Multibeam Fibre Laser Cutting

The appearance of the high power high brilliance fibre laser has opened for new possibilities in laser materials processing. In laser cutting this laser has demonstrated high cutting performance compared to the dominating cutting laser, the CO2-laser. However, quality problems in fibre-laser cutting have until now limited its application in metal cutting. In this paper the first results of proof-of-principle studies applying a new approach (patent pending) for laser cutting with high brightness short wavelength lasers will be presented. In the approach, multi beam patterns are applied to control the melt flow out of the cut kerf resulting in improved cut quality in metal cutting. The beam patterns in this study are created by splitting up beams from 2 single mode fibre lasers and combining these beams into a pattern in the cut kerf. The results are obtained with a total of 550 W of single mode fibre laser power. Burr free cuts in 1 mm steel and aluminium and I 1 and 2 mm AISI 304 stainless steel is demonstrated over a wide range of cutting rates. The industrial realization of this approach is foreseen to be performed by either beam patterning by diffractive optical elements or multibeam fibre laser arrangements.