Steel Cutting » laser cutting

Cutting Steel with Laser

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:45:35 +0000

General idea of laser steel cutting works by forced amplification of light emmision. Laser machining operates by highly concentrated and amplified light beam. Condensation of power is between 10^8 and 10^14 W/m2 on surface. Next, the enegry of photons within a laser beam is converted into very hot heat which burns or melts down and evaporates machined material (steel sheets for example). Laser machining usually utilises gas lasers (carbon dioxide lasers CO2). With laser cutting we can distinguish some special features like: cutting without direct contact of header with cutted surface; no horizontal force is needed to move through cutted material (but we need precise speed regulation to archieve proper results instead); high speed of laser cutting process with narrow area affected by generated heat (reduced tension and deformations); high precision with level around 10^-3 mm order of magnitude; quiet and smooth running process; full automation; not loosing cutting parameters caused by hardware wearing mechanical contact with steel.
Energy of the laser beam is deployed to cut flat steel blocks and steel sheets placed in 3D space using holders, for drilling holes in hard materials with high accuracy and precision, welding or melting materials and many more practical usages. Cutting flat steel shets by numerically controlled laser machines (CNC) gives quick cutting speed with repeatable and high quality features of manufactured products.

Laser cutting advantages

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:38:42 +0000

There are many advantages of cutting steel by laser so we mention just the most important things seen by customer’s eye.

fastest method for metal elements development – In most cases, elements deployed from laser cutting machine are ready to use or montage right after cutting without further machining or processing, even polishing.
narrow area affected by laser temperature – high focus of laser beam on operating area significantly limits side effects of high temperature. Thanks to that the structural features of steel are not changed by temperature (no crispness increase)
minimize wastes – computer programmed track of laser movement (CNC) allow to maximize usage of material which can compensate higher cutting costs (in comparison to classic ways of cutting steel). Useless trash and wasted material can be reduced to minimum.
repetitiveness of cutting process – laser header (lens) operates without physical contact with cutted material. Thanks to that there are no deterioration effect of cutting header during the process. In conjunction with computer steering, we can receive same looking elements with exact same features during the process and between succeeding production stages.
laser cutting machines are great for singular, unique products and high number series production. It’s easy to make project on computer screen, test ready product, and make quick corrections if there are any required.

Laser cutting features

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:20:05 +0000

For some certain reasons there are no perfect ways to machining so hard materials as steel and that’s why there are still many people on researching side. They are looking for more and more universal solutions and not to expensive at same time with high precision and accuracy. Flexibility and eventuality for setting up the whole kit to the individual purposes and preferences is very important value also. So we should have the knowledge about some limitations of technologies we choose to reach our goals. It is important if you are going to buy laser cutting machine for your purpose. Some promotional flayers are tend to avoid this kind of information, focusing on adventages only. Here are some important info for you:

in most cases, minimal radius of the the hole made by laser beam is equal to half of steel sheet thickness.
the quality (smoothness) of cutted edge for the final products (elements) in most cases when meagre sheets are machined. With the increasing thickness of steel sheets the edge can not be so smooths, and further processing can be required sometimes. It is caused by the laser beam power so if you are going to cut thicker material you need more power than declared “highest values” in machine specification manual.
the most of cutting machines doesn’t allow to set up laser beam axis so you can cut in the right angle only.

Flexibility of laser cutting

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:31:22 +0000

High focus of the laser beam on the operating point minimizes structural changes of processed material. In result the affected area by high temperatures is very narrow and steel in the point where laser beam points is vaporized. To make this process even more effective special reactive gas or (neutral nitrogen, oxygene) can be used, which ventilates and refrigerates cutted area, pulling out the waste in liquid and steam state. The kind of gas can be adjusted to processed material and the other parameters like quality and speed of cutting. Mentioned elements can cause the final cost be cheaper or more expensive, but flexibility in that case is also unbeliveable. Constant progress in that technology makes possible to archieve better results, more economic cost for the client and free positioning of machined material.

Laser Cutting Basics

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:35:31 +0000

Laser cutting of steel sheets can be applied to differend kinds of material like: rustless steel, acid-resisting steel and aluminum. Actually, cutting by laser is not limited to stell only – also wood and synthetic can be processed. The most important advance of cutting by laser is the highest quality of the final elements and ultimate precision of developed elements. They usually need no further processing and in most cases are ready to use right after taking out of the machine. And this si the crucial moment when it comes to setting the price.

Automated process of optimise cutting way can save the material in the way no other method can stand with. Average quality of edge cutted by the laser is very smooth and the accuracy is keep at 0,01 parts of the milimeter). Thanks to the computer driven laser beam patch the waste can be pressed to the minimum. Movements of the laser beam during the process are quick, which means very quick delivery time but also minimizes the termical influence on the material so it preserves natural steels features as much possible.