Laser cutting processing plays an important role in any industry. For example, the metal materials such as stainless steel tubes and stainless steel plates, which are most widely used in the market, and many metal product accessories, metal laser cutting processing is indispensable. Now let's learn about the common processing technology of laser cutting stainless steel tubes.

Laser cutting of stainless steel pipe is different from laser cutting of stainless steel plate. The processing of stainless steel pipe is to use 3D laser cutting equipment to fix the stainless steel pipe and then use laser cutting head for processing, which can achieve 3D non dead angle cutting, thus extending various stainless steel pipe processing processes. There are several laser cutting processing technologies for stainless steel tubes. The most common ones in the market are drilling, cutting, beveling, and slotting. Because three-dimensional cutting can be achieved, the surface processing of stainless steel tubes can take many forms. For this reason, stainless steel riffled tubes that can be decorated were also born. The riffled tubes processed by laser cutting are very beautiful and highly decorative.

So how to judge the quality of laser cutting? This paper summarizes the nine criteria for determination.

1. Roughness

The laser cutting section will form vertical lines. The depth of the lines determines the roughness of the cutting surface. The shallower the lines, the smoother the cutting section. Roughness not only affects the appearance of edges, but also affects the characteristics. In most cases, it is required to reduce the roughness as much as possible, so the shallower the lines, the higher the cutting quality.

2. Perpendicularity

How to make the thickness of the sheet metal exceed 10mm, and the perpendicularity of the cutting edge is very important. When away from the focus, the laser beam becomes divergent. According to the focus position, the cutting direction is toward the top or the bottom becomes wider. The cutting edge violates the vertical line by several millimeters. The more vertical the edge is, the higher the cutting quality is.

3. Cutting width

Generally speaking, the cutting width does not affect the cutting quality. Only when a particularly fine induction is formed inside the component, the cutting width has an important impact. This is because the cutting width determines the minimum induction. When the plate thickness increases, the cutting width also increases. Therefore, to ensure equal high accuracy, no matter how large the cutting width is, the workpiece should be stable in the processing area of the laser cutting machine.

4. Grain

When cutting thick plates at high speed, molten metal will not appear in the cutoff below the vertical laser beam, but will spray out at the back of the laser beam. The effect is that the curved lines form on the cutting edge, and the lines closely follow the moving laser beam. To correct this problem, reduce the feed rate at the end of the cutting process, which can greatly eliminate the lines.

5. Burrs

The composition of burr is a very important factor to determine the quality of laser cutting. Because the removal of burr requires additional work, the severity and quantity of burr can directly determine the quality of cutting.

6. Material accumulation

The laser cutter first touches a layer of special oily liquid on the surface of the workpiece before the initial melting and piercing. During the cutting process, because of gasification and various materials are not used, the customer uses wind to remove the blockage, but the upward or downward discharge will also form a pile on the surface.

7. Pits and corrosion

Dents and corrosion affect the surface of the cutting edge and affect the appearance. They appear in cutting errors that should normally be avoided.

8. Heat affected area

In laser cutting, it is heated along the nearby area. Together, the structure of the metal changes. For example, some metals harden. The heat affected area refers to the depth of the area where the internal structure changes.

9. Deformation

Suppose the cutting causes the part to heat up sharply, and it will deform. This is particularly important in fine processing, because induction and connecting pieces here generally only need very few millimeters wide. Controlling the laser power and using short laser pulses can reduce the heating of components and avoid deformation.

So, how to avoid these undesirable cutting results?

There are many factors affecting the stainless steel cutting effect, such as: power, cutting distance, cutting speed and air pressure, nozzle, equipment itself, materials, etc. When cutting stainless steel plates, there is slag hanging. If only there is slag hanging at the corner, you can check whether there is a problem with the parameters. If there is no problem, you can lower the focus and increase the air pressure. If there is hard slag hanging at any part of the cutting, you can also lower the focus and increase the air pressure. Here, you should pay attention to that the adjustment should not be too high or too low, otherwise the section will delaminate. It is also necessary to observe the purity of the cutting gas.

When cutting stainless steel plates or carbon steel plates or aluminum plates with different thicknesses, it is necessary to see clearly the materials and adjust appropriate parameters to achieve the desired cutting effect, otherwise it will waste both time and materials.

The above are the quality judgment methods and solutions for laser cutting stainless steel.

About HGTECH: HGTECH is the pioneer and leader of laser industrial application in China, and the authoritative provider of global laser processing solutions. We have comprehensively arranged laser intelligent equipment, measurement and automation production lines, and smart factory construction to provide overall solutions for intelligent manufacturing.