Laser cutting is all the rage in industries that need precision cutting technology. It’s a reliable cutting method for handling sheet metal, plastic, leather, and other materials. Since you’re reading this article, we’ll assume that you already have a rudimentary understanding of the basic principle of laser cutting and want to learn how to optimize laser cutting.

The issue with laser cutting lies in machine calibration. Laser cutters are complex machines that have many delicate parts. The cutting quality of a laser cutter is only as good as how you set the parameters and the material you’re working with. 

While laser cutters have some inherent limitations, there are certain things you can do to increase the cutting efficiency. We’ll mostly talk about those things in this article.

Cutting Efficiency of Different Types of Laser Source

Most people assume laser cutters to be a single version technology like the cortadora de chorro de agua, but that’s not true. While the base or fundamental principle is similar, the way different laser cutters generate their laser is vastly different.

Now, you may be wondering– “Why does that even matter? Aren’t they all just beams of light cutting through things?” You wouldn’t be the only one harboring such questions, so let’s get these distinctions out of the way so we’re all on the same page.

There are several types of laser cutters based on how they generate the laser. The Diode, Fiber, and CO2 laser are currently available for general consumers. It is a growing technology, so in a decade or two, more laser types will hit the market, but until then, these three are the main ones you need to care about.

Let’s look at how these different lasers affect the cutting efficiency:

Diode Laser

Diode laser cutters are the most energy-efficient and lightweight of the three main types. These cutters use the laser from a Diode hub without additional filters. While it’s relatively cheap to set up such a machine, their cutting power leaves much to be desired.

Minerals and plastic are your limits with a diode laser cutter. You could potentially cut aluminum, but that’ll be the absolute limit. You can etch certain types of metal but not cut through them.

Fiber Laser

Fiber laser cutters are an upgraded version of the Diode laser cutters. These have a fiberglass tube attached to the source diode that boosts the strength of the laser beam. People also call these the diode-pumped solid-state laser, which is a bit of a mouthful, so you can call it DPSSL for short.

The fiberglass tube runs from the diode source to the cutting head. Fiber laser has a considerably higher wavelength than regular diode laser. Such quality makes them penetrate various metals quite easily. So, this laser is particularly great if you want to cut sheet metal.

CO2 Laser

CO2 laser cutters are a cut above the diode-based lasers because they use a completely different source. Such laser cutters have a CO2 tube– a glass tube filled with carbon dioxide and some nitrogen gas. When you power one of these babies up, the high-voltage electricity passes through the line and excites the gas molecules.

The excited CO2 molecules produce a high-intensity, nearly invisible beam of laser light. That’s the laser you’ll be using to cut things. CO2 lasers can cut through everything the other two can but more efficiently. These can also cut clear glass– something the other two laser cutters struggle with.

Tips For Increasing Your Laser Cutting Efficiency

The type of your laser cutter will dictate what you can and can not cut, so there’s no way around your base machine’s design limitations. But you can control certain elements to increase the efficiency of the cutting process. Below are some examples:

Working environment

The working environment for a laser cutter is quite crucial because it will affect the health of your machine. High ambient temperature will increase your laser cutter’s operating temperature, potentially overheating the unit.

A large buildup of dust molecules in the air can also directly affect the cutting quality in the case of fiber and diode laser cutters. Excessive humidity can also affect the cutting process negatively.

The Right Assistive Gas

Assist gas pushes the fragments of loose material when cutting with a laser. Assist gas is important because it keeps the cuts clean and precise. You’d want to use the right gas for the right material for maximum efficiency.

Particularly when dealing with metal, you’ll want to use either Oxygen or Nitrogen. Oxygen and Nitrogen are two opposite extremes. When you use Oxygen, it produces an exothermic reaction around the edge, which creates more heat and speeds up the cutting process. 

Nitrogen, on the other hand, removes any exothermic reaction and lets the edge cool off with a better initial finish.

Initial Pierce Quality

You’ll want to tweak some of the initial pierce settings when cutting thicker metal plates. You can opt for a pre-pierce if your material is too thick. Laser cutters must pierce through one point before slowly cutting along the desired line. A misconfigured piercing setting can cause overheating in the piercing zone, leading to a deformed cut.

Material Grosor

Material thickness is one of the hardest limitations of laser cutters. Even the most potent laser cutter can’t cut as deep as waterjet cutters, which can cut through boulders. For Diode lasers, you should avoid anything too thick. 

Fiber lasers can handle sheet metal, but you’ll need one with close to 40w. CO2 lasers are more robust, but even those can only do 20-30mm unless you use a super expensive unit.

Setting the Right Parameters

You’ll need to correctly set the cutting parameters to get the best possible results. Cutting parameters include setting the correct cutting path, monitoring the cutting process, cutting power, gas pressure, and so on. Monitoring and adjusting these parameters is paramount for an efficient cutting experience.

Conclusión

That concludes our suggestion on how to optimize laser cutting efficiency. In short, your base machine type will dictate how efficiently you can cut certain materials, but you can also tweak the cutting process to increase the cutting speed to some extent.

The build quality and system optical system alignment also contribute to the cutting efficiency. So check and tweak some settings as you get used to it. Get in touch with us if you need more assistance with industrial cutters.