Factors Affecting the Cutting Quality of Laser Cutting Machine

The working principle of fibre laser cutting machine is mainly the interaction between the laser and the material, the process includes the absorption of the material to the laser, reflection, refraction, energy conversion and transmission and other factors, will affect the laser cutting machine cutting quality, in addition to the characteristics of the material itself, there are some equipment hardware aspects of the impact.

Factors affecting the cutting quality of laser cutting machine:

1. Laser output power: For continuous wave output lasers, the laser power size and mode is good or bad will have an important impact on cutting. The size of the laser power directly affects the thickness of the steel plate that can be cut, the higher the power, the thicker the thickness of the material that can be cut. At the same time, it affects the accuracy of the workpiece size, the width of the cut, and the roughness of the cut surface.

   
   

2. Beam characteristics of the laser: the laser cutting kerf width has a large relationship with the spot diameter after focusing. As the power density and energy density of laser irradiation are related to the laser spot diameter, in order to obtain a larger power density and energy scale, the spot diameter is required to be as small as possible in the laser cutting process.

   
   

3. Laser cutting speed: cutting speed has a great impact on the quality of the cut, when other parameters remain constant, generally speaking, the cutting speed is inversely proportional to the density and thickness of the material being cut. The right cutting speed will make the cutting surface appear smooth and without slag production in the lower part. If the cutting speed is too fast, it will result in the material not being cut through, causing sparks to fly and slag to be generated in the lower part, and even burn the lens. Conversely, if the cutting speed is too slow, it will easily cause the material to overmelt, widen the slit, and even cause the workpiece to overmelt.

   
   

4. Jet nozzle: the nozzle aperture, distance frome the surface od the material. etc., will affect the cutting effect. 

   

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6. Auxiliary gas:  Material cutting requires the use of an auxiliary gas, which is usually emitted coaxially with the laser beam to protect the lens from contamination and to blow away the slag at the bottom of the cut zone. When the auxiliary gas is able to generate sufficient pressure, the cut is complete and the slag is transparent. Both the pressure and type of gas affect the roughness of the cut section and the generation of slag.

Effect on cutting quality when gas pressure is too high.