What are the Advantages of Laser Cutting?

Accuracy: Laser cutters have the highest precision among any cutting methods. The high precision comes from the light being narrowed down to an extremely thin diameter. Laser cutting accuracy is even higher than processes like water jet cutting.

Speed: Laser cutting thin materials is extremely fast. The speed can easily be over 3 meters per minute. Therefore, laser cutters are common in mass-production assembly lines.

Versatility: Laser cutting works on a lot of different applications and for many different uses. This makes it a very versatile cutting method.

Customization: It is possible to create personalized and customized shape by simply changing the CNC program.

Automation: Modern CNC laser cutting work with CNC systems. CNC can automatically control the movement of the cutting head.

Dust-free Cutting: Using a laser does not create any material dust in the workpiece. For instance, there is no sawdust when cutting wood with fiber lasers.

Less Waste: A laser cutter is very precise and removes very little material from the workpiece. This leads to minimum material waste. It is extremely useful when cutting precious metals where wastage can lead to losses.

Disadvantages of Laser Cutter

Budget: Laser cutters are industrial equipment. It can be tricky to fulfill their initial investment and maintenance costs if you are on a tight budget.

Safety: Safety is not a big limitation with modern lasers as they come with safeguard measures. However, the operator still requires safety training.

Unsafe Materials: Certain materials are unsafe for cutting with a laser. It is important to know these materials beforehand to avoid machine damage and human injury.

Thickness: Laser cutting works well for thin materials like sheet metal. However, it doesn’t work for thick materials like metal blocks.