Characteristics, principle and application of laser cutting technology

1. Features: high speed, smooth and smooth incision, generally without subsequent processing; small cutting heat affected zone, small plate deformation, narrow cutting seam (0.1 mm ~ 0.3 mm); no mechanical stress, no cutting burr; high machining accuracy, good repeatability, no damage to the material surface; CNC programming, can process any plan, can cut a large size of the whole plate, no need to open the mold, Economy and time saving. There are many materials that can be cut by laser, including polymethyl methacrylate, wood, plastic and other non-metallic plates, as well as stainless steel, carbon steel, alloy steel, aluminum and other metal materials. Pulsed laser is suitable for metal materials, continuous laser is suitable for non-metal materials, the latter is an important application field of laser cutting technology.

2. Principle: laser cutting is to use high power density laser beam to scan the material surface, heat the material to thousands to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius in a very short time, make the material melt or gasify, and then blow the melted or gasified material away from the cutting seam with high pressure gas, so as to achieve the purpose of cutting materials.

3, application: Germany Bavarian Asia Laser Technology Center (BLZ) developed the aluminum foam sandwich material (AFS) laser cutting technology, AFS is an excellent lightweight composite material for automobile, its core is aluminum metal foam material, the outer layer is two thin coated sheet materials, light weight, good rigidity, high strength, and can be shaped arbitrarily. AFS should be cut and processed in the form of foam and non foam.

　A typical example of robot assisted laser cutting of plastics is the lining of the C-pillar of Volkswagen’s Golf IV car. CO2 laser is used to cut the outer contour of the 3D plastic lining parts, cut out the ventilation holes and the fixing holes of the safety belt. The laser beam cutting technology applied by the public is not only fast, but also the quality of the cutting surface is uniform.