Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations cowski on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Laser cutting carbonsteel

Status
Not open for further replies.

Kovacs Daniel

Industrial
Oct 10, 2019
1
Welcome!
My question is that I have a 2kw fiber laser machine and would like to cut lv1.5 material either with oxygen(Left picture) or air(Right Picture) (12bar compressor) but the oxygen is different in size and the cut is almost good in air but the cut is not perfect. The bottom of the material remains a bit cluttered and I don't like it. Is there anyone who can find a solution? Attaching pictures. Thank you in advance for your help!
20191008_153505_rycfls.jpg
20191010_101203_amcsyl.jpg
20191010_181132_i4jwjt.jpg
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Cutting with air always requires quite a high gas pressure and much more power than with Oxygen.
Sometimes a focus adjustment can help also.
In truth, I think everything affects everything else, probably you need a wide enough kerf to get a high enough gas velocity through the cut to blow the molten steel clear of the edge of the cut.
A wider kerf requires more power, and probably a bigger spot size.
Spot size is function of lens focal length, properties of the raw beam, and position of the focus waist w/respect to the material.
Generally, you find a way to conduct cutting tests quickly and zero in on the combination of parameters needed with your machine and your material.
Usually those tests don't require an entire part, just test a few representative features on some scrap material. Then you use that info to tailor your part's cutting parameters.

Jay Maechtlen
 
by the time you have an air system that can properly support a laser as an assist gas you'll have spent about the same as the cost for a N2 generation system. You have to also consider the power costs of high pressure compressed air/N2 generation.

Chris Krug Maximum Up-time, Minimum BS
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor