EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: alpher on October 31, 2019, 03:47:28 pm
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Intigued by recent thread about cutting square holes, I came to realise that it may be possible to join the 21 century and get the small cnc cutter from Aliexpress or such.
The thing is I'd like to cut not only plastics like plexiglass etc. but also metal, stainless steel in particular.
Machine doesn't need to be big, I think that 1' by 1' (30cm x 30cm for your metric afficionados), nor does have to be fast, I can wait :)
But it has to be able to cut through 20 to 18 gauge ss sheets (1 - 1.5mm), the sheets are designed for laser cutting as they're coated with special film, pic attached.
My guess is that 100W co2 laser may be too weak, but again have no experience in the matter.
Any input appreciated.
Thanks.
(https://i.imgur.com/BnOGRzi.jpg)
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IIRC, the wavelength of fiber lasers (~1um) is better absorbed by most stainless steel alloys, but CO2 lasers produce a higher quality beam that can produce a smaller spot size despite having a 10x longer wavelength. In either case, you are probably looking at needing >1kW of raw beam power before focusing to reliably cut 1mm thick metal. Not really something that can be done at home, I'm afraid.
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You want a pulsed (Q-switch) laser for this application. It's doable at home if you know what you're doing.
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Sorry, I see I posted it in the wrong section, should be in manufacturing & assembly.
We're not talking about "home" use here.
Strictly business.
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1kW CO2
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting