With the abundant resources we have in this day and age, like wood, glass, metal, plastic with their various thickness, cutting these materials and creating a product drove man to come up with a technology that will produce the result in the most efficient way and with minimum time used.
Cutting tools range from the most basic such as an axe, knife, scalpel to a more machined with hand tools such as a chainsaw or even a drill. But living in the modern world as we do now, technology has provided us with more sophistication such as laser.
Laser is short for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. In layman’s terms, a laser device cuts a material by the light it gives out and magnifies to a certain degree that messes up with the very basic component of a material such as a metal and as a result cuts it in half as the laser beam passes through it. As easy as that sounds, laser are actually quite dangerous and most often than not, is usually used within the industrial and manufacturing production works only. Although recently laser cutting has been used to a less intense need, such as laser engraving.
Without going into much detail, the laser cutting process involves different methods including vaporization, burn, melt and blow. Other methods also include scribing, cold cutting and thermal stress cracking.
How It Works
A laser machine emits a high powered and pulsed laser beam that is magnified by a lens which then results for the beam to be focused to a small spot. Due to the energy it produces, depending on the type of laser machine, it then cuts through precisely and seamlessly to the layout area designed on the material usually used in production and cutting.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The main benefit of laser cutting will have to be the precision of the cut as compared if done through mechanical cutting. Another is the ease of use which makes for an easier workload which then allows a greater chance of producing more results than its lesser counterparts. But for the end result, the greatest advantage is that it gives a surface finish because the laser cutting technology blows away the debris by gas after the cut is made. A laser device is fairly automated and it is programmable so it has very high repeatability and reliability in terms of the process. You will just have to set some machine configurations and you can leave it to do its work. Depending on what is required an industrial laser may need a custom computer to operate.
The greatest disadvantage on the other hand is more on the economic side, as it uses high power consumption and of course also requires a big investment. It has its limitations too. Due to the heat that accompanies a laser beam, it may melt some plastics and burn plastic component that then gives off toxic fumes. It is also not able to assist in cutting reflective materials like copper and aluminum unless a special precautionary measure is taken into consideration. Since laser is considered dangerous, the machine is usually stand alone and programmable so there is no need for human contact while it is doing its work. The laser beam can be very harmful. A laser cut to a human skin can have serious effects. It can burn and bore holes that can damage the skin tissue severely.
Types of Laser Cutting Equipment
Laser Cutting Equipment is categorized in three main types. CO2 laser is the simplest of the three as it does lighter cutting and is best used for cutting thin metal, wood, plastics, fabrics and other non-metal materials. CO2 laser also does engraving welding and also enlarging a hole or boring. Neodymium (Nd) laser are used for materials that needs high energy and low repetition. Whereas Nd-YAG or Neoymium yttrium-aluminum-garnet type of laser is for high-powered materials such as
There is also a laser microjet. This laser is also called water-jet guided, which means that it in cutting functions, it uses water to work with the laser beam, same as like an optical fiber. The rest are considered traditional “dry” laser equipment.
Laser Cutting Business
Oftentimes when we hear of laser cutting, what comes to mind are the big equipment that does cutting on sheet metal, carbon steel and all sorts of raw materials that are turned into something big and mega factory worthy products.
But actually, laser cutting can also be used in creating something small scale and some products that can be bought by consumers commercially. There are various things that can be made with a laser engraving machine. You could have a key chain engraved with your name on it, a rubber stamp with various designs, jewelries engraved with photo images, wine glasses with intricate designs, wood carvings and the list can just go on. Some even uses laser engraving technology in designing fine art on a medium they choose.
The truth is as long as you want to engrave or mark something on a material, then you can go into laser engraving business. There is definitely a market to this and the materials aren’t limited to a few either. The various materials you can engrave on can range from wood, acrylic plastic sheets, metals, coated metals, stone, glass and jewelries. If one will decide to venture into this kind of business, aside from shelling out a hefty investment for the laser machine and studying the software to create those designs that can be engraved to your material, you can basically start right at home. Running the machine should be pretty simple too. The only time consuming will probably to learn to use the software that will then customize the designs you will engrave. The most commonly used software people use along with their laser is CorelDRAW. Once you are well-adept in your laser engraving file set, then you can venture into investing to other bigger stuff.
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