What Are the Benefits of Remote Laser Cutting?
While lasers are effective cutting tools, you need to choose the right type of laser for your jobs. Traditional lasers don't always work well on non-standard cutting jobs. In some cases, you should consider using a specialist machine, such as a remote laser.
How does remote laser cutting work? What are its benefits?
What Is Remote Laser Cutting?
Standard laser cutting techniques often use additional substances during the cutting process. For example, you might use oxygen or nitrogen to facilitate the cuts the laser makes. These gases boost the way the laser beam works.
Remote laser cutting doesn't need a secondary gas supply. It uses a speciality laser with high-intensity capacities. Here, the laser itself does all the cutting work. It blasts away material by using a material's ability to ablate.
Any material the laser cuts will have an ablation temperature limit. Once the laser heats up the material to this temperature, it basically evaporates away. This creates the cuts you need.
As well as cutting, remote lasers can also clean up the surfaces of materials. Or, they can change a surface to add texture or grip.
Why Use Remote Laser Cutting?
Gas-boosted laser cutting works well on some jobs. For example, if you want to cut regular or thick sheets of metal, then traditional laser machines will give you effective results. However, this solution might not work as well if you want to cut or shape a thin or multi-layered material.
If you don't use the right laser on thin materials, then you might not make effective cuts. The laser and its gas might damage the material by overheating it. Or, they might not make accurate cuts. If a thin material is put under too much stress, then it might break or warp.
Plus, you might find it hard to cut multi-layered materials with a laser. For example, you might not be able to make cuts into a sheet composed of different layers of different materials. It's hard to control a regular laser to cut and then stop cutting at the right depth.
Remote laser cutting works well on thinner materials. The focused laser beam only touches a small part of a material as it works. So, it won't transfer as much heat around the cut site. This gives you a more accurate cut with less damage to surrounding areas.
Plus, you can use these lasers to cut into a multi-layered piece of material. You get the control you need to cut away the top of the piece without damaging any underlying layers that need to stay intact.
To learn more about remote ablation solutions, contact laser cutting specialists.
