What happens to a thick steel plate when a laser cuts a whole sheet of parts out of it?

It gets hot. Really hot

And hot steel warps, and warped steel means bad parts, and that's the problem a Japanese machine tool maker solved by cooling the plate with water while the laser cuts

They needed it explained in about a minute and a half. I produced and directed it

Start with why anybody cares

The film opens on an excavator, because that's where these thick plate parts end up, buckets, arms, heavy brackets

Here is the deal, a shop owner doesn't care about cooling, he cares about parts for his customers that don't come back

Show the heat

Then a thermal heat map, blue to red, sitting right on top of the plate, so you watch the heat build up as the laser works

Then the same cut with the water assist, and the colors stay cool

You can't see heat with a camera, so the animation does the seeing

A color scale on the side of the frame, the same one an engineer would read, so nobody has to take the film's word for it. Red is bad, blue is good, and the viewer gets that in about one second

Then show it's real

Cut with real macro footage of the laser head piercing and cutting thick plate, sparks and all, because animation alone looks like a promise and real footage looks like proof

The payoff is a tight honeycomb of hexagon parts nested on one sheet, coming off the machine flat

Why nest them that tight? because steel costs money and every inch of scrap is money on the floor

Ninety seconds is plenty

Short means every shot has to do a job, problem, proof, payoff, logo, out

Ever sat through a five minute machine video at a trade show booth? nobody has, they walk away at second ten. Ninety seconds they'll stand for

Producer behind the lens

When the producer frames the macro shots himself, sparks blowing out the frame or a reflection on the nozzle gets handled through the viewfinder, not in the edit

More factory films in the Industry Videos gallery and my product lighting in the Products Advertising gallery

Cool steel, straight parts

Length: 1 min 32 s · Producer & director: David Victory, VRSET video production, Los Angeles & Orange County

Key moments

  • 0:00 Title
  • 0:11 Excavator: where thick-plate parts go
  • 0:19 Laser piercing thick plate
  • 0:34 Heat-map animation
  • 0:49 Cooled cut, side view
  • 0:57 Cutting a nested sheet
  • 1:13 Honeycomb parts
  • 1:20 Parts off the machine
  • 1:28 Closing logo

See the matching photography in the Industry Videos gallery.

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Planning a video or a fashion shoot? Contact David Victory or call (310) 988-6575 in Los Angeles, (949) 873-4551 in Orange County. Free consultation and quote for first-time clients.