Laser Cutting - Sheet Metal Fabrication

Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to vaporize materials, resulting in a cut edge. Laser optics and CNC (computer numerical control) are used to direct the laser beam to the material. A commercial laser for cutting materials uses a motion control system to follow a CNC or G-code of the pattern to be cut onto the material.

(From Wikipedia)

Advantages of laser cutting:

(1)High Quality

Due to the small laser spot, high energy density, and fast cutting speed, laser cutting can obtain better cutting quality.

① The laser cutting incision is thin and narrow, the two sides of the incision are parallel and perpendicular to the surface, and the dimensional accuracy of the cut parts can reach ±0.05mm.

② The cutting surface is smooth and beautiful, and the surface roughness is only tens of microns. Even laser cutting can be used as the last process without machining, and the parts can be used directly.

③ After the material is laser-cut, the width of the heat-affected zone is very small, the performance of the material near the slit is almost unaffected, the workpiece deformation is small, the cutting precision is high, the geometry of the slit is good, and the cross-sectional shape of the slit is relatively regular. 's rectangle. The comparison of laser cutting, oxyacetylene cutting, and plasma cutting methods are shown in Table 1, and the cutting material is a low-carbon steel plate with a thickness of 6.2 mm.

(2) High cutting efficiency 

Due to the transmission characteristics of the laser, the laser cutting machine is generally equipped with multiple CNC workbenches, and the entire cutting process can be fully CNC controlled. During operation, only by changing the numerical control program, it can be applied to the cutting of parts of different shapes, and both two-dimensional cutting and three-dimensional cutting can be realized.

⑶Fast Cutting Speed

Using a laser with a power of 1200W to cut a 2mm thick low carbon steel plate, the cutting speed can reach 600cm/min; when cutting a 5mm thick polypropylene resin plate, the cutting speed can reach 1200cm/min. The material does not need to be clamped and fixed during laser cutting, which not only saves tooling and fixtures, but also saves the auxiliary time for loading and unloading.

⑷ Non-contact cutting

There is no contact between the cutting torch and the workpiece during laser cutting, and there is no tool wear. To process parts of different shapes, there is no need to change the "tool", just change the output parameters of the laser. The laser cutting process has low noise, small vibration and no pollution.

Compared with oxyacetylene cutting and plasma cutting, there are many types of laser cutting materials, including metal, non-metal, metal-based and non-metal-based composite materials, leather, wood and fiber.

Scope of application:

Most laser cutting machines are controlled by CNC programs or made into cutting robots. As a precise machining method, laser cutting can cut almost all materials, including two-dimensional or three-dimensional cutting of thin metal sheets.

(picture from google)