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Steel beams are usually fabricated to fit up to another beam. In
order for the beams to fit perfectly, coping and slotting are
required.
Coping or notching of beams is required to
ensure that beams and columns fit without conflict
(interference). It is often necessary to remove material from a
flange or web in order for the intersecting steel pieces to fit.
Manual Beam Coping
This necessitates laying out and removing the
coped section. In smaller shop this is done manually. A layout
man reads the detailed drawings and then transfers the
dimensions of the cope to the steel, and uses a tape measure,
framing square and chalk to draw the cope.
Then using an oxy-fuel gas torch, an operator
will manually cut out the cope.
Often this rough cut requires grinding in order
to improve the appearance and finish of the cut.
There are several potential problems with manual
beam coping
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The time taken to layout the cope is often
long, and sometimes the layout man will rush this part,
trying to reduce the amount of time taken
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Laying out the cope uses the most expensive
shop floor man, and the layout adds no value - its only the
actual cutting/drilling of the beam that adds value to the
beam - layout is a very expensive NON-VALUE-ADDED activity
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There is always the possibility that the
layout man will transfer the information to the beams
inaccurately, and that the copes will be inaccurately cut.
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And frequently there is the possibility that
the man cutting the copes will cut incorrectly, often
over-cutting a critical/corner/radius/filet inducing a
stress raiser that will ensure that the beam gets rejected
by the inspector
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And finally there is often a fair amount of
grinding required to clean up the cope, another NON VALUE
ADDED ACTIVITY
CNC Beam Coping with the Ocean Liberator
 The Ocean Liberator Beam Coper is a single torch CNC beam coping machine
that removes the need for
manually laying out your copes, and ensures that copes are done
neatly and accurately, direct from your CNC detail drawings.
The Liberator performs copes significantly
faster than copes done manually. (See the
Beam Coping time
Study Videos)
Minor clean-up with a chipping hammer and very little,
if any, grinding is required one the cope is
done, further reducing non-value added labor costs.
The
Ocean Liberator CNC Beam Coping Machine is capable of processing
almost any structural steel profile including beams, channel,
tube, angle, and plate.
The
Ocean Liberator beam coping machine has 5 axes of movement. It
simulates the human hand holding a cutting torch and WILL do
everything a human hand can do with the torch on beams,
channels, plates, angles, tubes, and almost anything you can put
in the machine.
At
cutting time, the torch will light automatically. The operator
then determines the preheat time at each start point. The beam
coping machine will bevel the flanges and the web automatically
at any degree between +/- 45 degrees.
Typical copes created
with a CNC beam coping machine
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Web Penetration |
End Cope |
Flange Penetration |
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Slotted Tube (knife plate) |
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 |
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Web and Flange
Penetration |
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Mitre Cut - Flange |
Slots in Flange |
End Cope |
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Web Penetration
(large
diameter hole) |
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Mitre Cut - Web |
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Web and Flange Double
Mitre Cut |
Cut to Length |
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