Cutting Steel with Laser
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.
Steel rougness
Surface roughness (or just roughness) (Ra unit) is a feature of solid (object, steel) surface. It is measured by optical or mechanical examination of flatness divergence which don’t reflect it geometrical shape. Rougness measure count on about scale at least one order of magnitude smaller than standard measure unit. We differentiate rougness from waviness of steel sheet surface which is can be an outcome of machine construction, vibration caused by circular parts or so. Rougness mainly depends of kind of steel and machining method. We describe it with Ra symbol followed by a destined value. For example Ra 2,25 is equal to abrasive flow machining. The change in surface roughness decreases with the increase in cross section of the work-piece and also increases with the increase in length of the work-piece. Quality polishing can give Ra value even with 0,01 precision.
types: steel, steel cutting, technology |