Nowadays, fiber lasers have become a main energy source in laser cutting because of their highly electro-optical conversion efficiency and high beam quality. However, the amount of dross produced by fiber laser cutting is larger than that by CO2 laser cutting, and postprocessing is required to obtain a flat surface without dross, which leads to increasing the processing cost. If fiber laser achieves dross-free cutting of a steel plate, further expansion of cutting applications can be expected. Therefore, in order to achieve further reduction of dross, the influence of beam intensity distribution on dross height was investigated by fiber laser cutting experiments and ray tracing analysis. The laser cutting experiment of steel plate cold commercial with 3.2 mm thickness was carried out by a 3 kW fiber laser with nitrogen assist gas, and a round Gaussian mode of 114 μm spot diameter and a square top-hat mode of 132 μm were used. The square top-hat mode can achieve smaller dross height below 12 μm, which is approximately half of the round Gaussian mode. Ray tracing analysis revealed that the square top-hat mode increased the uniformity of absorbed energy on the cutting front surface, and the more uniform intensity distribution contributed to a small ellipticity of the cutting front shape of the kerf. It was clarified that the shape of the cutting front with a small ellipticity reduced the amount of molten metal ejected from the side of the kerf, which resulted in the reduction of dross height by the fiber laser cutting.
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November 2021
Research Article|
September 17 2021
Investigation on reduction of dross height by analyzing beam intensity distribution in fiber laser cutting
Naoto Kai;
Naoto Kai
1
Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University
, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
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Yasuhiro Okamoto
;
Yasuhiro Okamoto
1
Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University
, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
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Akira Okada;
Akira Okada
1
Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University
, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
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Hiroaki Ishiguro;
Hiroaki Ishiguro
2
AMADA CO., LTD.
, 200 Ishida, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1196, Japan
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Ryohei Ito;
Ryohei Ito
2
AMADA CO., LTD.
, 200 Ishida, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1196, Japan
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Akihiko Sugiyama;
Akihiko Sugiyama
2
AMADA CO., LTD.
, 200 Ishida, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1196, Japan
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Hiroshi Okawa;
Hiroshi Okawa
2
AMADA CO., LTD.
, 200 Ishida, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1196, Japan
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Rio Fujita
Rio Fujita
3
AMADA CO., LTD.
, 3-1-1 Nishikonoike, Higashiosaka, Osaka 578-0976, Japan
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Note: Paper published as part of the special topic on Proceedings of the International Congress of Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics 2021.
J. Laser Appl. 33, 042008 (2021)
Article history
Received:
June 30 2021
Accepted:
September 03 2021
Citation
Naoto Kai, Yasuhiro Okamoto, Akira Okada, Hiroaki Ishiguro, Ryohei Ito, Akihiko Sugiyama, Hiroshi Okawa, Rio Fujita; Investigation on reduction of dross height by analyzing beam intensity distribution in fiber laser cutting. J. Laser Appl. 1 November 2021; 33 (4): 042008. https://doi.org/10.2351/7.0000470
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