Problems and Solutions Encountered in Laser Cutting
In modern society, with the continuous development of science and technology and the continuous acceleration of my country’s industrialization process, laser cutting technology is widely used in various processing industries, and has unique advantages that other cutting processes do not have. The cutting quality is first-class, the cutting range is wide, the cutting speed is fast, the flexibility is good, and the processing ability is strong. However, there are also problems in the laser cutting process, such as non-penetrating cutting, rough surface, burrs and so on. The technicians have given corresponding reasonable solutions to these problems.
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Roughness
The laser cutting section will form vertical lines, and the depth of the lines determines the roughness of the cutting surface. The shallower the lines, the smoother the cutting section. Roughness not only affects the appearance of the edge, but also the friction characteristics. In most cases, the roughness needs to be minimized, so the shallower the texture, the better the cut quality.
Solution
When cutting carbon steel, problems such as insufficient lightness of the thin plate section and rough section of the thick plate are generally encountered.
Generally speaking, a 1000W laser can cut carbon steel brightly in the range of 4mm. If you want to get the bright effect of cutting, the cutting range of 2000W is 6mm, and the cutting range of 3000W is 8mm.
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Glitch
The formation of burrs is a very important factor that determines the quality of laser cutting. Because the removal of burrs requires extra work, we can intuitively judge the quality of cutting through the amount and degree of burrs.
Solution
1) First, check whether there is any problem with the laser output, whether the light spot is very round, and whether the light spot is coaxial with the center hole of the nozzle. The circular light spot indicates that the lateral distribution of the laser energy is uniform, and the energy distribution of the light spot formed after being focused by the lens is also more uniform, and the cutting quality is better; the better the coaxiality between the light spot and the nozzle center hole, the better the cutting quality.
2) Secondly, check whether the lenses and lenses during the laser transmission process have fine particles, dust, splashing residues and other objects that affect the cutting quality, and whether the lenses have small cracks that are not easily found by the naked eye, which will affect the transmission of laser power.
After the above two points are checked, it can be determined whether the laser itself is good. Then comes the adjustment of process parameters.
The burrs produced by laser cutting of stainless steel have a certain hardness, which is very time-consuming to remove, and also affects the appearance of the workpiece. It is best to solve it from the root cause: the purity of the gas is critical, and it is best not to use cylinder gas. The second is to adjust the cutting parameters to the best, and the air pressure flow, focal length cutting speed, etc. must be adjusted many times.
Equipment + gas + parameters (adjusted to the best) = less burr to cut the workpiece
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Not fully cut through
Laser cutting is a complex process, and in the process of cutting, it is often encountered that the cut cannot be cut through. There are many reasons why the sample cannot be cut through. The most common one is the power drop of the laser or the aging of the lamp tube, which makes the energy of the laser beam insufficient, causing the sample to not be cut through. The cutting speed is too fast, the focusing lens is damaged, the focusing effect is poor, the optical path is not correct, and the voltage is unstable. These are the reasons why the laser cutting cannot cut through. Of course, there are many factors that cause the sample to be impenetrable, such as the problem of the material itself, the insufficient air pressure of the auxiliary gas, the turbid water in the cooling system, and the poor heat dissipation effect.
Solution
1) The cutting speed should be appropriately reduced, the contaminated mirror should be cleaned in a timely and reasonable manner, and the focusing lens should be replaced.
2) If the optical path is not correct, you can re-adjust the optical path and adjust the focal length until the laser makes a spot on the paper that is concentric with the center of the nozzle.
3) When cutting copper and aluminum, it is best to polish its surface in advance or apply light-absorbing material to deal with the problem of high reflectivity.
4) Regularly clean the foreign matter in the nozzle, increase the pressure of the auxiliary gas, and replace the distilled water of the cooling system in time
In short, although there will be some problems in the cutting process, the corresponding solutions will be given to the staff. With the continuous progress of laser cutting technology, the process of laser cutting will be recognized by more industries.