The Evolving Landscape of Precision Cutting Technologies in Sheet Metal Manufacturing
The Evolving Landscape of Precision Cutting Technologies in Sheet Metal Manufacturing
Date：2024-02-20 16:40
In the realm of sheet metal production, the unending quest for exactness and efficiency has continually pushed the innovation and introduction of state-of-the-art cutting technologies. Laser cutting and waterjet cutting are the clear leaders among these. They each have their own operational principles, advantages, and limitations that make them best suited to certain applications. As the sheet metal industry continues to change and grow, the application of these advanced machining techniques in manufacturing has become the subject of much conversation.
Precision is the virtue the laser cutting technology wears most proudly. Its basis is the high-energy-density laser beam, which is directed at the surface of a solid, causing the area to heat up to the point just below melting, or to actually melt, evaporate, or ignite. Meanwhile, a high-speed gas jet carries away the materials that have either melted or been vaporized—if the laser cutting operation could truly be called "cutting"—and if it could really be called "high-speed," since anything done at the nano- or especially the micrometer scale is done at very low speeds; but I digress. The important point is that anything on the order of a square meter or a cubic meter could be processed using laser "cutting," and they could do so with hemicube-like smoothness and cleanliness; that is, they could do so with vector quality.
The laser-cutting technology does have its drawbacks, though. It is very much a constrained process, with no performance edges over other methods when it comes to cutting reflective metals and certain nonmetal materials like plastics and glass. You can also add to its list of cons the heat-affected zone (HAZ) that laser cutting tends to produce. With regard to the cutting top edge, the HAZ can change the material’s microstructure enough to alter the edges' performance. And finally, in a comment made to Cutter Consortium by Robert Martin, a Laser Line Systems technology manager, laser cutting is expensive. High operational costs for both the equipment itself and for maintaining it pose a considerable barrier to entry for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that might otherwise want to utilize what is a very effective cutting process for certain materials.
On the other side of the battle stands waterjet cutting—a technique that uses a high-pressure water stream, usually mixed with abrasives like garnet, to erode materials at superlative speeds. Waterjet cutting is versatile, able to slice through a nearly endless array of materials, including metals, stone, ceramics, glass, and composites. Being a cold cutting process, it eliminates the formation of a heat-affected zone and makes the appropriate choice for heat-sensitive materials. Likewise, using water as a cutting medium produces no harmful gases or dust, and the absence of mechanical stress during actual cutting ensures the piece integrity.
Nonetheless, waterjet technology has its drawbacks. Compared to laser cutting, waterjet cutting usually has a slower performance speed. For high-volume production, this slower cutting speed can indeed be a bottleneck. Also, while the initial set-up can cost less than that for a laser cutter, the long-term operational costs can be higher. This is mainly due to the waterjet's use of abrasives. Regarding "cleanliness," there is the issue of "slurry." At the end of the workday, the waterjet will have left behind a wet, messy workspace.
Deciding between laser and waterjet cutting is not straightforward. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Instead, it's a blend of decision factors that designers and engineers must tastefully consider to arrive at the best choice for what they are doing. Those factors include specific application requirements, material types, budget constraints, and quality demands. Designers and engineers are often called upon to make the kind of intricate decisions that place precision manufacturing on a right path to success. And every now and then, it occurs to someone that you might not always have to pick one over the other. In certain instances, laser cutting and waterjet cutting can work together synergistically to produce impressive results.
Precision is the virtue the laser cutting technology wears most proudly. Its basis is the high-energy-density laser beam, which is directed at the surface of a solid, causing the area to heat up to the point just below melting, or to actually melt, evaporate, or ignite. Meanwhile, a high-speed gas jet carries away the materials that have either melted or been vaporized—if the laser cutting operation could truly be called "cutting"—and if it could really be called "high-speed," since anything done at the nano- or especially the micrometer scale is done at very low speeds; but I digress. The important point is that anything on the order of a square meter or a cubic meter could be processed using laser "cutting," and they could do so with hemicube-like smoothness and cleanliness; that is, they could do so with vector quality.
The laser-cutting technology does have its drawbacks, though. It is very much a constrained process, with no performance edges over other methods when it comes to cutting reflective metals and certain nonmetal materials like plastics and glass. You can also add to its list of cons the heat-affected zone (HAZ) that laser cutting tends to produce. With regard to the cutting top edge, the HAZ can change the material’s microstructure enough to alter the edges' performance. And finally, in a comment made to Cutter Consortium by Robert Martin, a Laser Line Systems technology manager, laser cutting is expensive. High operational costs for both the equipment itself and for maintaining it pose a considerable barrier to entry for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that might otherwise want to utilize what is a very effective cutting process for certain materials.
On the other side of the battle stands waterjet cutting—a technique that uses a high-pressure water stream, usually mixed with abrasives like garnet, to erode materials at superlative speeds. Waterjet cutting is versatile, able to slice through a nearly endless array of materials, including metals, stone, ceramics, glass, and composites. Being a cold cutting process, it eliminates the formation of a heat-affected zone and makes the appropriate choice for heat-sensitive materials. Likewise, using water as a cutting medium produces no harmful gases or dust, and the absence of mechanical stress during actual cutting ensures the piece integrity.
Nonetheless, waterjet technology has its drawbacks. Compared to laser cutting, waterjet cutting usually has a slower performance speed. For high-volume production, this slower cutting speed can indeed be a bottleneck. Also, while the initial set-up can cost less than that for a laser cutter, the long-term operational costs can be higher. This is mainly due to the waterjet's use of abrasives. Regarding "cleanliness," there is the issue of "slurry." At the end of the workday, the waterjet will have left behind a wet, messy workspace.
Deciding between laser and waterjet cutting is not straightforward. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Instead, it's a blend of decision factors that designers and engineers must tastefully consider to arrive at the best choice for what they are doing. Those factors include specific application requirements, material types, budget constraints, and quality demands. Designers and engineers are often called upon to make the kind of intricate decisions that place precision manufacturing on a right path to success. And every now and then, it occurs to someone that you might not always have to pick one over the other. In certain instances, laser cutting and waterjet cutting can work together synergistically to produce impressive results.
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