Laser cutting equipment uses either CO2 or neodymium-doped lasers and can be configured as flying optics, moving materials, or hybrid systems. Pulsed lasers are used for heat-sensitive materials and laser microjets incorporate a water jet for cooling. Each setup has different benefits.
Different types of laser cutting equipment vary in the type of laser used and how the laser moves during operation. The main types of lasers used for cutting are carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers and solid-state lasers using a neodymium (Nd) doped crystal or glass gain medium. The physical configuration of laser cutting machines can be classified into three categories, called flying optics, moving materials and hybrid systems. The output from the lasers can be pulsed or continuous. Some laser cutting systems, called laser microjets, incorporate a water jet that assists the cutting process.
CO2 lasers are a type of gas laser that use a gain medium composed of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium and can also contain hydrogen, xenon or water vapour. The gain medium is excited, or pumped, by electricity to produce a beam of infrared light. They can be very high power, with some industrial CO2 lasers producing outputs of several kilowatts. Laser cutting equipment using CO2 lasers is used on metals such as steel and aluminum, as well as other materials, including plastics, fabric and wood.
Neodymium-doped lasers are lasers that use a solid gain medium doped with the rare earth metal neodymium, pumped with light from a diode laser or flash lamp. The most common medium is neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Y3Al5O12), or Nd:YAG. Other neodymium-doped materials used in lasers are yttrium orthovanadate (YVO4), yttrium lithium fluoride (LiYF4), and glass composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2). These lasers can also be very powerful and are mostly used for cutting metals and ceramics.
Most laser cutting equipment is configured in one of three ways. In a moving material laser, the material being processed is mobile. In a flying optics laser, the material being processed is stationary as the laser moves across it in both horizontal axes. In a hybrid laser, the workpiece is moved along one horizontal axis, usually the longer of the two, while the laser moves along the other horizontal axis. Similarly, laser cutting equipment that can cut in a larger number of axes, called multi-axis laser cutters, vary in their design as the workpiece or cutting head moves in each of its axes.
Each setup has different benefits. Flying optics machines are faster than other types. Moving material lasers are the slowest, but have simpler optical systems. Hybrid lasers are faster than moving material lasers, but have better energy efficiency and less complex optics than a flying optics machine.
The beam of a cutting laser can be pulsed, firing a series of short but rapid pulses of light. Pulsed lasers are useful for applications that require high energy output that lasts only a short time. They are also used for heat sensitive materials which would risk melting if subjected to a continuous beam. Pulsed beams are also used in laser microjets, where the water jet helps direct the beam and cools the material being processed.
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