Cutting
Low heat input - high cutting speed - particularly suited for parallel use with laser for other processes
Low heat input - high cutting speed - particularly suited for parallel use with laser for other processes
The laser beam is focused in a cutting head by means of lenses to a focal spot size of only a few tenths of a millimeter and melts the usually metallic material. A coaxial gas flow "blows" the melt downwards and creates a kerf in the process. The most common gases are oxygen and nitrogen. When the material or the cutting head is moved during processing, the required contours can be created in 2 or 3 dimensions. The movements can be generated by a suitable CNC-controlled axis. For this, one can also use robots and sometimes even combine the movement of the material with that of the axes.
Compared to other applications, laser cutting makes the highest demands on the laser beam’s focus-ability. For a couple of years now, the diode lasers of Laserline have more than met the necessary requirements and are used in robot-based cutting applications in production.
The advantages of laser cutting compared to other methods - contact-free, force-free, low heat input, high cutting speed, absence of burr - will only reach their full potential when using diode lasers. The biggest advantages of the diode laser only come into play when the same beam source is simultaneously used not only for cutting, but also for other methods like welding and brazing in car body construction. Here, other laser beam sources are inferior to the diode laser as a universal tool.
Laser cutting is one of the most common and most effective technologies for separating metal parts. Today, laser cutting can reach, depending on material thickness and type, speeds of a few meters per minute, with thin sheets at less than 1 mm across more than 50 m/min in a linear motion.
Which laser systems are particularly suitable for laser cutting? Here you will find a selection.
