Laser Cutter
Laser cutter companies provide laser cutting services by using computer-controlled industrial lasers that are focused to cut many different types of materials. Laser beams, or extremely focused radiations of wavelengths, use heat energy to alter surface layers by vaporizing or burning away surface layers. Laser cutters creates holes and patterns through laser cutting services such as laser micromachining, laser drilling, laser etching, and laser engraving, some of which allow 3D shaping. Industries which utilize laser cutters to assist in part fabrication include medical, automotive, manufacturing, transportation, aerospace and electronics. Due to the variety of laser cutter services, there is a long list of applications including microwashers, optical apertures, microfluidic channels, cell phone parts, precision miniature gears, catheters and flex circuits.
The most common type of industrial laser used by lazer cutters is a CO2 laser, which are one of the highest power continuous wave lasers. Two other types of lasers that are less commonly used include Nd lasers, which have low-repetition speed but are high energy lasers, and Nd-YAG lasers, which are very high energy lasers. The lasers are controlled during the process by a combination of CNC and CAD computer systems. There are different methods employed by laser cutters to cut materials include vaporization, ablation, melt and blow, thermal stress cracking and cold cutting. Three different machine configurations usually assist the laser cutting process: moving material, with a stationary cutting laser head under which the material moves; hybrid, in which a table moves on the x-axis and the laser head moves along the y-axis; and flying optic machines, which have a stationary table head and a moving table which moves over the workpiece along both horizontal directions. Along with laser cutting machines, laser cutters use assist gases such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide to prepare newly cut surfaces for painting or corrosion resistance.
Materials that laser cutters commonly cut through include polymers, ceramics, stainless steel, titanium, brass, epoxy materials, thin metal foils and more. Laser cutters do have a few disadvantages, most of which involve the typical drawbacks of hot cutting. The material being cut gets very hot, so in narrow areas thermal expansion, burring and warping may be a problem. Laser cutters have an advantage over their direct-contact process competitors because laser cutting is non-contact and does not distort or stress materials during processes. Machines used by laser cutters are low-maintenance, but they provide high accuracy and consistency through lasers that are able to drill sub micron holes and focus to spot sizes as small as 10-20 microns. Laser cutters are capable of creating tighter accuracies on a smaller scale than any other providers of metal cutting.