LASORTING, developed by ASTES4 and now part of Mitsubishi Electric's automation portfolio, is a fully integrated manufacturing cell that collapses three traditionally separate operations — CNC laser cutting, part sorting, and finished-part palletizing — into a single automated system capable of running unattended across multiple shifts. The cell consists of a 2D fiber or CrossFlow laser cutting head, a 4-shelf conveyor for sheet blanks and finished pallets, a Cartesian gantry sorting system with four independently controlled gripper heads, and an optional multi-level storage tower that buffers incoming sheet blanks and outgoing finished pallets.

How does the sorting system handle thousands of different parts?

Two overhead gantries, each carrying two gripper heads, traverse the full sheet area at up to 240 m/min with 1 g acceleration. Each head rotates 360 degrees and carries a patented revolving automatic tool changer that switches between vacuum cups (for flat parts without holes, up to 60 kg per head on SortPro) and magnetic grippers (for perforated or heavy ferrous parts, up to 400 kg per head) in under one second. The SortCAM software, included as standard, reads the laser cutting program's DXF or CAD geometry and automatically generates a sorting sequence — which part to pick first, which gripper to use, which finished-part pallet to place it on, and in what orientation — in as few as four mouse clicks. Parts smaller than 130 × 60 mm are automatically clustered and picked as a group to maintain cycle time targets. The minimum time to sort four parts from a single sheet is 14 seconds on the 3015 format, averaging 3.5 seconds per part.

How does the storage tower extend unmanned runtime?

The optional storage tower — available in single-tower (10–32 pallet locations) or double-tower (28–60 locations) configurations with a maximum height of 8,040 mm — acts as an automated buffer between the sheet-metal warehouse and the laser cell. Full sheet-blank pallets (up to 3,000 kg each) are loaded into the tower by forklift or AGV during the day shift; the tower's elevator retrieves and delivers them to the laser bed on demand throughout the night. Finished order-picking pallets — each holding three EUR pallets' worth of sorted parts — are returned to the tower for retrieval by the morning shift. ERP integration enables the factory scheduling system to load cutting and sorting jobs directly to the LASORTING cell queue, and the Remote 360 platform provides 24/7 laser monitoring, predictive maintenance alerts, and OEE dashboards accessible from any browser.