Laser cutting is one of the most important application technologies in the laser processing industry. Due to its many characteristics, it has been widely used in the automotive and vehicle manufacturing, aerospace, chemical, light industry, electrical and electronic, petroleum and metallurgical industries. In recent years, laser cutting technology has developed rapidly and it has been growing at an annual rate of 20% to 30%.
Due to the poor foundation of the laser industry in China, the application of laser processing technology is not yet widespread, and the overall level of laser processing still has a large gap compared with advanced countries. It is believed that these obstacles and deficiencies will be resolved with the continuous progress of laser processing technology. Laser cutting technology will become an indispensable and important tool for sheet metal processing in the 21st century.
The broad application market of laser cutting and processing, together with the rapid development of modern science and technology, they have enabled domestic and foreign scientific and technical workers to conduct continuous research on laser cutting and processing technology, and promote the continuous development of laser cutting technology.
(1)High power laser source for more thicker material cutting
With the development of high-power laser source, and the using of high-performance CNC and servo systems, high-power laser cutting can achieve high processing speed, reducing the heat-affected zone and thermal distortion; and it is able to cut more thicker material; what’s more, high power laser source can use can use Q-switching or pulsed waves to make the low power laser source produce high power lasers.
(2)The using of auxiliary gas and energy to improve process
According to the effect of laser cutting process parameters, improve the processing technology, such as: using auxiliary gas to increase the blowing force of cutting slag; adding slag former to increase the fluidity of the melt material; increasing auxiliary energy to improve energy coupling; and switching to higher-absorption laser cutting.
(3)Laser cutting is developing into highly automated and intelligent.
The application of CAD/CAPP/CAM software and artificial intelligence in laser cutting makes it developed highly automated and multi-function laser processing system.
(4)Process database adapts to laser power and laser model by itself
It can control laser power and laser model by itself according to processing speed, or it can establish process database and expert adaptive control system to improve the whole performance of the laser cutting machine. Taking the database as the core of the system and facing general-purpose CAPP development tools, it analyzes the various types of data involved in laser cutting process design and establishes an appropriate database structure.
(5)The developing of multi-functional laser machining center
It integrates the quality feedback of all procedures such as laser cutting, laser welding and heat treatment, and give full play to the overall advantages of laser processing.
(6)The application of Internet and WEB technology is becoming an inevitable trend
With the development of Internet and WEB technology, the establishment of WEB-based network database, the using of fuzzy inference mechanism and artificial neural network to automatically determine the laser cutting process parameters, and the remote access to and control laser cutting process is becoming an inevitable trend.
(7)laser cutting is developing towards the laser cutting unit FMC, unmanned and automated
To meet the 3D workpiece cutting needs in automobile and aviation industries, the 3D high-precision large-scale CNC laser cutting machine and cutting process are in a direction of high efficiency, high precision, versatility and high adaptability. The application of 3D robot laser cutting machine will become more widely.