Both lasers and waterjets are machining tools that emerged in the late 1960s. The technology and methods used by both are completely different. There are many sheet metal factories that wonder: should you choose between laser and waterjet?
Laser Cutting Machine
The laser cutter was first developed for the purpose of drilling holes in diamond molds. It uses laser radiation to heat and cut the workpiece. This technology is unrivaled in speed and accuracy. For this reason, it has been compared to the “Swiss Army Knife”.
Features:
①High cutting accuracy, can be used to handle workpieces with complex shapes while causing little waste;
②It is suitable for cutting thin materials, such as plastics, ceramics or metals up to 25mm thick;
③Cutting can be done quickly from any direction
There are currently two types of laser cutting machines, one for CO2 cutting (carbon dioxide cutting) and one for fiber laser cutting.
The difference between CO2 cutting and fiber laser cutting:
1. power fiber laser cutting machine: using diode polarized light system, it can effectively transmit very high power without any attenuation. co2 laser cutting machine: power is difficult to increase, and the reflector it uses may burn out at higher power. Therefore, fiber laser cutting machine available power than CO2 laser cutting machine is much larger.
2. Cutting thickness At present, in many cases, the fiber laser can cut the thickness of about the same as CO2, but it is more efficient than CO2, consumes up to 70% less power, and has less wear and tear.
3. Simplicity Many fiber laser manufacturers refer to the installation of a fiber laser cutting machine as “plug and play”. For those who need this technology, fiber lasers are highly efficient and pay for themselves quickly.
Laser cutting has become a cost-effective mode of production due to the speed, time and accuracy of cutting.
In addition, the use of manufacturing management software, such as Lantek MES, which is compatible with more than 1,200 machines on the market, eliminates the need to worry about costs due to wear and tear of equipment or replacement of tools, and maintenance costs are not high. As a result, it can help sheet metal factories save costs while increasing productivity.
Waterjet Cutting Machine
More affordable than laser cutting is waterjet cutting, originally proposed by Norman Franz, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who found that water flow under high pressure has tremendous cutting power.
Features:
① It has a wider range of applications than laser cutting, as it is cold cutting and can be applied to a wide range of materials.
②It is a sustainable and environmentally friendly cutting method for heat sensitive materials.
③ It does not cause thermal damage to the workpiece and can be used in demanding industries such as aviation, marine, automobile manufacturing, textile and shoe making, ceramics, and machining.
④It cannot be used to cut absorbent materials, such as wood, or materials that may corrode when exposed to moisture.
Another advantage of waterjet cutting is that it can be used with 3D nesting software because it can cut from any direction.
Surfaces can be cut when a stream of water is sprayed from a nozzle at high pressure and with great force to a defined location on the material; when cutting softer materials, only pure water can be used; while for harder materials, garnet grit is often used, which is mixed with water, which facilitates sheet metal cutting. Depending on the thickness of the workpiece, the nozzle size varies; the smaller the nozzle, the thinner the material to be cut, and vice versa. However, when cutting very thick and hard materials, it takes more time and therefore increases the cost.
Although waterjet cutting is more economical, it is expensive to maintain because parts, such as high pressure pumps and cutting heads, wear out.