The Difference Between Plasma Cutting Machine and Laser Cutting Machine

In metal cutting, laser cutting and numerical control plasma cutting are two widely used processes in automobiles, locomotives, ships, pressure vessels, chemical machinery, nuclear industry, general machinery, engineering machinery, steel structures, textiles, petroleum and other industries. So, when users choose cutting equipment, do they choose laser cutting machine or plasma cutting machine? Please follow the footsteps of the Stable Laser Cutting Machine Supplier to explain the differences between the two from their respective principles, characteristics, application scope and respective prospects. I hope there is a reference for users in the purchase process.

First of all, before choosing a model, users need to understand their needs from their own perspective, and from which aspects to look, the first thing to be clear is the type of material processed, the shape of the workpiece, the thickness of the material, and the accuracy and efficiency of the processing. Comprehensive inspection and selection of equipment suitable for their own needs.

Principles and characteristics of laser cutting:

The principle of the Laser Cutting Machine is that after the laser is generated by the laser, it is transmitted by the mirror and irradiated on the processed article through the focusing mirror, so that the processed article (surface) is subjected to thermal energy with extremely high energy density and the temperature increases sharply. Rapid vaporization or melting, matching the laser trajectory to achieve the purpose of processing. Laser has almost no divergence directivity, has extremely high luminous intensity, high coherence, high intensity, high directivity, so it has fast cutting speed, high precision, good cutting section quality, narrow cutting gap, and good cutting quality.

Laser cutting is applicable to high-power CO2 laser cutting as an example. There are four main categories of laser cutting:

High-Intensity Plasma Cutting Machine

In the first category, from the perspective of technology and economy, laser cutting replaces metal sheet metal parts stamped by molds, especially low-carbon steels with complex contour shapes and small batch sizes, generally within 20mm thickness and 10mm thick stainless steel.

The second category, workpieces that can hardly be punched with molds, are mainly used in decoration, advertising, and service industries.

Three types of special parts that require uniform slitting. The most widely used typical parts are die-cut plates for the packaging and printing industry. .

The fourth category is cutting three-dimensional and three-dimensional workpieces, using a three-dimensional laser cutting system or configuring an industrial robot to cut the space curve.

Second, the principle, characteristics and scope of plasma cutting

High-Intensity Plasma Cutting Machine is a processing method that uses the heat of a high-temperature plasma arc to locally melt (and evaporate) the metal at the cut of the workpiece, and uses the momentum of the high-speed plasma to remove the molten metal to form the cut.

The plasma cutting range is wide, and it can cut all metal plates and many non-metal materials. It mainly cuts medium and thick plates, and the cutting thickness can reach 50mm. Cutting under water can eliminate the noise, dust, harmful gases and arc light generated during cutting, which is conducive to environmental protection and meets the requirements of environmental protection in the 21st century. Plasma cutting with different working gases can cut a variety of oxygen cutting difficult to cut metals, especially for non-ferrous metals (stainless steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, nickel).

The main advantages of plasma cutting are cutting metal workpieces with a large thickness, and the plasma cutting speed is fast, especially when cutting ordinary carbon steel sheets, the speed can reach 5 to 6 times that of the oxygen cutting method, the cutting surface is smooth, the thermal deformation is small, and there is almost no Heat-affected zone. The working gas that can be used for plasma cutting (the working gas is the conductive medium of the plasma arc and is also a heat carrier, and at the same time the molten metal in the cut must be excluded) has a significant impact on the cutting characteristics of the plasma arc as well as the cutting quality and speed. Commonly used plasma arc working gases are argon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, air, water vapor and some mixed gases.