With its excellent performance, laser equipment is increasingly used in all walks of life. Laser equipment can be roughly divided into laser cutting machine, laser engraving machine, laser marking machine, laser slicer, laser medical equipment, and other laser equipment. At present, the laser cutting machines used for material cutting on the market can be roughly divided into two types: fiber laser cutting machines and CO2 laser cutting machines.
To know how to select a laser cutting machine, first, you need to know the difference between fiber lasers and CO2 lasers.
Ⅰ、Different luminous media
Fiber lasers generate lasers through diode pumping, and use flexible fiber optic cables to transmit laser beams, while CO2 lasers generate lasers by exciting nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas in the cavity, and then transmit beams through mirrors.
Ⅱ、Different structure
At the same power, fiber lasers are more compact than CO2 lasers.
Ⅲ、Different electro-optical conversion efficiency
The conversion efficiency of a general CO2 laser is about 10%, and the conversion efficiency of a fiber laser is about 30%.
Ⅳ、The laser wavelength is different
The wavelength of a fiber laser is 1.06μm, and the wavelength of a CO2 laser is 9.3μm~10.6μm. Therefore, the focal spot of a fiber laser is smaller than that of a CO2 laser, the cutting speed is faster, and the processing efficiency is higher.
So, since fiber lasers have so many advantages, isn't it obvious how to choose between the two? What is rational is actual, and what is actual is rational. A CO2 laser has its advantages.
Different cutting materials have different light absorption rates at different wavelengths. Non-metallic materials such as wood, cloth, plastic, acrylic, etc. have low absorption rates for fiber lasers, while CO2 lasers have high absorption rates for metal or non-metal materials. Therefore, a fiber laser is only suitable for cutting metal
materials, while a CO2 laser can be used for cutting metal materials and non-metal materials. In addition, the cutting surface of a CO2 laser has good smoothness and high verticality, which is more suitable for cutting materials with high precision requirements.
Therefore, in the sheet metal processing industry, people generally choose fiber laser cutting machines, while in the non-metal material processing industry, especially precision processing and advanced crafts processing, people still choose to use CO2 laser cutting machines.
