Why does the fire or plasma cutting machine were replaced by the fiber laser cutting machine?

There’s a bewildering variety of equipment on the metal manufacturing industry, like flame cutting equipment, plasma cutting machine, water jet, carbon dioxide laser cutting machine, fiber laser cutting machine and so on. At present, the fiber laser cutting equipment is viewed with favor. Do you know the reason? I will compare and analyze the reasons from the aspects of production efficiency, processing effect, use cost, and difficulty of operation.

First of all, the principle of flame cutting is to use combustible gas to heat steel to the "fire point" temperature (about 1800F). After reaching this temperature, pure oxygen is injected to cause it to exothermic reaction with hot steel and quickly melt the metal material. Flame cutting is made of carbon steel materials, and is mostly used for thicknesses from 1/4’’ (approximately 6.35mm) to 6’’ (approximately 150mm). One of the ways to improve production efficiency is to add multiple flame cutting torches on a flame cutting machine tool to increase production efficiency while controlling costs.

Production efficiency: Due to the long preheating time and slow cutting speed, the production efficiency of flame cutting is relatively low.

Processing effect: Under the conditions of set processing speed, cutting height, gas and nozzle, the precision of the cut piece finished product is about ±0.03'' (about 0.76mm), and the slope is less than 1 degree.

Cost of use: the price of flame cutting machine is relatively low, compared with other metal processing equipment, its use cost is the lowest.

Operation difficulty: Flame cutting requires the operator to have a certain learning ability and operating experience in order to achieve faster cutting speed and cutting quality.

Secondly, the principle of plasma cutting is to use high-temperature ionized gas to generate a high-energy-density cutting arc to cut various conductive materials. Therefore, plasma cutting equipment is superior to flame cutting in that it has a wider processing range and can cut most types of metals. Materials, such as low carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, copper, etc. The material suitable for plasma equipment processing is carbon steel with a thickness of 26 gauge (about 0.45mm) to 2'' (about 50mm).

Production efficiency: When the thickness is greater than 1/4’’ (about 6.35mm), the cutting efficiency is better than that of the laser cutting machine. When the thickness is less than 2’’ (about 50mm), the cutting efficiency is better than that of the flame cutting equipment.

Processing effect: The dimensional tolerance of carbon steel cutting parts is about ±0.015” (about 0.38mm) to 0.02” (about 0.5mm). For thin plates with a thickness of 3/8” (about 9.5mm), The slope is 2-3 degrees. For thick plates with a thickness greater than 1/2'' (about 12.7mm), the slope is 1 degree.

Cost of use: Plasma cutting equipment is higher than flame cutting, but lower than laser cutting equipment and water jets.

Operation difficulty: The plasma cutting equipment is equipped with professional software and numerical control system, which is relatively easy to use and does not have high requirements for the operator.

Finally, the principle of fiber laser cutting is to conduct the laser beam through the fiber line, and through the focus and light guide of the cutting head, use the focused beam to melt the metal material, and the auxiliary gas (high pressure air/oxygen/nitrogen) to blow off the molten metal dross . The biggest advantage of fiber laser cutting is cutting accuracy. The positioning accuracy of standard laser cutting equipment is ±0.05mm, and the repeat positioning accuracy is ±0.03mm.

Production efficiency: The higher the power, the higher the production efficiency. At present, the power range of this industry is 1000W-30000W, the more common power range on the market is 1000W-12000W, the maximum processing capacity of carbon steel plate is 45mm, the maximum processing capacity of stainless steel plate is 40mm, and the maximum processing capacity of aluminum alloy is 40mm.

Processing effect: Because the beam is concentrated and the beam quality is good, compared with flame cutting and plasma cutting equipment, the heat-affected area of laser processing is small, so the cutting surface is relatively smooth and there is less dross.

Cost of use: Considering the auxiliary gas, wearing parts, etc., the use cost of laser cutting is relatively high.

Difficulty of operation: The laser cutting equipment is equipped with professional operating software, and many parameters have been set before leaving the factory, so the operation is simple.