First of all, as the mainstream traditional laser cutting and welding equipment, CO2 lasers are used, which can stably cut carbon steel within 20mm, stainless steel within 10mm, and aluminum alloy below 8mm. Fiber lasers have obvious advantages in cutting thin plates within 4mm, but due to the influence of solid laser wavelength, they have poor quality when cutting thick plates. Laser cutting machines are not omnipotent. The wavelength of CO2 lasers is 10.6um, and the wavelength of solid lasers such as YAG or fiber lasers is 1.06um. The former is more easily absorbed by non-metals and can cut non-metallic materials such as wood, acrylic, PP, and plexiglass with high quality. The latter is not easily absorbed by non-metals, so it cannot cut non-metallic materials. However, both lasers are helpless when encountering highly reflective materials such as copper, silver, and pure aluminum.
Secondly, it is precisely because the wavelengths of CO2 and fiber lasers differ by an order of magnitude that the former cannot be transmitted by optical fiber, while the latter can be transmitted by optical fiber, which greatly increases the flexibility of processing. Before the fiber laser was launched on the market, in order to achieve three-dimensional processing, we used optical joint technology to guide CO2 laser to the three-dimensional curved surface through a highly precise dynamic combined reflector system to achieve three-dimensional processing of CO2 laser. This technology is mainly in the hands of a very small number of developed countries in Europe and the United States due to the limitations of domestic precision processing technology. It is expensive and requires high maintenance. As the market share of fiber laser gradually expands, it has gradually lost its market. Fiber laser can be transmitted through optical fiber, and its flexibility is unprecedentedly improved. Especially for the automotive industry, since it is basically about 1mm thin plate curved surface processing, fiber laser with the same flexible robot system, low cost, few fault points, easy maintenance, fast speed, it is natural to occupy this market steadily.
Again, the photoelectric conversion rate of fiber laser is as high as more than 25%, while the photoelectric conversion rate of CO2 laser is only about 10%. The advantages of fiber laser in terms of electricity consumption and supporting cooling system are quite obvious. If there are more fiber laser manufacturers, the price is more appropriate, and the thick plate cutting process is solved, the threat to CO2 laser will be huge. However, as an emerging laser technology, fiber laser is far less popular than CO2 laser, and its stability, reliability, and convenience of after-sales service still need long-term observation by the market.
It is worth mentioning that according to international safety standards, laser hazard levels are divided into 4 levels, CO2 laser belongs to the least harmful level, and fiber laser has a short wavelength and is more harmful to the human eyes, so it belongs to the most harmful level. For safety reasons, fiber laser processing requires a fully enclosed environment.
In addition, the flexible processing system of fiber lasers combined with robots has long enjoyed a high status in the automotive industry and supporting industries. In the past, it was monopolized by foreign integrators. In recent years, due to the financial crisis and the continuous improvement of production technology in the automotive industry, especially the domestic high-end laser technology manufacturers such as HGLASER FALILAI, with the support of national policies, many foreign mid-to-high-end automobile brands and national brands have tried it for the first time, and the arrogance and mystery of foreign super-high prices have been unveiled and torn. In recent years, HGLASER FALILAI has provided automobile users with automobile body welding, automobile instrument panel laser weakening, automobile airbag laser welding, automobile bumper, door, center column and other robot flexible cutting, automobile bumper laser welding, automobile exhaust pipe online welding system, automobile gearshift sleeve laser automatic cutting equipment, etc., which are stable and efficient 24 hours a day at the user's site, which makes users praise HGLASER FALILAI and foreign integrators shout "wolf is coming"!
In summary, the direction of laser application should be high-power CO2 laser application on more stable, larger format and faster machine tools. Fiber laser has more advantages when it comes to processing curved surfaces below 2 mm.