The Comparative Between Fiber Laser

Cutting Machine and CO2 Cutting

Machine
Cutting is one of the most widely applied laser processing techniques.
Fiber laser and CO2 laser are the most commonly used laser cutting
equipment. It is necessary for users to have a knowledge of the advantages
and disadvantages of both the two ways of cutting.

Source : fe.infn
Wavelength of fiber laser is 1.06m and Wavelength of CO2 laser is 10.6m.
Both are infrared light and can be absorbed by material so that they can
be applied in Industrial material processing. Fiber laser is unable to
be applied in non-metal cutting, such as wood, plastic, leather and ramie
cotton fabric. In case of non-metal cutting, CO2 laser is the only choice.
But CO2 laser cannot cut copper products, including brass and red copper.

Because copper is highly reflective material for CO2 laser, laser will
be reflected instead of absorbed by copper, which can cause harm.
Laser is evaluated by integrated index as cutting speed, drilling
efficiency and section quality.
Fiber laser has an advantage in cutting thin plate, especially for
thickness under 3mm. Its maximum cutting speed ratio can reach to 4:1 and
6mm is critical thickness for the two kinds of lasers. When it is thicker
than 6mm, fiber laser shows no preferential; as the thickness increases,
CO2 laser shows preferential gradually but not outstandingly. Generally
speaking, fiber laser has an advantage in cutting speed.
Drilling efficiency:
Before cutting, laser beam should penetrate workpiece. Fiber laser needs
more time in drilling than CO2 laser. Take 3KW optical fiber laser and
CO2 laser as an example, The latter saves 1 second in drilling 8mm carbon
steel; and 2 seconds in 10mm drilling. As thickness grows, CO2 laser will
save more time.

Source : nufern
Section quality:
Section quality usually means the roughness (surface perfection) and
perpendicularity.
When cutting steel plate under 3mm, section quality of fiber laser is worse
then CO2. As thickness grows, the difference becomes more obvious.
In addition, carbon steel plate has high absorptivity on fiber laser
energy, so it has shortcoming in cutting holes (aperture panel

thickness).
The above comparison will help users make a reasonable choice. The cutting
speed of the two lasers is equally matched. Fiber laser is inferior to
Co2 laser in section quality and drilling efficiency. There is no quick
answer to which is better. They both have advantages and disadvantages
in specific application demands.
By the way ,laser cutting precision has nothing to do with the adoption
of lasers. It is determined by machine positioning precision, resetting
precision and consistency of kerf width. Fiber laser has narrower kerf
than CO2. Kerf width doesn't affect precision of the parts either, since
it can be offset by cutting gap compensation.