Compared with other thermal cutting methods, as a thermal cutting process, other methods cannot act on a very small area like a laser beam. As a result, the incision is wide, the heat-affected zone is large, and the workpiece is deformed. Metal laser cutting machines can cut non-metals, but other thermal cutting methods cannot.
(1) Water cutting. Many metal materials can be cut, but the cost is high.
(2) Plasma cutting. The cutting speed is obviously faster than that of oxyacetylene cutting, but the cutting quality is poor. The top of the cutting edge is round and the cutting edge is obviously wavy. It is also necessary to prevent ultraviolet radiation generated by the arc. It is slightly better than the laser cutting machine in that it is suitable for cutting thicker steel plates and aluminum alloys with high beam reflectivity.
(3) Sawing. The speed of cutting thin metal is obviously slower than laser cutting, and as a flexible non-contact, profiling cutting tool, laser can cut in any direction from any point of the material. At this point, sawing is difficult to achieve.
(4) Divided punching of complex parts. Under normal circumstances, the punching machine often punches workpieces that are much larger than the die size, and some workpieces are also very complicated, which leads to the cutting edge with many small shell-shaped cutting edges, which requires a second preparatory machining and repairing. In addition, the punch will form a much wider cut than the laser cutting machine, producing a lot of iron filings.
(5) Die punching. The die-punching method for mass production of parts has low cost and short production cycle. However, it has poor adaptability to design changes. New molds require a long time to design, and the cost is high. For medium and small-scale production, the characteristics of laser cutting will be fully demonstrated. In addition, laser program-controlled cutting facilitates close arrangement of workpieces and saves materials, while die punching requires material to be reserved around each workpiece.
(6) Electrical processing. Generally, there are two methods of EDM and electrochemical machining, which use electric corrosion or melting effect. They are used for fine machining of hard materials. The roughness of the incision is better, but the cutting speed is several orders of magnitude slower than the speed of a laser cutting machine.
(7) Oxygen-combustible material (such as acetylene) cutting. This method is mainly used for cutting low-carbon steel. Because of its large heat input and low cutting speed, it is rarely used to cut materials with precise dimensions below 20 mm.
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