The difference between laser cutting for carbon steel and stainless steel

When laser cutting different metals, the technical requirements will be different. So what's the difference between laser cutting for carbon steel and stainless steel?

When using laser cutting to process stainless steel, because stainless steel contains 10% ~ 20% chromium, the iron and chromium in stainless steel are easy to react exothermically with oxygen during cutting, in which the oxide of chromium has the characteristics of preventing oxygen from entering into the melting material, reducing the amount of oxygen entering into the melting layer, endless oxidation of the melting layer, reducing the reaction, reducing the cutting speed. Laser cutting stainless steel has a high requirement for processing technology.

When using laser cutting to process carbon steel, usually the carbon steel within 10 mm can be well cut by oxygen assisted melting laser, and the slit is also narrow. The thickness of the plate can be up to 0.1mm, and its heat affected zone, especially for low carbon steel, can almost be ignored. The cutting seam of carbon steel shall be smooth, clean and with good perpendicularity. The existence of segregation zone of phosphorus and sulfur in low carbon steel will cause corrosion of cutting edge. Therefore, the cutting quality of high quality steel with impurities is better than that of hot rolled steel. A little higher carbon content can slightly improve the cutting quality of carbon steel, but its heat affected zone is enlarged.

It can be seen from this that due to the difference in the properties of carbon steel and stainless steel, the technical requirements for laser cutting are also very different. Therefore, we must choose according to the actual situation. Only when the operation mode is appropriate can we ensure the smooth progress of the work.