Tech

Cutting Technology: Moving at the Speed of Lasers

It’s no secret that technology moves faster than practically anything else. In fact, if someone told you lasers and laser cutting technology are involved in almost every technology known to man, it might be a little hard to believe. Fortunately, as hard as that might be to believe, it’s true. Further, it is used in many industries to mold, shape, and otherwise work with metal parts, and with an exceptional degree of precision and speed.

Even if a story was limited in its scope to sheet metal laser cutters, the story is still a little difficult to comprehend, but lasers are relied on in a wide variety of areas, and their uses are almost beyond comprehension. Regardless, let’s tell a little of the story here.

How is Laser Cutting Technology Used in Sheet Metal Manufacturing?

Laser cutting technology plays a huge role in the many industries. Lasers are, of course, hot, focused light beams that are excellent at cutting, melting, and vaporizing nearly any type of MetalProfy. Any operation that calls for the focus of light to be manipulated in a controlled environment is a natural for lasers. They are excellent as a useful tool since it will allow any operator to manage the laser’s intensity as well as the cut depth. The most popular of these uses is laser cutting and engraving of metals.

Explain the Technology Behind Laser Cutting

The use of lasers in metal cutting is very simple to understand. A CAD system is used to handle a six-axis bed of a six-axis robot use for 3D cutting. This entire process is totally automatic and requires very little human interaction. With laser cutting, there are many things that can be accomplished on a shop floor. Making things even better, the level of accuracy that can be attained is astonishing and can’t be surpassed.

The science of laser cutters is also very simple. In a nutshell, a laser is a beam of light that is sent via a resonator through the path of a beam. That beam appears as a column of high-intensity light in a single wave. It is then bounced in different directions with beam benders, which are nothing more than a series of mirrors, that make the laser visible to handle the projection temperature.

As the laser beams go through the benders, it is focused on the sheet metal that is being worked. The beam goes through a nozzle before it contacts the metal. The beam is delivered mixed with compressed gas. In most cases, manufacturers use oxygen for this purpose, although others use nitrogen. The resulting laser beam passes through the nozzle to cut and melt the metal.

There are almost as many opinions about laser cutting as there are opinions. Fortunately, although there are some hangers-on of the old ways, the fastest growing group of laser cutters users endorse the method wholeheartedly for every reason under the sun. All of the standard reasons are endorsed, from economy to accuracy. Regardless, it’s an enthusiastic thumbs up for laser metal cutters.