Laser cutting, as an advanced blanking processing technology, is becoming more and more popular......What is a laser?Laser is a kind of enhanced light obtained by stimulated radiation
Its basic features:
high strength, high brightness
Definite wavelength and frequency, good monochromaticity
Good coherence, long coherence length
Good directionality, almost a beam of parallel lightWhen the laser beam irradiates the surface of the workpiece, the light energy is absorbed and converted into heat energy, so that the temperature of the irradiated spot rises rapidly, melts, and gasifies to form a small pit. Due to thermal diffusion, the metal around the spot is melted, and the metal vapor in the small pit It expands rapidly, produces a micro-explosion, ejects the melt at high speed and generates a highly directional anti-shock wave, and then punches a hole with a large top and a small bottom on the processed surface.Compared with other thermal cutting methods, laser cutting is characterized by high cutting speed and high quality. It is summarized as the following:A. Good cutting quality. Due to the small laser spot, high energy density and fast cutting speed, laser cutting can obtain better cutting quality.a. The laser cutting slit is narrow, the two sides of the slit are parallel and perpendicular to the surface, and the dimensional accuracy of the cut parts can reach ±0.05mm.b. The cutting surface is smooth and beautiful, and the surface roughness is only tens of microns. Even laser cutting can be used as the last process without machining, and the parts can be used directly.c. After the material is laser cut, the width of the heat-affected zone is very small, and the properties of the material near the slit are almost unaffected, and the deformation of the workpiece is small, the cutting precision is high, the geometry of the slit is good, and the cross-sectional shape of the slit is relatively regular. rectangle. The comparison of laser cutting, oxyacetylene cutting and plasma cutting methods is shown in Table 1. The cutting material is 6.2mm thick low carbon steel plate.B. High cutting efficiency. Due to the transmission characteristics of the laser, the laser cutting machine is generally equipped with multiple CNC workbenches, and the entire cutting process can be fully numerically controlled. During operation, only need to change the CNC program, it can be applied to the cutting of parts of different shapes, both two-dimensional cutting and three-dimensional cutting can be realized.C. Fast cutting speed. Using a laser with a power of 1200W to cut a 2mm thick low-carbon steel plate, the cutting speed can reach 600cm/min; when cutting a 5mm thick polypropylene resin plate, the cutting speed can reach 1200cm/min. The material does not need to be clamped and fixed during laser cutting, which not only saves tooling fixtures, but also saves auxiliary time for loading and unloading.D. Non-contact cutting. There is no contact between the torch and the workpiece during laser cutting, and there is no tool wear. To process parts of different shapes, there is no need to change the "tool", only the output parameters of the laser need to be changed. The laser cutting process has low noise, little vibration and no pollution.E. Wide variety of cutting materials. Metal matrix composites, leather, wood and fibers, etc. However, for different materials, due to their own thermal physical properties and different absorption rates of laser light, they show different laser cutting adaptability.F. Shortcoming: Due to the limitation of laser power and equipment volume, laser cutting can only cut medium and small thickness plates and pipes, and as the thickness of the workpiece increases, the cutting speed decreases significantly. The cost of laser cutting equipment is high, and the one-time investment is large.Applications of Laser Cutting
Most laser cutting machines are controlled by CNC programs or made into cutting robots. As a precision processing method, laser cutting can cut almost all materials, including two-dimensional cutting or three-dimensional cutting of thin metal plates.
In the field of automobile manufacturing, the cutting technology of space curves such as car roof windows has been widely used. Volkswagen of Germany uses a laser with a power of 500W to cut complex-shaped body sheets and various curved parts. In the field of aerospace, laser cutting technology is mainly used for cutting special aerospace materials, such as titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, nickel alloy, chromium alloy, stainless steel, beryllium oxide, composite materials, plastics, ceramics and quartz. The aerospace parts processed by laser cutting include engine flame tube, titanium alloy thin-walled casing, aircraft frame, titanium alloy skin, wing stringer, tail panel, helicopter main rotor, space shuttle ceramic insulation tile, etc.
Laser cutting forming technology is also widely used in the field of non-metallic materials. Not only can it cut materials with high hardness and high brittleness, such as silicon nitride, ceramics, quartz, etc.; it can also cut and process flexible materials, such as cloth, paper, plastic board, rubber, etc., such as clothing cutting with laser, can save 10% of clothing material % to 12%, increasing the efficacy by more than 3 times.
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