Laser Cutting

Laser cutting produces part shapes by cutting sheet material using an intense laser beam. This cutting method uses a beam of high-density light energy focused through a tiny hole in a nozzle. When this beam strikes the surface of the work piece, the material of the work piece is vaporized. The focused laser beam is directed at the material, which then either melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas, leaving an edge with a high-quality surface finish. Industrial laser cutters are used to cut flat-sheet material as well as structural and piping materials.
Cutting Features:
Materials: stainless steel, plain steel and spring steel
Plate thickness: 1 mm up to 25 mm
Typical: 0.5 mm up to 20 mm

Laser light can be well focused ca. 0.2 mm
Laser radiation: coherent, monochromatic, high energy
Very high power density (some MW/cm2)
High to medium cut quality (roughness)
Metallurgical perfect surfaces (oxidized) or metallically blank surfaces (high pressure inert gas cutting)
Low heat input

All in all, laser cutting is used in the most diverse areas, specifically wherever high accuracy for the component geometry and the cut edge is required. The preferred range for steel sheets is up to a material thickness of 20 mm, under certain circumstances up to 25 mm. For this application mainly the CO2 Laser and Fiber Laser are used. For greater thicknesses, laser cutting only makes sense for special applications, more usually other cutting processes (oxyfuel or plasma cutting) are used here.