Laser Processing VS Traditional Processing

According to the consumption analysis of China's steel industry, the main application industries of steel are construction, machinery, automobiles, and energy, followed by shipbuilding and home appliances. Most of the plates used in these industries are medium-thick plates.

Traditional medium-thick plates are processed by plasma cutting, flame cutting, water cutting, wire cutting and other processing methods, but there are some problems such as plasma cannot cut small holes, and poor dimensional accuracy, large thermal impact, cannot cutting small parts, wide weld seam, waste of materials. Flame cutting can only cut carbon steel, not non-ferrous metals, and the cutting speed is slow. Water cutting has large pollution to water quality. Wire cutting speed is slow and consumables are large. The wear of punch grinding tools is large, and the cost of mold opening is high.

Traditional processing

Fiber laser cutting can make up for the shortcomings of traditional cutting, especially the development of 10,000 watt-level laser cutting, which solves the limitations of laser cutting in thick plate cutting in the past, and is favored by more and more sheet metal processing end users.

In this article, Maxphotonics takes some graphic workpieces as an example to compare 10,000 watt-level laser processing and traditional processing.


Case 1: Gear
Application industry: construction machinery, rail transit, automation equipment, etc.

In addition to the unique advantages of 10,000 watt-level laser equipment in cutting thick plates, its ability to process high precision parts is also extremely powerful. For the same gear workpiece (the parts in the following figure as an example), the high temperature generated during plasma cutting will make the gear sharp corners dull, the cutting surface is rough, the accuracy is low, and need to use a milling machine to refinish the rounded gears into sharp gears.

The 10,000 watt-level laser cutting can cut sharp corners at one time, and the section is smooth which can meet the high precision requirements of aerospace, power equipment, petroleum equipment, automobile manufacturing and more industries.

Sample: 500mm diameter gear, 12mm thickness, carbon steel, sharp corner R1mm, 42 sharp corners

Case 2: Aluminum curtain wall & window grilles
Application industry: construction, curtain wall industry

For complex graphics, traditional processing methods cannot be completed at one time, requiring multiple equipment and processes to combine, but the effect is not satisfactory. However, the flexible laser process can process any graphics with one device, the speed and effect are beyond traditional processing methods.

Take the thick metal curtain wall graphics, (the workpiece in the following figure as an example) to produce 10-25mm aluminum curtain walls and window grilles, the traditional processing method requires the combination of an engraving machine and wire cutting to complete. The engraving machine cannot make sharp corners, and the cost of wire cutting is high, the efficiency is extremely low, the size is limited. If we use 10,000-watt laser for processing, it can be completed by one device at a time, with fast speed, low cost, good surface finish, and it can also process a variety of super large complex patterns.

Sample: Aluminum window grille, 12mm, irregular pattern

Case 3: Through hole disc
Application industry: petroleum, natural gas, metallurgy

Traditional processing technology requires the use of molds and tools to assist in processing, which limits the processing of some graphics. If the graphics data changes, the mold needs to be remade. The cost of the mold is high, the modification time is long, and cannot be formed at one time. Laser processing has high flexibility and can process any graphics, the product design can be modified at any time according to customer needs, and the processing quality is high.

For small holes, (the workpiece in the following figure as an example) the minimum diameter of the plasma cutting aperture can only be approximately equal to the thickness of the processed plate, that is, a 25mm thick steel plate can only be processed with an aperture greater than or equal to 25mm. For 10,000 watt-level laser cutting, the minimum diameter of the processing aperture can reach 20% of the thickness of the processed plate, that is, a 25mm thick steel plate can process a 5mm aperture, and it is possible to cut different apertures on the thick metal at one time.

Sample: 500mm diameter disc, 25mm, carbon steel, processed 4, 6, 8, 10mm through holes, 50 holes.

The 10,000 watt-level laser technology developed and promoted by Maxphotonics has simplified the operation. Traditional processing requires multiple people and multiple types of equipment to complete processing needs. The 10,000 watt-level laser processing can be completed by one person and one device. This is the best representative of contemporary advanced productivity!