 6 kW cuttingpower

For the precise and fast 2D cutting of sheet metal made of 8 to 15 mmsteel, the Dutch company GEHA relies on the MasterLINE laser series. Thecompany opted for a version with a processing area of 3,000 x 1,500 mm and anautomatic shuttle table for loading and unloading the sheets.