According to Jon Till, co-owner of Accurate Laser Cutting, the last possible reason for buying a CO2 laser cutting machine—that is, economically processing thicker materials—has been eliminated.
Jon Till has been using laser cutting machines since 1999. He believes that CO2 is about to die. Compared with CO2 laser cutting, optical fiber has many advantages in improving machine availability and productivity, reducing operating costs and greater versatility.
Till started using laser cutting machines in 1999 when the company he was involved in purchased the Bystronic BySprint 3 kW CO2 model, followed by 4 kW and 4.4 kW versions, and the first 6 kW machine in 2002.
In June 2015, a 6 kW BySprint Fiber with a capacity of 4m x 2m was installed on Accurate Laser Cutting in Oldbury, and fiber laser cutting was introduced. A 10 kW ByStar Fiber was recently added in November 2016 to process panels up to 3m x 1.5m-it is reported that this is the first such high-powered machine installed in the UK.
According to Till, 6 kW is a practical limit for CO2 laser cutting, because higher power will burn the optics. He pointed out that even if the power supply falls below this limit, it will cause damage to the lens and mirrors in the machine, resulting in frequent shutdowns for cleaning, expensive regular replacements, and shutdowns during maintenance.
CO2 laser machines can also be difficult to maintain, not only because of the condition of the optical components, but also because of the tendency of the optical path to deviate from alignment. If you want to maintain quality, you must perform time-consuming corrections.
Till also regrets that when the cutting quality or speed drops, it may take several hours for people to determine the problem with the CO2 laser cutting machine. The problem may be related to the control parameters, lens, mirror alignment, or the purity of the auxiliary gas.
As a proponent of fiber laser cutting, Till pointed out that solid-state technology avoids many of these problems by directing the beam to the fiber optic cable, so traditional optics are not worn and the laser beam will not be degraded.
The operating cost of the machine can also be significantly reduced, because the power consumption of the fiber optic machine is reduced by about 60%, and there is no need to use expensive nitrogen, helium, and carbon dioxide as laser auxiliary gases.
Till commented: “Our new 10 kW ByStar Fiber cuts 1mm mild steel at a speed of 60 m/min, faster than our old CO2 laser can position its head (50 m/min) to start cutting. The speed and productivity advantage when processing thinner plates is about three times, while thicker materials are reduced.
“Clean cutting is also much faster, where nitrogen instead of oxygen is used as the cutting gas to prevent oxidation of the cutting edges. For example, when processing 5 mm mild steel, the fiber machine is four times faster than our last CO2 machine.”
Regarding productivity, Till suggested that people are unwilling to leave the CO2 machine unattended overnight. This is the tendency for its drift to exceed tolerance, and he will not hesitate to use fiber lasers to run ghost shifts.
He pointed out that this technology de-technizes the operation, so that only a button is pressed on the fiber machine, the machine starts production, and there is still a lot of black magic to operate the CO2 machine.
He concluded: “The fiber laser can cut everything that a CO2 laser can process, and it will be faster at thinner thicknesses. It can also handle a wider variety of materials-very suitable for subcontracting environments.
“It economically obtains accurate and repeatable results with extremely short machine downtime, increasing output day and night. In my opinion, this latest 10kW machine has changed the rules of the game for laser cutting machines.”
The wrong free port may create a dynamic in which the most powerful or best-positioned person will get the most benefit-whether it is a manufacturer seeking preferential taxes and tariffs…


Post time: Jun-08-2021