Differences Between Plasma and Laser Cutting

I. More and more cutting technologies have developed

With the development of science and technology, there're more and more cutting ways, such as laser cutting and plasma cutting. The following is to introduce the difference between plasma and laser cutting.

II. Difference between plasma and laser cutting

1. Difference in meaning

Plasma cutting is the use of high temperature plasma arc heat to make the workpiece incision at the metal partial melting (and evaporating), and a processing method in which the momentum of a high-speed plasma is used to eliminate the molten metal to form a notch.

Steel pipe laser cutting is the use of the focused high power density laser beam irradiation workpiece, so that the irradiated material will be rapidly melting, vaporizing, ablating or to reach the ignition point, at the same time with the beam of high speed airflow coaxial blowing molten material, so as to cut open the workpiece.

2. Comparison of application scope

Plasma cutting can be used for stainless steel, aluminum, copper, cast iron, carbon steel and other metal materials cutting, plasma cutting has obvious thermal effect, low precision, cutting surface is not easy to secondary processing;

Laser cutting has a wide range of applications, it can cut regardless of metal or non-metal, and can use CO2 laser cutting machine to cut non-metals, such as cloth, leather and so on. It can also use the fiber laser cutting machine China to cut metal.

3. Comparison of cutting thickness

The application of laser cutting in industry is generally less than 20mm. The cutting capacity is generally below 40mm; Plasma cutting thickness is 0 to 120mm, the plasma system with the best cutting quality range and thickness of about 20mm is the most cost-effective

4. Comparison of cutting speed

The cutting speed of plasma cutting is slow, the relative accuracy is low, and it is more suitable for cutting thick plates, but the end face has slope. Laser cutting is fast and can be used in mass production.

5. Comparison of cutting precision

The laser cutting incision is narrow, both sides of the slitting seam are parallel and perpendicular to the surface, and the dimensional accuracy of the cutting parts can reach ±0.2mm. The plasma can reach within 1mm.