Description of laser cutting technology
Laser cutting technology – why laser?
The importance of industrial lasers for machining materials is continuously increasing. Cutting is the most widely used of laser technologies as it is a flexible technology providing good quality cutting surfaces. The ability to cut base materials with laser depends on the thermal conductivity, surface absorption feature and melting point of the material.
Advantages of laser cutting compared to other machining processes:
- Extremely flexible and high-speed technology
- No tool or tool change is required
- The cutting surface is clean of burrs in the material thickness range that can be cut
- As the energy density in this process is high both the heat affected zone and warpage is small
For cutting metallic materials we apply the following laser cutting types:
- Cutting using oxygen: the focused laser beam heats the material to ignition temperature. Blowing in extra-pure oxygen into the cutting groove the material burns up. This process is applied for normal steels.
- Cutting with nitrogen: the focused laser beam melts the material to be cut. The melt material is blown away from the cutting groove by 15-20 bar pressure extra-pure nitrogen. This procedure is applied for stainless steels and aluminium.
Laser cutting technology – why laser?
The importance of industrial lasers for machining materials is continuously increasing. Cutting is the most widely used of laser technologies as it is a flexible technology providing good quality cutting surfaces. The ability to cut base materials with laser depends on the thermal conductivity, surface absorption feature and melting point of the material.
Advantages of laser cutting compared to other machining processes:
- Extremely flexible and high-speed technology
- No tool or tool change is required
- The cutting surface is clean of burrs in the material thickness range that can be cut
- As the energy density in this process is high both the heat affected zone and warpage is small
For cutting metallic materials we apply the following laser cutting types:
- Cutting using oxygen: the focused laser beam heats the material to ignition temperature. Blowing in extra-pure oxygen into the cutting groove the material burns up. This process is applied for normal steels.
- Cutting with nitrogen: the focused laser beam melts the material to be cut. The melt material is blown away from the cutting groove by 15-20 bar pressure extra-pure nitrogen. This procedure is applied for stainless steels and aluminium.