Laser Cutting Materials: What Metals Can Be Laser Cut

1. Carbon steel

Carbon steel plates with a 2MM thickness can be sliced using modern laser cutting technology. The thin plate cutting junction can be shrunk to about 0.1mm, and the carbon steel cutting joint of the oxidation melting cutting mechanism can be adjusted within a reasonable width range.

2. Stainless steel

When laser cutting stainless steel, the stainless steel is melted and evaporated by using the energy released when the laser beam irradiates the steel plate surface. For the manufacturing industry with stainless steel plate as the main component, laser cutting stainless steel is a new processing method. The important technological parameters affecting the cutting quality of stainless steel include cutting speed, laser power, air pressure, etc. Compared with low carbon steel, stainless steel cutting requires higher laser power and oxygen pressure, while stainless steel cutting is satisfactory, but it is difficult to obtain completely slag free welds. High pressure nitrogen and laser beam are injected coaxially to blow away the molten metal, so that no oxide is formed on the cutting surface. This is a good method, but compared with traditional oxygen cutting, the cost is very high. One way to replace pure nitrogen is to use filtered workshop compressed air, which is composed of nitrogen. When laser cutting mirror stainless steel, the plate is serious and needs to be pasted with laser film.

3. Aluminum and Aluminum alloy

Although laser cutting machine can be used for metal and non-metallic materials processing. However, some materials, such as copper, aluminum and their alloys, are difficult to be processed by laser cutting due to their own characteristics. At present, optical fiber laser and YAG laser are mainly used for aluminum plate laser cutting. These two types of equipment have good performance in cutting aluminum and other materials, but they can also process thicker aluminum. Generally, the thickness of 6W can be cut to 16mm, and 45W can be cut to 12mm, but the processing cost is high. The auxiliary gas used is mainly used to blow away the molten products in the cutting area, usually to obtain better section quality. For some aluminum alloys, attention should be paid to the generation of intergranular microcracks on the notch surface.

4. Copper and Copper alloy

Pure copper has high reflectivity and cannot be cut by CO2 laser beam. Brass adopts high laser power, and the auxiliary gas is air or oxygen, which can cut thin plates.

5. Titanium and Titanium alloy

Laser cutting of titanium alloys commonly used in aircraft manufacturing is of good quality. Although there is a little sticky slag at the bottom of the slit, it is easy to clean it. Pure titanium can well couple the heat energy converted by the focused laser beam. When oxygen is used as the auxiliary gas, the chemical reaction is intense and the cutting speed is fast, but it is easy to form an oxide layer at the blade, which may cause over burning if you are not careful. For safety reasons, it is better to use air as auxiliary gas for cutting quality.

6. Alloy steel

Most alloy structural steel and alloy tool steel have good finishing quality through laser cutting. Even for some materials, as long as the process parameters are properly controlled, straight and slag free trimming can be obtained. However, for tungsten tool steel and hot die steel, corrosion and slag sticking will occur during laser cutting.

7. Nickel alloy

Nickel base alloys, also known as alloys, come in many varieties. Most can be cut by oxidation and melting.

The above seven types of metals are suitable for laser cutting, and laser cutting technology is also widely used in the field of non-metallic materials. It can not only cut materials with high hardness and brittleness, such as silicon nitride, ceramics, etc. It can also cut and process flexible materials, such as cloth, paper, plastic plate, rubber, etc.