What Is the Difference between CO2 Laser and Fiber Laser?

CO2 or fibre lasers, which is better? This has been a common debate in the manufacturing community for many years, as laser purists insist that CO2 is the better technology, while others promoting innovation in fibre lasers insist on the exact opposite. But who is right? Which technology is better and how does it affect your bottom line?

The clue to the answer is to recognise that most manufacturers still offer both CO2 and fibre laser technology in their machinery products. They do so because they see significant differences in technology, capability and, more importantly, their performance in certain materials, thicknesses and specific applications. Ultimately it comes down to the type and thickness of material you want to cut.

Full Cover Metal Plate Fiber Laser Cutting Machine

What is a fibre laser?

Fibre lasers are best suited for high contrast marking of metals such as annealing, etching and engraving. They produce extremely small focal lengths (resulting in intensities up to 100 times higher than CO2 systems), making them ideal for permanently marking serial numbers, bar codes and data matrices on metal. Fibre lasers are widely used for product traceability (direct part marking) and identification applications.

A major advantage is that fibre lasers are maintenance-free machines with a long service life (our lasers have at least 100,000 operating hours). They are also smaller than CO2 lasers. In addition, due to the high electrical efficiency of fibre lasers, they use significantly less power than CO2 lasers, resulting in significant cost savings for cutting applications.

What Is a CO2 Laser?

A CO2 laser really refers to the method of generation of the laser itself. A resonator, purged with CO2 gasses under high velocity (turbos or blowers) used a variety of methods to split the ions of light particles (typically RF or DC excitement) causing the light particles to collide into each other and split at an even greater intervals.

How do fibre lasers work?

The fibre optic receives the light source from the resonator of the laser cutting machine and transmits it to the CNC-controlled cutting head. In the cutting head, the laser is fired from the end of the fibre optic cable and refocused through a series of focusing lenses to create a near perfect spot on the surface of the material. A cutting gas such as NO2 and O2 is purged around the laser and the material to be processed rapidly evaporates in the intense centre and is blown away as dust particles.

Full cover metal plate fiber laser cutting machine is a mature product of WID Laser which has reached domestic advanced level. This series of products is the first choice for the metal material processing industry. Fully enclosed laser protective glass can prevent laser damage to people. The environmental protection smoke automatic collection system, reflects the green science and technology concept; intelligent monitoring system, reduce the accident rate.

Cutting Sample

How do CO2 lasers work?

Once the CO2 resonator has produced enough light, it is transmitted in a different way to the fibre optic method. The beam is transmitted by a process of reflection and refocusing along a complex path called the "beam path delivery system", which is purified with a protected "laz gas" to keep the path pure and clean and free of dust that would interfere with the full intensity of the transmitted laser light.

Once the laser has been reflected back to the cutting head, the beam is then transferred to the cutting head. Once the laser is reflected back to the cutting head, it is refocused and fired in the same way that fibre optic machines use a series of lenses to refocus and high speed cutting gas shielding to purify the process path.

Conclusion

While each laser has its advantages and different use cases, CO2 is an older technology and as technology advances, fibre lasers are rapidly gaining ground. With the advantages of speed, almost half the operating costs and three to four times higher throughput than CO2 lasers, the financial gains that can be made with fibre lasers could be a game changer.

Whether you're looking for your first laser cutting system or your tenth, the experts at WID LASER can assist you in your search. We know the applications, they best ranges and have the solutions you need in both Fiber laser cutting technologies.