1.Introduction

Laser Cutting Equipment is a fast development of new manufacturing technology, compared with the traditional flame cutting, plasma cutting and other traditional cutting technology, compared with high precision machining, thermal deformation, cutting surface quality, cutting requirements for high occasions Is an ideal cutting technology, laser automatic cutting equipment for the popularization of China’s traditional industries will be the technological transformation of emerging industries and the modernization of the manufacturing industry to provide advanced technology and equipment. The face of the growing huge laser automatic cutting equipment market and international competition in the new pattern of laser cutting technology industrialization needs of a big development. This situation to the domestic engaged in laser cutting equipment, automated production enterprises to bring an excellent opportunity and challenge.

China’s laser automatic cutting equipment technology industry is in rapid development period, some domestic laser cutting equipment and light source technology has reached the international advanced level; until last year, China’s laser industry has begun to take shape. As an advanced manufacturing technology, laser technology increasingly in-depth all walks of life, the transformation of China’s manufacturing industry plays an important role in upgrading.

The classification of laser automatic cutting equipment is mainly based on the type of light source, light source power, cutting dimensions (plane or three-dimensional) to distinguish; which sub-technical indicators for the cutting speed, cutting accuracy, motion mechanism, manual or auto focus function Taiwan size and so on.

2.The laser source classification and technical characteristics

Laser technology to talk about the technical characteristics of automatic cutting equipment, we must first understand the laser source, because the laser source directly determines the laser cutting equipment, other technical performance indicators.

Currently on the market of laser automatic cutting equipment laser source are: 1.CO2 laser 2. Fiber laser 3.YAG laser

1.CO2 laser laser working substance for the CO2 gas mixture, the main application of the laser wavelength is 10.6μm. Because of the high laser conversion efficiency of the laser and the heat generated by the laser operation, the laser output power can reach a high level High-power laser processing requirements.

CO2 laser power to be divided into: low-power, medium power, high-power CO2 laser:
Low power (less than 200W) CO2 laser applications
Mainly for the electronics industry (such as resistance manufacturing, IC logo), non-metallic

processing industry (bamboo carving, clothing, footwear, jewelry manufacturing, etc.) and some medical and research units used.

Application of CO2 laser with middle and high power (200W-1600W)
Metal cutting, computer, electrical sheet metal cutting, special materials such as cutting: plastic, glass, mold and other non-metallic cutting.
Application of CO2 laser with high power (more than 1600W)

High-power CO2 lasers larger than 1600 watts are mainly used in metal cutting, welding and surface treatment. They have been adopted in some special fields in the national defense, automobile and aerospace industries in advanced industrial countries.

The traditional high-power-axis fast-flow CO2 laser is still the mainstream of high-power laser cutting equipment. Although the rapid development of fiber lasers in recent years, CO2 lasers still account for the vast majority share of 65%.

Domestic and foreign high-power CO2 laser for laser processing, mainly cross-flow, axial lasers.
Cross-flow laser beam quality is not good, for multi-mode output, mainly for heat treatment and welding. China has been able to produce a variety of high-power cross-flow CO2 laser series, to meet the domestic laser heat treatment and welding needs.

Axial-flow lasers: Axial-flow lasers have good beam quality and are mainly used for laser cutting and welding. Our laser cutting equipment market is mainly occupied by foreign axial lasers. Although the domestic laser manufacturers in the foreign axial lasers to do a lot of work, but also need to import the main parts, the product price is difficult to significantly decline, the penetration rate is low.

Swirling CO2 lasers with a new type of rotating gas flow, so that the swirling CO2 laser at the same time with the axial flow CO2 laser beam quality and cross-flow CO2 laser low cost, small size advantages. The application of industrial processing lasers will play a positive role in promoting the development and popularization of laser processing industry in China.

In the late 1960s, high power CO2 lasers and their applications have been studied in China. After more than 30 years of efforts, now has formed a 500W ~ 10kW series of production capacity, about more than 10 companies and units can produce more than 500W CO2 laser, including Chutian, laborers, Han, Nanjing East, Nanjing Tong fast , Shanghai Prima. But on the whole, China’s laser compared with foreign countries there is a certain distance, all the Chinese market, most of the use of imported products. International brands include: Rofin, Trumpf, PRC, Coherent, Access, Prima, Bystronic, Mitsubishi Group, MAZATROL, Amada.

Overall, China’s CO2 laser technology after years of cultivation, with a certain development, is taking shape, most of our Cutting Machine on all high-power CO2 lasers are still dependent on imports. Compared with foreign countries, domestic high-power CO2 lasers on its laser quality and its control system, there is still a gap.

2. Fiber laser is a wave-guide structure, with high gain, high conversion efficiency, low threshold, good output beam quality, narrow line-width, and low power consumption. The structure of the fiber laser has the following advantages: Simple, high reliability, easy to achieve and fiber coupling, the output peak power of up to hundreds of kilowatts, wavelength 1.06μm near the absorption efficiency of most materials, small size, light weight, easy to move, focusing spot diameter Small (10 ~ 100 μm), can achieve very precise cutting, which can be removed from some post-processing steps. Through the optical output, easy to cooperate with the robot to achieve long-range laser processing, the overall photoelectric conversion efficiency of up to 25% to 30%, can be a long time stable work, easy maintenance, low operating costs.

Although fiber laser cutting is good at cutting most materials, it can not be used to cut acrylic or poly-carbonate materials, and can only cut wood or fiber materials in limited applications
Production of fiber laser companies: SPI, IPG, there are sharp domestic division of laser (Chinese laborers laser).

3. YAG laser output wavelength of 1.06um, just than the CO2 laser wavelength 10.06μm small one order of magnitude, the traditional solid-state lasers are usually used high-power gas discharge lamp pump, the pump efficiency of about 1% to 3%. The large amount of energy emitted by the pump lamp is converted into heat energy, which not only causes the solid laser to use bulky cooling system, but also can cause the thermal lens effect which can not be eliminated by the working material. In addition, the life of the pump lamp is about 300 hours, the operator need to spend a lot of time for frequent lights, interrupt the system work, so that the efficiency of automated production lines greatly reduced, but if the diode pumped solid-state lasers, you can very well avoid at this point.

YAG solid laser cutting machine with low price, good stability characteristics, but the energy efficiency is generally low <3%, the current output power of most products in the 600W below, the output energy is small, mainly used for drilling and spot welding and sheet Cutting. Its green laser beam can be used in the case of pulses or continuous waves, with short wavelengths and good concentrating properties. It is suitable for precision machining, especially in pulsed hole machining. It is also effective for cutting, welding and lithography. . YAG solid laser cutting machine laser wavelength is not easy to be non-metallic absorption, it can not cut non-metallic materials, and YAG solid laser cutting machine need to address is to improve the stability and life of the power supply, that is to develop large-capacity, long-life optical pump Excitation light source, such as the use of semiconductor optical pump can greatly increase the energy efficiency.