Metal laser cutting knowledge

Metal is perhaps the most common material that is cut by laser. A certain type of metal is used at the beginning or end of manufacturing processes in hundreds of industries around the world.

Finding a process that can cut metal efficiently, reduce costs, and maintain only the highest level of safety seems to be a daunting task. The invention of laser can be traced back to the 1960s, and later developed into a fiber laser commonly used today, which is more and more sought after by people.

In the following article, we delve into the method of cutting metal with a laser, study specific examples and applications, and which laser is best for this task.

Which type of laser should you use to cut metal?

Three types of cutting processes can be used to cut metals with a laser-gas, crystal and fiber. Use carbon dioxide or nitrogen mixture for gas cutting, and use Nd: YAG (neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet) and Nd: YVO (neodymium doped yttrium orthovanadate) crystals for crystal cutting. These two processes are much longer than fiber laser cutting, and their history can be traced back to the 1960s, while fiber laser is a relatively new process.

In short, each of these three cutting processes can be used to cut metals, although gas lasers sometimes perform slightly inadequate.

Crystal lasers are very suitable for cutting metals, but this process is usually only used when high power is required, and can be used for very thick metals. Crystal laser machines are expensive and require expensive pump diodes. Therefore, if you need to replace parts, this may seriously affect your bank balance! The service life of crystal lasers is shorter than other types of lasers, about 8,000 to 15,000 hours.

In the past period of time, gas laser machines have made great progress, and now they are better at cutting metal. This is the most common laser cutting process and is cheaper than crystal lasers.

However, compared with the fiber laser cutting process, the latter has more advantages when cutting metal. Regardless of whether it is thick or thin, the cutting speed of the fiber laser will be faster.

In addition, when using gas lasers, the risk of damaging metal raw materials is higher. If the gas is not completely pure, the metal may be oxidized and appear yellow. In addition, the gas laser cutting machine cannot cut the reflective metal well, because the beam will reflect back on the metal surface, thereby damaging the parts of the laser cutting machine, while the fiber laser does not have this problem.

In addition, the operating cost of fiber lasers is much cheaper, with a service life of about 100,000 hours, very little maintenance, and only cheap replacement parts.

The survey of enterprises and manufacturing plants shows that more people prefer fiber laser cutting in the choice of gas laser cutting machine and fiber laser cutting machine.

Although gas lasers are more suitable for heavier metal plates, fiber lasers are generally faster and consume less energy, can be used with reflective metals, and have longer maintenance intervals By 50%, the maintenance cost is only half of the original.

Some examples of laser cutting

Cutting reflective metal

As mentioned above, due to tempering Damage, some lasers will have trouble cutting reflective metal, in this case, the laser beam will be reflected back to the laser beam delivery optics (BDO) itself. Reflective metals are metals such as gold, silver, and copper.

Cutting steel

Steel is one of the most common metals used in industries around the world, and therefore one of the most critical metals in the manufacturing process. Whether it is thick steel or thin steel, fiber lasers can work without any problems. These machines have high power and can cut through steel very quickly.

Cutting copper

Cutting aluminum foil

Cutting silver

Silver is a very widely used metal , Can be seen in both industrial and commercial environments, such as jewelry, electronics or energy equipment.

Although this article focuses on cutting metals, the fiber laser process can handle almost unlimited amounts of material.

Laser cutting has many advantages and has been widely used in many industries around the world, including semiconductor, electronics and medical industries.