Comparison of fiber laser cutting machine and CO2 laser cutting machine

Laser technology continues to develop, and cutting machines using fiber lasers have gradually become the mainstream of the market. So why is the fiber laser cutting machine favored by many companies? Compared with CO2 laser cutting machine, what are the significant advantages of fiber laser cutting machine?

The fiber laser cutting machine is a fiber laser that outputs a high-energy density laser beam and collects on the surface of the workpiece, so that the area illuminated by the ultra-fine focus spot is instantly melted and gasified. Cutting, fast and high precision.

After understanding the fiber laser cutting machine, let's look at its main advantages compared with CO2 laser cutting machine:

01

Compared with the structure of laser equipment, the CO2 laser cutting machine, as the name implies, CO2 gas is the medium that generates laser beams. Compared with CO2 laser cutting machine, fiber laser cutting machine has excellent beam quality, smaller focus spot, making the cutting line more fine, and can achieve better quality processing. There are also cutting bed sizes. In gas laser technology, the reflector must be set within a certain distance, but fiber laser technology has no range limitation. It is even possible to mount a fiber laser next to the plasma cutting head of a plasma cutting bed. Gas cutting technology does not have this option. In addition, when compared with a gas cutting system of the same power, the system appears more compact due to the ability of the fiber to bend.

02

The most important and significant advantage of comparing fiber cutting technology from electro-optic conversion efficiency is its energy efficiency. Fiber laser cutting system has 3 times higher electro-optical conversion efficiency than CO2 laser cutting. For each power supply unit of the CO2 cutting system, the actual general utilization rate is about 8% to 10%. For fiber laser cutting systems, users can expect higher power efficiency, between 25% and 30%. In other words, the overall energy consumption of the fiber cutting system is about 3 to 5 times less than that of the CO2 cutting system, which makes the energy efficiency increase by about 86%, saves energy and environmental protection, and reduces production costs.

03

Fiber lasers have short wavelength characteristics compared with the cutting effect, which improves the absorptivity of the cutting material to the light beam, and enables it to cut non-conductive materials such as brass and copper. A more focused beam produces a smaller focus and a deeper depth of focus, so that fiber lasers can cut thinner materials faster and more efficiently cut medium thickness materials. When cutting materials up to 6mm thick, the cutting speed of the 1.5kW fiber laser cutting system is equivalent to the cutting speed of the 3kW CO2 laser cutting system. Because the operating cost of fiber cutting is lower than that of ordinary CO2 cutting systems, this can be understood as an increase in output and a reduction in commercial costs.

04

Compared with the maintenance cost, fiber laser cutting is more environmentally friendly and convenient. The CO2 gas laser system requires regular maintenance; the mirror needs maintenance and calibration, and the resonant cavity needs regular maintenance. On the other hand, fiber laser cutting solutions require almost no maintenance. The CO2 laser cutting system requires carbon dioxide as the laser gas. Due to the purity of the CO2 gas, the resonance cavity will be contaminated and needs to be cleaned regularly. For a multi-kilowatt CO2 system, this item requires at least $ 20,000 per year. In addition, many CO2 cuttings require high-speed axial flow turbines to deliver laser gas, and turbines also require maintenance and overhaul.