Fiber laser cutting machine and CO2 laser cutting machine are two different cutting methods. Do you know the specific difference between them? Follow me to learn it from 4 aspects.
1. Equipment structure
In CO2 laser cutting technology, CO2 gas is a medium that generates a laser beam. However, fiber lasers are transmitted through diodes and fiber optic cables. A fiber laser system generates a laser beam by pumping multiple diodes and then transmits it through a fiber optic cable to the cutting head instead of transmitting it through a mirror. Therefore, there is no range limitation on the size of the cutting table, and in the CO2 laser technology, the mirror must be set within a certain distance.
2. Electro-optical conversion rate
The most important and significant advantage of fiber-cutting technology should be its energy efficiency. With fiber laser complete solid-state digital modules and a single design, fiber laser cutting systems have electro-optical conversion efficiencies higher than co2 laser cutting technology. For each power unit of a co2 cutting system, the actual general utilization is about 8% to 10%. For fiber laser cutting systems, users can reach a higher power efficiency between 25% and 30%. In other words, the fiber-optic cutting system consumes about three to five times less energy than the co2 cutting system, resulting in an increase in energy efficiency of greater than 86%.
3. Cutting effect
Fiber lasers have short-wavelength characteristics that increase the absorption of the beam by the cutting material and enable the cutting of materials such as brass and copper as well as non-conductive materials. A more concentrated beam produces a smaller focus and a deeper depth of focus, so that fiber lasers can quickly cut thinner materials and medium-thickness materials more efficiently. When cutting materials thickness up to 6mm, the cutting speed of a 1.5kw fiber laser cutting machine is equivalent to the cutting speed of a 3kW CO2 laser cutting machine. Therefore, the operating cost of fiber cutter is lower than that of a conventional co2 cutting machine.
4. Maintenances cost
Fiber laser cutting is more environmentally friendly and convenient on machine maintenance issues. Co2 laser cutter require regular maintenance; especially that the mirrors require maintenance and calibration, and the resonators require regular maintenance. However, fiber laser cutting machine require almost no maintenance. Another point to say is that co2 laser cutting systems require carbon dioxide as a laser gas. Due to the purity of carbon dioxide gas, it is easy to pollute of the cavity and it needs to be cleaned regularly. For a CO2 with, this cost at least 120,000 per year. In addition, many carbon dioxide cuts require high-speed axial turbines to deliver laser gas, while turbines require maintenance and refurbishment.
From the above comparison, in terms of energy saving and cost, fiber laser cutting machine relatively occupy a higher advantage, and the economic benefits brought by optical fiber are much higher than that of CO2. In the future, I believe that fiber laser cutting machines will occupy the status of mainstream equipment.