Laser equipment is more and more used in all walks of life because of its excellent performance. 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, there are two kinds of laser cutting machines for material cutting on the market: fiber laser cutting machines,.
To know how to choose a laser cutting machine, you need to know the difference between fiber laser and CO2 laser
1. Different luminous media
Optical fiber laser generates laser by diode pumping, and transmits laser beam by flexible optical fiber cable. CO2 laser generates laser by exciting nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas in the cavity, and then transmits the beam through the reflector.
2. Different structures
At the same power, fiber laser is more compact than CO2 laser
3. Different electro-optic conversion efficiency
Generally, the conversion efficiency of CO2 laser is about 10%, and that of fiber laser is about 30%
4. Different laser wavelengths
The wavelength of fiber laser is 1.06 μ m. The wavelength of CO2 laser is 9.3 μ m~10.6 μ m. Therefore, the focus spot of fiber laser is smaller than that of CO2 laser, with faster cutting speed and higher processing efficiency
So, since fiber lasers have so many advantages, it is obvious how to choose between them? CO2 laser has its advantages even if it is reasonable.
Different cutting materials have different light absorption rates for different wavelengths. The absorption rate of non-metallic materials such as wood, cloth, plastic, acrylic, etc. to optical fiber laser is very low, while the absorption rate of CO2 laser to metal materials or non-metallic materials is very high. Therefore, optical fiber laser is only suitable for cutting metal materials, while CO2 laser can be used for cutting both metal materials and non-metallic materials. And the CO2 laser cutting surface has good smoothness and high perpendicularity, which is more suitable for cutting materials with high precision requirements.
Therefore, in the sheet metal processing industry, people generally choose optical fiber laser cutting machine, while in the non-metallic material processing industry, especially precision processing and advanced handicraft processing, people still choose to use CO2 laser cutting machine.
