laser cut aluminum
Aluminum is one of the more challenging materials to laser cut. If you’re not familiar with this material and are planning on laser cutting aluminum for the first time, be prepared for a learning experience. As with any new material, you’ll probably need some practice before you can get it right consistently.
10mm aluminum sheet laser cutting process by 6000w fiber laser cutter
Why is aluminum more difficult to cut?
Cutting aluminum is a tricky task. Even experienced machinists struggle to cut it well. However, if you understand how its physical properties affect the way it cuts, you can get some tips on how to make your own jobs run smoother. In this article we’ll cover why aluminum is so hard to cut and what factors can help improve your results when working with this material.
Aluminum is a highly-reflective material
Why is aluminum more difficult to cut than other metals? Because of the material’s high reflectivity. Material that reflects light has a harder time being cut, especially when it’s a highly reflective material like aluminum.
Aluminum is a highly reflective material. When the light of a laser beam makes contact with aluminum, the tendency is for it to bounce or scatter as well. This can make laser cutting difficult
Aluminum has a low melting temperature
The first thing to consider is the melting temperature of aluminum. This is important because it determines how easily the material can be cut. When cutting materials, you want your laser to be at a constant temperature so that you can maintain a constant cutting speed and quality. Aluminum has a low melting temperature, which means it’s harder to cut than other materials like plastics or wood and harder to maintain the laser beam at a constant temperature during the cutting process.
This is due in part because aluminum is also a better conductor of heat than other materials and will quickly absorb energy from your laser beam if not properly cooled by water or oil during operation—you may have heard this referred to as “thermal runaway.” This heating effect only increases as you increase power levels on your CO2 laser cutter!
Aluminum has a high thermal conductivity
Aluminum is an excellent conductor of heat, meaning that it conducts heat very well. This means that the aluminum will absorb more of the laser beam’s energy than other materials and rapidly transfer it to surrounding areas.
This makes cutting aluminum a more difficult task because you must account for this effect when creating your design, or else risk overheating the material and causing damage to your machine.
All these properties make it more difficult to cut aluminum than other materials.
These characteristics make aluminum a difficult material to cut. First, it is highly reflective and has a low melting temperature. The reflectivity of the metal makes it hard to see where you are cutting and how much you have already cut, while the low melting point means that it may burn or melt before you can complete your desired task. Aluminum has high thermal conductivity as well, which means that when you are cutting through the material with some sort of laser cutter or other tool, there will be more heat transfer than in other materials such as wood or plastic. This leads to uneven cuts and incomplete cuts in some areas because there is too much heat transferring into those areas during cutting time. Finally, aluminum has very high reflectivity which causes difficulty seeing through thin layers of aluminum foil with most types of lasers used for cutting purposes today; this means less control over where exactly cuts will occur once they begin!
What is best for cutting aluminium?
Aluminum can be cut with a CO2 or fiber laser, they are all workable to cut metal, but CO2 laser cutter are not suitable for cutting alloys because of their inability to penetrate deep into the material’s surface.Fiber laser cutting machine is the best aluminum sheet cutting tool.
HOW TO CUT ALUMINUM SHEET
Aluminum can be cut with a CO2 or fiber laser.
Unlike steel, aluminum is a soft metal and can be cut with a CO2 or fiber laser. It’s also lightweight, thermally conductive and reflective (meaning you’ll need to wear eye protection when cutting it).
The properties of aluminum make it ideal for use in high-temperature environments such as jet engines, boilers and nuclear power plants.
CO2 lasers are useful for cutting non-metallic materials, such as wood, plastic, and other composite materials. They can also be used to cut metals; however, they are not suitable for cutting alloys because of their inability to penetrate deep into the material’s surface.
Fiber lasers are suitable for cutting copper, brass, and aluminum alloys.
When you use a laser to cut aluminum, the beam is focused on the material being cut. This causes heat and pressure to build up in the spot where it’s focused—and this causes it to melt. As more and more layers of material are melted off by this process, eventually it will reach through your entire piece of metal with ease.
The laser beam can be focused on a small aluminum sheet area causing it to vibrate intensely at that point. This is called acoustic cavitation and it happens when the intense heat of the laser beam causes air particles to be vaporized, creating pressure waves in the aluminum plate material. These pressure waves compress and expand very quickly causing the material to vibrate rapidly and then shatter into pieces.
The high-power laser can melt the material it is striking.
As the high-power laser melts the surface of the material it is striking, it creates a pool of molten metal that disperses quickly into the surrounding material as it cools. This causes the material to expand and deform from its original shape. The resulting cut is very clean because there isn’t any heat or friction left over in your piece after cutting.
When the aluminum sheeting is cooled, it contracts, causing it to take on a bigger form than initially thought.
When you cut aluminum sheeting, it will change its shape. This is because aluminum is a malleable metal and can be easily bent or changed in shape. The more you cut, the more it changes its shape and size.
How thick of aluminum can you laser cut?How powerful of a laser do you need to cut aluminum?
1mm | 2mm | 3mm | 4mm | 5mm | 6mm | 8mm | 10mm | 12mm | 14mm | 16mm | 18mm | 20mm | |
1000w(m/min) | 10-15 | 4-5 | 1-1.5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
1500w(m/min) | 15-18 | 4-5 | 1.5-2 | 1-1.3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
2000w(m/min) | 22-35 | 8-13 | 4-4.5 | 2.5-3 | 1.5-2 | 0.8-1.3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
3000w(m/min) | 40-50 | 15-20 | 8-10 | 4-5 | 2.5-3.5 | 2.0-2.3 | 0.8-1.3 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
4000W(m/min) | 30-50 | 20-24 | 10-13 | 4-5 | 3-4 | 2-3 | 1.4-1.8 | 0.8-1.1 | 0.6-0.8 | – | – | – | – |
6000W(m/min) | 55-60 | 25-28 | 14-16 | 10-12 | 6-8 | 5-6 | 2.5-3 | 2-2.5 | 1-1.5 | 0.9-1.1 | 0.8-0.9 | – | – |
8000W(m/min) | 35-45 | 25-30 | 16-20 | 10-13 | 6-7.5 | 5.0-6.5 | 3-4 | 2-3 | 1.5-2 | 1.2-1.5 | 0.8-1 | 0.6-0.8 | 0.4-0.6 |
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