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2001
Journal Article
Titel
High speed and thick section CO2 laser cutting
Abstract
Despite the fact that CO2 laser cutting is the best established of all the laser processes, with more than 25 years of research and development behind it, the technology is still evolving rapidly. New CO2 laser sources now achieve powers up to 4 kW with a beam quality better than M(exp 2) = 1.25. At the same time, the dynamics of the laser cutting machines have improved significantly by linear direct drives and faster control systems, providing accelerations exceeding 2 g at excellent accuracy. These developments, together with advances in process techniques, have recently led to significant increases in high-quality laser cutting speed and cutting depth.