CO2 lasers differ from fiber lasers by the wavelength of light, which significantly increases the range of materials that can be processed with it.

The most popular materials are: wood, plastics like PMMA (plexiglass), fabrics, rubber, stone, glass as well as steel and coated non-ferrous metals.

  • In the past the most popular co2 lasers used kilowatt power and were mainly used to cut thick sheet metal. Over time, small 40-80W office lasers began to be produced, mainly used as engraving machines.
  • Now the most popular models have a power of 100-150W, and in addition to engraving like models with lower power, they can cut quite thick materials 15-20mm (50mm) as well as steel up to 2mm thick.

Cutting thick materials results in a loss of accuracy due to the need for longer focal length lenses. For example, for a material up to 3mm thick, you can use a lens with a focal length of 1.5 “and we get an accuracy of 0.08mm, while for a 15mm thick we will use a lens with a focal length of 4” and the accuracy will drop to 0.35mm.

Materials that can be processed with a CO2 laser are divided into two categories:

  1. Materials that we can cut:
  • all types of plastics – ! but it should be remembered that many of these materials produce toxic fumes and gases (such as popular polycarbonates, PVC). The harmfulness of a given material can depend very much on its color – the components of the dye used in production !
  • wood and its derivatives ( the quality of cutting maximum thickness depends very much on the type of wood, its dryness, or the adhesive used)
  • gum
  • fabrics
  • skin
  • foils
  • steel
  • colored metals only in the form of a thin film.

2. Materials that can be engraved:

  • all types of plastics (subject to damage as if cutting)
  • wood and its derivatives (you can get a relief effect with variable engraving depth)
  • glass
  • stone
  • skin
  • gum
  • steel
  • only coated non
  • ferrous metals (e.g. anodized aluminum)

 

Data dodania: 17.12.2019r.