Laser cutting machines are often considered to have high cutting efficiency and better cutting quality, and are increasingly used in metal processing. However, the quality evaluation of laser cutting has not yet reached a uniform standard in the world. Therefore, when buying laser cutting machines, many people do not know how to judge the processing quality of laser cutting machines, and are blinded.
When using a laser cutting machine to process metal, the evaluation of its processing quality mainly includes the following points:
01 The cutting surface is smooth, with few lines and no brittle fracture
When laser cutting the plate at high temperature, the traces of the molten material will not appear in the cut below the vertical laser beam, but will spray out at the rear of the laser beam. As a result, curved lines are formed at the cutting edge, and the lines closely follow the moving laser beam. To correct this problem, reducing the feed rate at the end of the cutting process can greatly eliminate the formation of lines.
02 Narrow slit width
The cut width generally does not affect the cutting quality. The cutting width has an important effect only when a particularly precise contour is formed inside the part. This is because the cutting width determines the minimum inner diameter of the contour. When the thickness of the sheet increases, the cutting width also varies. Increase. Therefore, we want to ensure the same high accuracy, regardless of the width of the cut, the workpiece should be constant in the processing area of the laser cutting machine.
03 Good slitting verticality, small heat affected area
When the thickness of the processed material exceeds 18mm, the verticality of the cutting edge is very important; when away from the focus, the laser beam becomes divergent, and depending on the position of the focus, the cutting becomes wider toward the top or bottom. The cutting edge is a few millimeters from the vertical line. The more vertical the edge, the higher the cutting quality.
04 Thermal effects of cutting materials
As a thermal cutting processing application equipment, it is bound to cause thermal impact on the material during its use, which mainly includes three aspects: a. Heat affected area; b. Depression and corrosion; c. Material deformation.
The heat-affected area refers to the area near the incision that is heated during laser cutting. At the same time, the structure of the material itself changes. For example, some materials can harden. The heat-affected zone refers to a regional change in which the internal structure changes due to high temperature.
The depression and corrosion have an adverse effect on the surface of the cutting edge and affect the appearance of the laser cutting machine. They occur in cutting errors that should normally be avoided; in the end, if the cutting heats the part sharply, it will deform.
This is especially important in fine machining, where the contours and webs are usually only a few tenths of a millimeter wide. Controlling laser power and using short laser pulses can reduce component heating and avoid distortion.