TECHNICAL PRESENTATION

ON
LASER CUTTING

Laser Cutting
1. INTRODUCTION
Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial
manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses, and hobbyists.
Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser most commonly through optics. The
laser optics and CNC (computer numerical control) are used to direct the material or the laser beam
generated. A typical commercial laser for cutting materials would involve a motion control system to
follow a CNC or G-code of the pattern to be cut onto the material. The focused laser beam directed at the
material, which then melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas, leaving an edge with
a high-quality surface finish. Industrial laser cutters are used to cut flat-sheet material as well as structural
and piping materials.

2. HISTORY
In 1965, the first production
used to drill holes in diamond
made by the Western Electric
Center. In 1967, the British
oxygen jet cutting for metals.
technology was put into
for aerospace applications. At
were adapted to cut nonbecause, at the time, CO2
enough to overcome the
metals.

laser cutting machine was

dies. This machine was
Engineering
Research
pioneered laser-assisted
In the early 1970s, this
production to cut titanium
the same time CO2 lasers
metals, such as textiles,
lasers were not powerful
thermal conductivity of

3. PROCESS
Generation of the laser
beam involves stimulating
a lasing material by electrical
discharges
or
lamps
within a closed container. As
the lasing material is
stimulated, the beam is
reflected internally by
means of a partial mirror, until
it achieves sufficient
energy to escape as a stream of
monochromatic coherent
light. Mirrors or fiber optics
are typically used to direct
the coherent light to a lens,
which focuses the light at
the work zone. The narrowest
part of the focused beam
is generally less than 0.32 mm
in diameter. Depending
upon material thickness, kerf
width as small as 0.10
mm is possible. In order to be Diagram of a laser cutter
able to start cutting from
somewhere else than the edge,
a pierce is done before
every cut. Piercing usually
involves a high-power
pulsed laser beam which slowly makes a hole in the material, taking around 515 seconds for 13 mm
stainless steel.

4. TYPES
There are three main types of lasers used in laser cutting. The CO2 laser is suited for cutting,
boring, and engraving. The neodymium (Nd) and neodymium yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd-YAG) lasers
are identical in style and differ only in application. Nd is used for boring and where high energy but low
repetitions are required. The Nd-YAG laser is used where very high power is needed and for boring and
engraving. Both CO2 and Nd/ Nd-YAG lasers can be used for welding.
Common variants of CO2 lasers include fast axial flow, slow axial flow, transverse flow, and slab.

5. METHODS
There are many different methods in cutting using lasers, with different types used to cut different
material. Some of the methods are vaporization, melt and blow, melt blow and burn, thermal stress
cracking, scribing, cold cutting and burning stabilized laser cutting.

5.1.

Vaporization cutting

In vaporization cutting the focused beam heats the surface of the material to boiling point and
generates a keyhole. The keyhole leads to a sudden increase in absorptivity quickly deepening the hole.
As the hole deepens and the material boils, vapor generated erodes the molten walls blowing eject a out
and further enlarging the hole. Non melting material such as wood, carbon and thermo set plastics are
usually cut by this method.

5.2.

Melt and blow

Melt and blow or fusion cutting uses high-pressure gas to blow molten material from the cutting
area, greatly decreasing the power requirement. First the material is heated to melting point then a gas jet
blows the molten material out of the kerf avoiding the need to raise the temperature of the material any
further. Materials cut with this process are usually metals.

5.3.

Thermal stress cracking

Brittle materials are particularly sensitive to thermal fracture, a feature exploited in thermal stress
cracking. A beam is focused on the surface causing localized heating and thermal expansion. This results
in a crack that can then be guided by moving the beam. The crack can be moved in order of m/s. It is
usually used in cutting of glass.

5.4.

Stealth dicing of silicon wafers

The separation of microelectronic chips as prepared in semiconductor device fabrication from

silicon wafers may be performed by the so-called stealth dicing process, which operates with a pulsed
Nd:YAG laser, the wavelength of which (1064 nm) is well adopted to the electronic band gap of silicon
(1.11 eV or 1117 nm).

5.5.

Reactive cutting

Also called "burning stabilized laser gas cutting, "flame cutting". Reactive cutting is like oxygen torch
cutting but with a laser beam as the ignition source. Mostly used for cutting carbon steel in thicknesses
over 1 mm. This process can be used to cut very thick steel plates with relatively little laser power.

6. Machine configurations
There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machines: moving
material, hybrid, and flying optics systems. These refer to the way that the laser beam is moved over the
material to be cut or processed. For all of these, the axes of motion are typically designated X and Y axis.
If the cutting head may be controlled, it is designated as the Z-axis.

Moving material lasers have a stationary cutting head and move the material under it. This
method provides a constant distance from the laser generator to the workpiece and a single point from
which to remove cutting effluent. It requires fewer optics, but requires moving the workpiece. This style
machine tends to have the fewest beam delivery optics, but also tends to be the slowest. Flying optics
laser head Hybrid lasers provide a table which moves in one axis (usually the X-axis) and move the head
along the shorter (Y) axis. This results in a more constant beam delivery path length than a flying optic
machine and may permit a simpler beam delivery system. This can result in reduced power loss in the
delivery system and more capacity per watt than flying optics machines.
Flying optics lasers
table and a cutting head (with
over the workpiece in both of
dimensions. Flying optics
workpiece stationary during
do not require material
mass is constant, so dynamics
varying size of the workpiece.
are the fastest type, which is
cutting thinner workpieces.

feature a stationary
laser beam) that moves
the
horizontal
cutters
keep
the
processing and often
clamping. The moving
are not affected by
Flying optics machines
advantageous
when

Flying optics laser head

Flying optic machines
must use some method
to take into account the
changing beam length
from near field (close to resonator) cutting to far field (far away from resonator) cutting. Common
methods for controlling this include collimation, adaptive optics or the use of a constant beam length axis.
Five and six-axis machines also permit cutting formed workpieces. In addition, there are various
methods of orienting the laser beam to a shaped workpiece, maintaining a proper focus distance and
nozzle standoff, etc.

7. WORKING
CO2 lasers are commonly "pumped" by passing a current through the gas mix (DC-excited) or
using radio frequency energy (RF-excited). The RF method is newer and has become more popular. Since
DC designs require electrodes inside the cavity, they can encounter electrode erosion and plating of
electrode material on glassware and optics. Since RF resonators have external electrodes they are not
prone to those problems. Industrial laser cutting of steel with cutting instructions programmed through the
CNC interface. A diffusion cooled resonator 4000 watt CO2 laser cutter CO2 lasers are used for industrial
cutting of many materials including mild steel, aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, paper, wax, plastics,
wood, and fabrics. YAG lasers are primarily used for cutting and scribing metals and ceramics.
In addition to the power source, the type of gas flow can affect performance as well. In a fast
axial flow resonator, the mixture of carbon dioxide, helium and nitrogen is circulated at high velocity by a
turbine or blower. Transverse flow lasers circulate the gas mix at a lower velocity, requiring a simpler
blower. Slab or diffusion cooled resonators have a static gas field that requires no pressurization or
glassware, leading to savings on replacement turbines and glassware.
The laser generator and external optics (including the focus lens) require cooling. Depending on
system size and configuration, waste heat may be transferred by a coolant or directly to air. Water is a
commonly used coolant, usually circulated through a chiller or heat transfer system.
A laser microjet is a water-jet guided laser in which a pulsed laser beam is coupled into a lowpressure water jet. This is used to perform laser cutting functions while using the water jet to guide the

laser beam, much like an optical fiber, through total internal reflection. The advantages of this are that the
water also removes debris and cools the material. Additional advantages over traditional "dry" laser
cutting are high dicing speeds, parallel kerf, and omnidirectional cutting. Fiber lasers is a type of solid
state laser thats been rapidly growing within the metal cutting industry. Unlike CO2, Fiber technology
utilizes a solid gain medium, as opposed to a gas or liquid.

8. Power consumption
The
main
is the high power
efficiency may range
power consumption and
laser will vary depending
parameters. This will
how well the laser is
The amount of laser
as heat input, for a
material type, thickness,
and desired cutting rate.

9.

disadvantage of laser cutting

consumption. Industrial laser
from 5% to 45%.[12] The
efficiency of any particular
on output power and operating
depend on type of laser and
matched to the work at hand.
cutting power required, known
particular job depends on the
process (reactive/inert) used,

ADVANTAGES

Advantages of laser cutting over mechanical cutting include easier workholding and reduced
contamination of workpiece (since there is no cutting edge which can become contaminated by the
material or contaminate the material). Precision may be better, since the laser beam does not wear during
the process. There is also a reduced chance of warping the material that is being cut, as laser systems have
a small heat-affected zone. Some materials are also very difficult or impossible to cut by more traditional
means.
Laser cutting for metals has the advantages over plasma cutting of being more precise and using
less energy when cutting sheet metal; however, most industrial lasers cannot cut through the greater metal
thickness that plasma can. Newer lasers machines operating at higher power (6000 watts, as contrasted
with early laser cutting machines' 1500 watt ratings) are approaching plasma machines in their ability to
cut through thick materials, but the capital cost of such machines is much higher than that of plasma
cutting machines capable of cutting thick materials like steel plate.

REFERENCES
1. Forsman, A et al. (June 2007). "Superpulse A nanosecond pulse format to improve laser
drilling"(https://fusion.gat.com/pubs-ext/miscpubs/A25867.pdf )
2. (http://www.laserline.de/tl_files/Laserline/downloads/broschueren/en/Laserline_Image_high_
power_diode_laser.pdf) Page 4.
3. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting)