Four common laser cutting methods

Laser cutting is widely used in the metal processing industry due to its fast processing speed, high efficiency, and good effect. There are four common methods in laser cutting. Do you know?

1. Melting and cutting

In this way, when the laser is irradiated on the surface of the metal material, the heat of the laser will quickly melt it and pass the high-pressure inert gas coaxial with the beam (such as Nitrogen, argon, helium, etc.) to blow the molten metal away from the material to form a slit. Compared with vaporized cutting, fusion cutting can save a lot of energy. It is usually used for some metals that are not easily oxidized, such as stainless steel, titanium, aluminum and their alloys.

Second, vaporization cutting

Using extremely high power density light to irradiate the surface of the material, the material is vaporized in a very short time, and the steam is blown away from the surface of the material, thereby forming a cut. The energy required to heat the material to the vaporization temperature is much greater than to melt it, so vaporization cutting is more energy-intensive than melting cutting. Vaporized cutting is mostly used for very thin metal materials and non-metal materials, such as plastics, wood, etc.

3. Oxygen cutting

Oxygen, as a combustion aid, can react violently with the metal heated to melting by the laser, generating a large amount of oxidation heat, so in fact, oxygen cutting is melting cutting The 'aerobic' version. Because metal burns to generate heat, oxygen cutting saves more energy than melting cutting, but the cutting speed is much faster than melting cutting and vaporization cutting. Oxygen cutting is mainly used for cutting carbon steel, titanium steel and other easily oxidized metal materials.

Four. Scribing and controlled fracture cutting

Scribing is the use of high-energy density laser scanning the surface of brittle materials, the material evaporates into a small groove after being heated, and a certain amount is applied to the material. Under the pressure, the brittle material will crack along the small grooves.

Controlled fracture is the steep temperature distribution produced by laser grooving, which generates local thermal stress in brittle materials, causing the material to fracture along small grooves. For example, glass cutting.