OEM Sheet Metal Structural Parts CNC Laser Cutting Sheet Metal Bending Stamping Metal Processing Services

What is the metal laser cutting process?

Laser cutting is a thermal cutting method that uses a focused, high-power-density laser beam to irradiate a workpiece. And when the irradiated material is rapidly melted, vaporized, ablated or reaches the ignition point, the molten material will be blown away with the high-speed airflow coaxial with the beam, so as to achieve the purpose of cutting the workpiece.

Most laser cutters are CNC controlled or made as cutting robots. As a precision machining method, the laser cutting process can cut almost all materials, including two-dimensional or three-dimensional thin metal sheets

Metal materials suitable for laser cutting process

There is a wide range of materials that can be used in the laser cutting process, and generally we can divide them into two categories, including metals and non-metals. And we especially provide the service of sheet metal laser cutting process and customized products of this process

Generally, the most common metals we use for our laser cutting process include:

Carbon steel sheet (commonly used for oxygen or nitrogen laser cutting)

Stainless steel plate (best for nitrogen laser cutting to avoid oxidation)

Titanium sheet (commonly used for nitrogen or argon laser cutting)

Copper and brass sheet (thickness less than 2mm, copper for oxygen laser, brass for nitrogen laser cutting)

Different laser cutting methods

laser melting cutting

In the laser melting cutting process, the metal material is melted by laser heating. The molten metal liquid is blown away by non-oxidizing gases (Ar, He, N, etc.) and ejected through a nozzle coaxial with the laser beam. Laser melting cutting does not require complete vaporization of the metal. It only needs 1/10 the energy compared to vapor cutting. Laser melting cutting is mainly used to cut some metal materials that are not easy to oxidize or react, such as stainless steel, titanium, aluminum and its alloys, etc.

Laser oxygen cutting

In laser oxygen cutting, the laser is the preheating source and the reactive gas (oxygen) is the cutting gas. On the one hand, the blown gas reacts with the cutting metal to oxidize, releasing a lot of heat; on the other hand, the gas also blows out the molten oxide and melts it out of the metal. Due to the large amount of heat generated by the oxidation reaction, the energy required for laser oxygen cutting is only 1/2 of that for fusion cutting. The cutting speed is much higher than that of laser vaporization cutting and fusion cutting. Laser oxygen cutting is mainly used for carbon steel, titanium steel, heat-treated steel and other easily oxidized metal materials

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