Laser cutting is a highly precise cutting method that you can use for industrial applications. Recently, small business owners have also invested in such machines, enticed by the sheer practicality. But nothing is without flaws, and some common challenges in laser cutting can become quite annoying if you don’t know how to deal with them appropriately.

Many of the laser cutting issues stem from the cutting method’s technological limitations. There probably isn’t much you can do to get around such problems, but some issues are entirely solvable if you know how to tweak with specific parameters. This article will discuss some such cases and how you can deal with them effectively.

Limitations of the Laser Cutter’s Hardware

Before we delve into the common issues, let’s discuss the technology’s inherent limitations first. That way, you’ll understand what you can and can’t change and tweak. Let’s get started:

Thick Material

Unlike waterjet cutters, laser cutters just don’t have enough firepower to cut through large stones and thick metal sheets. Even a monstrous 1000w laser cutter won’t give you that level of cutting capability. See what happens when you use laser cutters for materials that are too thick: 

But what it lacks in power output, it more than makes up for in precision and material utilization. A properly calibrated laser cutter can cut while producing minimal waste. It’s an extremely precise and fast-cutting method for thinner material. Most laser cutters also have far lower operating costs than waterjet cutters.

High Energy Consumption

While laser cutters use less power than most waterjets, it is by no means a small amount. Most Industrial grade CNC cutting machines, Laser, and Plasma cutters have very high energy requirements. It’s an issue you can’t get around.

Initial Setup Cost

Laser-cutting machines aren’t cheap; a decent one can set you back at least a few thousand dollars. Add to that the transportation cost, shipping cost, and even some additional component costs; the numbers will add up. The initial setup cost for such machines is one of the reasons why many people shy away from buying one.

Common Issues That You Can Fix

Naturally, some issues only show up in certain situations. Most of these are fixable if you identify their cause and change the corresponding settings. Let’s talk about the problems you can actually fix:

Toxic Fumes

Laser cutters use heat to produce the cutting effect, inevitably creating various exothermic reactions. Heat often reacts with various materials to develop harmful gasses. Laser cutters will produce such gas no matter what you cut or how fast or slow you cut it. So there’s no getting around this issue.

But there are some steps you can take to alleviate the intensity of the issue. Adding air filters to collect the gasses is the easiest and most practiced method for removing toxic gas. While it doesn’t make the work environment 100% toxicity-free, it can massively improve the air quality when using a laser cutter.

Distortion

One of the other significant issues of exothermic reaction is distortion. Too much or too little heat can easily mess up certain materials. Plastic is often prone to such distortion, as it melts at a fairly low temperature. You can also get distortion when cutting metal, but it’s relatively rare and requires fairly high heat.

In most cases, though, laser cutters come with presets for almost every material. It’s like an auto-calibration based on material type, so you don’t have to manually tweak the laser intensity for every metal based on its melting point.

Blowouts

Drilling blowouts or perforation blowouts happen due to setting the laser power too high. Lasers can drill holes fairly quickly, but they can splash the material around the hole and make it look ugly. It can also happen if the diameter of the hole is too small compared to the overall material thickness.’

It would help to make the initial piercing slowly to avoid sudden heat surges. CW lasers often cause blowout issues. CW is the continuous wave laser, which stays on even after blasting the hole. That’s why we recommend using a pulsed laser for the initial piercing. That way, you’ll get a clean starting hole. You may use a CW laser for the rest of the cutting from that point on.

Unnecessarily Wide Kerf and Uneven Edges

Another issue you’ll likely face when using a laser cutter is uneven edges and large kerf width. Several other issues fall into a similar category and have the same underlying cause. Sometimes, the edges can seem flaky or brittle; sometimes, they can appear jagged upwards or downwards. These issues are caused by improper calibration of various parameters.

Improper calibration of the laser intensity can cause jagged edges. Setting the Laser too high or too low can cause uneven, distorted edges. It would get worse if you had the wrong gas pressure as well. Too high gas pressure will increase the kerf size and distorted lines.

Some issues are specific to certain materials only. For example, you may notice jagged slags hanging below the edges when cutting steel. That can happen due to the focus height being too high. Adding low gas pressure to the equation will make the edge look even worse.

Abnormal Discoloration

You may notice discoloration around the edges if you use Nitrogen as your assist gas. Nitrogen is an inert gas, so it does not cause an exothermic reaction like Oxygen, but using impure N2 can cause green-brown tints on the edges of sheet metal. This issue is complicated to fix, and you’ll probably need to do a second finishing to cover up the imperfection. Alternatively, you can try to buy purer N2 or switch to Oxygen.

Conclusion

That concludes our suggestion for dealing with some common challenges in laser cutting. As you can see, most of the issues with imperfect finishing stem from improper calibration. It’s easily fixable and adjustable as soon as you identify the problem. 

The only caveat is that you’ll need to learn through trial and error, which can waste some material. As always, we hope this guide helped you understand how to operate laser cutters. If you need further help with anything, feel free to contact us.