Fiber laser cutters focus the laser emitted from the laser into a high-power density laser beam through the optical path system. The laser beam illuminates the surface of the workpiece, causing the workpiece to reach the melting point or boiling point, while the high-pressure gas coaxial with the beam will melt or vaporize the metal and blow it away. With the movement of the beam of light and the relative position of the workpiece, the material finally forms a slit, so as to achieve the purpose of cutting.
A laser is a kind of light, which, like other natural light, is produced by the transition of atoms (molecules, ions, etc.). However, it differs from ordinary light in that the laser only relies on spontaneous radiation for a very short period of time, and the subsequent process is completely determined by the excitation radiation. Therefore, the laser has a very pure color, almost no divergent directivity, extremely high luminous intensity and high coherence.
Suitable cutting materials for fiber laser cutters：
The main laser cutting machine on the market today is fiber laser cutters, which is widely used for its excellent characteristics such as wide cutting range, fast cutting speed, good cutting effect, and maintenance-free. Especially in the cutting of sheet metal materials, fiber laser cutters have more advantages. So what materials are fiber laser cutters mainly used to cut?
Carbon steel：
When fiber laser cutters use oxygen as the treatment gas, the cutting edges are slightly oxidized. When the thickness reaches 4mm, nitrogen can be used as the treatment gas for high-pressure cutting.In this case, the cutting edge will not be oxidized. If the thickness of the plate is greater than 10 mm, a special plate can be used for the laser of the steel plate laser cutting machine, and the surface of the workpiece can be oiled during the processing process to obtain better results.
Stainless steel：
Stainless steel is the most widely used in all industries. When cutting stainless steel with fiber laser cutters, the edges obtained using nitrogen are not oxidized, while the burrs are not affected by the oxidation of the edges. Applying an oiled film on the surface of the board will obtain a better perforation effect, and will not reduce the processing quality.
Aluminum alloy：
For fiber laser cutters, although it has high reflectance and thermal conductivity, aluminum with a thickness of less than 6mm can be cut, depending on the alloy type and laser capacity. When cutting with oxygen, the cutting surface is rough and hard.When nitrogen is used, the cutting surface is smooth. Pure aluminum is difficult to cut due to its high purity. It can only be cut if the “reflection absorption” device is installed on the fiber laser cutters system. Otherwise, the reflection will destroy the optical components.
Fiber laser cutters belong to the category of metal cutting machines, so they can only be used to process metals, not non-metallic materials, such as stone, fabric, leather and other materials. The reason is that the wavelength range of fiber laser cutters is no longer within the absorption range of this material, or it is not suitable for absorption and cannot achieve the desired effect.
Fiber laser cutters cannot cut MDF. Fiber laser cutters belong to thermal processing. Cutting MDF will cause combustion, so that the cutting edge will burn and cannot meet the cutting requirements. Such materials are mainly raw materials for fiberboard, wood fiber and plant fiber, and some are wood-based panels made of urea-formaldehyde resin and adhesives. These types of materials belong to the category of MDF and cannot be processed by fiber laser cutters at present.
There are also some materials with high reflectance, such as copper and other rare metal materials. Although such materials can be cut with fiber laser cutters, since the wavelength of these materials used for laser light is not within the ideal absorption range of these materials, part of the reflected energy will burn the protective mirror, which also needs to be paid attention to.
Compared with traditional cutting methods, fiber laser cutters have the characteristics of higher cutting accuracy and faster cutting speed. The section surface is flat and smooth, there are no burrs and slag, and the laser head is processed without contact with the workpiece, which will not scratch the surface of the workpiece, eliminating the need for secondary polishing and processing steps; The processed products have high accuracy, improve material utilization, and save production costs; Through computer-controlled professional cutting software, it supports cutting any complex graphics and text, which greatly saves labor costs and time costs for enterprises, realizes highly automated processing and production, and guarantees excellent cutting quality while improving production efficiency. Fiber laser cutters are suitable for both precision parts processing and large-scale metal plate and pipe processing, and have production advantages unmatched by other traditional cutting processes.