Crucial Facts That You Need to Know About Laser Cutting

Laser cutting is a very famous technology that uses the laser to cut materials of various kinds. This is basically used for industrial purposes but nowadays is also seen in schools and other places. The functioning of the laser cutting is that it directs the output of a high powered laser through optics. Basically, the laser beam is directed to the portion which will be cut and the area melts, burns or vaporizes. This is a very interesting process and is being done for a long time.

Let us discuss below the various characteristics of laser cutting:

Methods: 

Different methods are used to cut using lasers and it also depends on the material which is being cut. The methods are given below:

Vaporization Cutting: 

In this case, the focused beam heats the surface to the boiling point which will be cut and generates a keyhole. The keyhole leads to absorption which deepens the hole and boils the material. The vapor erodes the molten surface to enlarge the hole. Wood, carbon and thermoset plastic are basically cut using this process.

Melt and Blow: 

This process uses high-pressure gas to blow the material from the cutting area. The material is heated to the melting point and then a gas jet is blown and the material is cut. Generally, metals are cut using this process.

Thermal Stress Cracking: 

Here a laser beam is focused on the surface causing heating and thermal expansion. It results in a crack and slowly moving the beam finally cuts the surface. This is a common process which is used to cut glasses.

Reactive Cutting: 

It is generally used to cut carbon steel and it can cut thick steel materials very easily.

These are the methods by which laser cutting is applied to cut various materials.

Types of Laser Cutting: 

There are few types of laser cutting that can be seen. They are:

• Gas laser cutting: It is also known as CO2 laser cutting and is done using a laser mixed with carbon dioxide. Since the invention, it was not able to cut metals. But slowly with betterment in technology, it can cut metals though it is recommended to cut non-metals. It also uses nitrogen to cut which works well with materials like steel and aluminum.
• Crystal laser cutting: In this process lasers are used which are made from nd: YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) and nd: YVO (neodymium-doped yttrium ortho-vanadate). This is used to cut both metals and non-metals.
• Fiber laser cutting: The lasers used here are SPI Lasers. It is quite similar to the crystal laser and this type of laser has more longevity than the previous two. This does not need a lot of maintenance and the parts also do not cost much.

Different Techniques of Laser Cutting:

There are various techniques to cut by a laser. They are as follows:

• Control of laser beam: If the worker can handle the laser beam well, it signifies that he can control the beam heat and intensity of the heat on the material. This helps to work efficiently and increases the amount of work in the same period of time.
• Laser marking: This is done with a fiber laser and after melting the surface of the material, it leaves a mark behind.
• Laser drilling: It involves the creation of holes or dents in the material.

Above we have seen various facts about laser cutting and we can get a conclusion that laser cutting is highly used in the industrial process to make various products and components and is a widely practiced art which needs proper efficiency and technique. From the above discussion, we can get a basic idea of how laser cutting is applied.