Technical Info

Assist gases are used in Laser cutting to improve the quality and efficiency of the cutting process. A assist gas helps to blow away the molten metal,  preventing it from re-solidifying on the underside of the cut

There are many techniques used in fibre laser cutting, each technique with its own benefits.Common Cutting: a simple nesting option to obtain economic Fibre Laser cutting, where the quadrilaterals are aligned with the edges along similar axes, i.e., a single cut along a shared edge between adjacent parts, it is fast and efficient.A Quadrilateral is a polygon having four sides, four angles, and four vertices.Common line cutting reduces cutting time, increases the life of the cutting head consumable parts, simply because the Laser beam moves from one part to the next part without the coherent photon Laser beam requiring to turn on and off, or constantly piercing. If a parts nest is simply all straight lines, rectangles, squares, and triangles, then the quadrilaterals are aligned with the edges along similar axes, then the common cutting line approach is the correct option.An additional benefit of common line fibre laser cutting is that it reduces a cut skeleton frameFly Cutting: Works by the software analysing & grouping vertical, horizontal, angled lines, lines of holes, bespoke shapes etc, then placing the cutting lines into groups, i.e, the vertical lines, the horizontal lines, the angled lines, the holes, the bespoke shapes, then each group is cut before moving to the next group, during the cutting of a group, the Fibre Laser beam is rapidly switching the Photon monochromatic Laser Beam on and off as it travels between individual cut lines.If your components often contain arrays of bespoke complex shapes, and cutting lines, then fly cutting, also referred to as 'grid cutting' which can drastically reduce cutting time.Mosaic nesting: Is the ‘nesting of of more than one nest’ e.g., the Merging of several nests into a large nest pattern.For those that are regularly cutting assemblies of pre-nested components ‘mosaic nesting’ can often provide a ‘quick hit’ in terms of time-saving.

FIBRE LASER CUTTING - FIRE & EXPLOSION RISKThe fire risk, a thermite reaction, is a low risk, if preventable measures are taken.First is to understand this fire risk, principally it is that, if carbon steel & aluminium, copper materials are processed on the same cutting table, then there is always the possibility of a Thermite reaction, a Thermite Reaction requires no no additional oxygen, making in very difficult to extinguish.A Thermite reaction being  a mixture of: ‘ferric oxide’ – ‘Iron (III) oxide’, otherwise known as Rust particles, with fine Aluminium, Copper particles, particles that are created when cutting both Aluminium, Copper & Carbon Steel, they then mix on the  cutting downdraught table, and within the extraction ducting system. A thermite mixture can then be ignited without an external source, but generally a spark in the Fibre Laser downdraft cutting table or a spark within the extraction ducting system may ignite it.Thermite reaction - defined as an exothermic reaction between a metal and any 'metal oxide'If the fire ignition occurs in the Fibre Laser dust extraction system, this may cause an explosion, it's likely that the dust extraction unit will be destroyed  The fire risk problems within the dust extraction system can be mitigated with Preventable measures, such as a spark arrestor systems, Flame retardant filter bags, Explosion Non return valve, Explosion Panel