Why Choose a Laser Metal Cutting Service With Fiber Laser Capabilities?

When cutting metal materials with precision, accuracy, and efficiency, laser cutting is often considered the gold standard. However, not all laser cutting machines are created equal, and different types of laser cutting equipment have different capabilities - and limitations.

CO2 lasers are the most common and widely used laser cutting machines, and crystal-based lasers (such as nd:YAG and nd:YVO laser cutters) are also popular. However, if you want a laser cutter that excels in areas and applications where other laser cutter types typically fall short, you should consider choosing a laser cutting service that utilizes fiber laser cutting technology.

Why Should You Choose a Fiber Laser Cutting Service?

Choosing a laser cutting service that possesses fiber laser cutting capabilities can bring numerous benefits to a wide variety of metal cutting and fabrication projects. Discover some of the reasons to choose this laser cutter.

Quality Reflective Material Cutting

Laser cutting beams are essentially powerful and tightly focused beams of light energy. Just like any other form of light energy, they have a tendency to bounce off of highly light-reflective materials, instead of penetrating them. This creates obvious problems when cutting highly reflective or polished metals, and most CO2 and crystal laser cutters are incapable of cutting these materials reliably.

Fiber laser cutters overcome these limitations by producing lasers with extremely short wavelengths, usually around the 1 micrometer level. At these short wavelengths, the laser beam from the cutter is very tightly focused, which helps to reduce the reflective properties of metallic materials.

As a consequence, fiber laser beams can penetrate the full thickness of highly reflective metals without losing significant amounts of light energy. If you need to cut reflective metals that other laser cutters may have trouble with, such as copper, brass, aluminum, or highly polished stainless steel, choosing a laser cutting service with fiber laser capabilities will usually guarantee accurate, high-quality results.

Lower Cutting Costs

Fiber laser cutters are rarer than CO2 lasers primarily because they are more expensive to purchase. However, running costs for fiber laser cutters are significantly lower, for several reasons.

Fiber lasers do not require as much energy as other types of laser cutters to produce beams of equivalent power. They do not require warm-up period before they can begin cutting operations, further reducing their energy requirements.

As solid-state devices, fiber lasers contain fewer moving components than CO2 or crystal lasers, leading to less mechanical wear and lower maintenance requirements. They also do not require optical mirrors to function. These mirrors are both expensive and fragile and need frequent replacement.

Laser cutting services that possess fiber laser cutters can pass these long-term savings on to you, and fiber laser cutting services are usually cheaper than services that utilize other laser cutting technologies. This makes fiber laser cutting services ideal for performing large, bulk cutting orders without breaking the bank.

Faster Turnover

Because fiber laser cutters require less maintenance than other types of laser cutters, they require less downtime throughout the working day. The highly focused laser beams from these cutters can also cut through thicker or reflective materials more quickly than other types of laser. This cutting process is so fast that many fiber cutters require automated material handling devices to function at their maximum cutting speeds.

This makes fiber laser cutting services an ideal choice if you have a last-minute cutting project that requires very rapid turnover. A single fiber laser cutter can often handle large cutting orders in less time than two or more cutters utilizing CO2 or crystal-based technology.

You have many useful advantages to choosing a fiber laser cutting service for your next metal fabrication project. If you have any more questions about the capabilities of fiber laser cutting machines, get in touch with the laser metal cutting experts at Spradlin Bros Welding Co. today.