Aug. 11, 2025
Surface microstructural change of materials cannot occur unless they undergo cutting processes. One of the major techniques for cutting materials for machining is laser cutting. It helps to create patterns according to designs and required outcomes. This process involves melting, burning, and vaporizing materials in the presence of a powerful laser beam. While this process is very effective, it is essential to understand the various laser cutting advantages and disadvantages.
The cutting process is successful with the help of a laser cutter which uses a thin laser beam by focusing on the material. However, before you can start cutting, there must have been a specified target you have in mind based on your designs or patterns. Manufacturers find it hard to cut through some hard materials. However, with the introduction of a laser cutter, it is now easy.
Here, we will guide you through what you need to know about laser cutting. It also covers how it works and the advantages and disadvantages of laser cutting.
Many manufacturing industries use computer numerical control machines nowadays to speed up their production processes. These machines use several processes, and one of them is laser cutting. All computer numerical control machines involve giving commands to machines after transforming the digitalized drawing into a computer language.
This language gives the device the instruction needed for executing the designs. The relationship between the language and the machine is like when you send a picture to a printer. Also, this is the same way laser cutting machines work, and they can execute the designs in a short time.
The laser cutting product design allows it to use 2D vector files for guiding lasers. It is made up of a laser resonator. This resonator has glass fibers or sometimes may contain a gas mixture of crystal bodies. The constituent resonator depends on the designer’s method to cut the materials. The application of the energy to the mix will begin the process of cutting. Then, the laser is focused after sending the mixture through different mirror lenses.
Before diving into laser cutting advantages and disadvantages, it is essential to understand how it works. The way how laser cutting machines work is similar to CNC machines work, but it uses a high-power laser. The laser will guide the material or beam by directing itself through CNC and optics. The device will use the CNC, or G-code provided, to cut into the material and control the motion.
Melting, vaporizing, and burning the material will occur after focusing the laser beam. Also, you can acquire a finished edge surface of high quality when you blow the material with a jet of gas. The creation of a laser beam occurs in a closed container by stimulating lasing materials through lamps or electrical discharge.
The amplification of the lasing materials then takes place after reflecting internally through a partial mirror. The phenomenon continues until enough energy is built up in the form of a stream of coherent monochromatic light to allow for its escape. The intensity of the light increases after using fiber optics or mirrors to focus on the work area.
The diameter of a laser beam is below 0.32 mm at its thinnest edge. In contrast, there is a possibility of the kerf width to be as little as 0.10 mm. This, however, depends on the thickness of the material. If the cutting of the material with the laser cutting machine will not begin from the material’s edge, then use the piercing process.
The piercing process allows the laser to make a hole in the material using high power. For instance, burning through a 13 mm stainless steel sheet will take 5 to 15 seconds.
The advantages of laser cutting technology are enormous. Some of these advantages are discussed below:
The precision at which the laser cuts into materials is high, and it is by delivering a focused beam of light. The laser is powerful and small, but the accuracy with which it melts and evaporates materials is unparalleled. Most times, the tolerance range of the laser is from 0.003 mm to 0.006 mm.
The tolerance level of a plasma cutter is around 0.02 mm, which is higher than that of laser cutting. Likewise, other cutting tools have tolerance levels between 1 to 3 mm and above. Suppose there is a need for a machine with high precision and accuracy during manufacturing processes. In that case, the go-to tool is usually laser cutters. Thus, the aerospace industry that requires a tight tolerance level uses laser cutting.
The economic edge laser cutting has over other CNC machines of the same caliber is one of the advantages of laser technology. There is no need to build a custom tool with the laser cutting technology. You do not also need to modify the device for any project since no extra cutting tools are needed.
Also, there is no wearing out of the surface since there is no physical contact. The cost of maintenance is less than other machining technologies since the laser cutter’s mechanical parts are not much. The cost of operating the machine is also lesser compared to traditional tools for manufacturing.
Many jobs that may be too complex for other cutting technologies are simple for laser cutters. The laser technology can work on the thinnest edge of a material. While the cut area may experience a slight distortion or warping, you can quickly produce complex geometries using a laser cutter. The tolerance level of laser cutting is broad, and it can accommodate a large number of materials.
When you use a laser cutter with materials, just a tiny amount of the materials will go to waste. This makes laser cutting stand out from other machines with a considerable portion of the material. With a laser cutter, manufacturers can make maximum use of materials. The cost of production also decreases due to the higher utilization of the resources and less waste material.
Another advantage of laser cutting is avoiding damages, even to the narrowest materials. Many people tend to believe the misinformation about the device that warping or damaging the materials is unavoidable. The popular belief has the premise of using high heat in the laser cutting process. You should note that heat affects only a small area of the material and does not affect the tolerance. The speed at which the laser cuts through sheets is breakneck, so cutting takes lesser time. Therefore, manufacturers can easily avoid warping and distortion.
In reality, you need much power to effect cutting with power. However, the laser cutter not having any other movable parts reduces the energy consumed. In contrast, machines with movable parts tend to consume more energy. Also, the time it takes for the laser cutter to cut through a material is very fast. This helps save time and power. When there is a decrease in the energy consumed, the cost of operation also reduces.
The ability of the machine to work on an extensive array of materials is interesting. Besides cutting materials, laser cutting helps with other processes like marking, drilling, and engraving. It is worthy of note that you do not need to switch or replace tools to do all these different works.
Laser cutting does not limit itself to cutting metals alone. Other laser cutting materials include wood, aluminum, plastic, copper, and brass. Laser cutting is a versatile process since it can easily cut through almost all different kinds of materials. A bonus tip: RapidDirect always takes advantages of the best material to manufacture high precision sheet metal fabricated products.
Despite the many benefits of laser cutting, it also has a few downsides you should know. We will discuss some of them below.
When you cut some materials such as plastics, evaporation tends to occur. This is a significant downside to laser cutting. Although this disadvantage is manageable, professional machine operators can easily maneuver the disadvantage. The professionals change some of the arrangements of the device to prevent this problem. However, the cost of actualizing these changes is very high these days.
A professional operator is required to use all the machine’s features and identify a problem quickly. If the device is not set up correctly, it will affect the materials and cause more significant damage to the laser cutting. Hiring an operating specialist is essential, and this comes with a lot of money since there is a limit to qualified professionals available. To save time on commuting, you can have online meetings through video interviewing software; it would be easier and more flexible.
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Although laser cutting is compatible with almost every material, including sheets, it is preferable to use another system to cut thick metals. You can determine the thickest sheets from the available machine, which also requires the presence of a specialist operator. The most comprehensive range most manufacturing companies use is 15 to 20 mm on average.
If you want to procure a laser cutting machine, you may have to spend a large sum of money. For example, when you compare plasma cutting with laser cutting, the latter costs almost two times plasma cutting. The money needed for getting the machine is very high, although you will later make more than that in the long run.
We mentioned earlier that laser cutting is compatible with various materials. The compatibility of laser cutting with almost all materials has a downside to it. Each material that will melt during the thermal cutting leads to gases and harmful fumes. The production of these toxic gases is usually typical when the material you are working with is plastics.
Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of laser cutting is not enough, working with the right manufacturing partner is also crucial. RapidDirect provides the best sheet metal fabrication serivces for your projects. RapidDirect boasts highly skilled technicians who have proficient knowledge of laser cutting and other fabricating technologies. We ensure that our sheet metal fabrication services give quality parts at competitive prices.
We are also an ISO : certified company. Therefore, you can be sure that all our materials and techniques are industry-leading. With DfM analysis, we offer professional suggestions to improve your designs. Upload your design model today to get an instant quote.
The introduction of laser cutting provides immeasurable benefits for the manufacturing industries. The machine helps cut many materials within a period, thereby saving time and reducing the cost of operation. It also has widespread usage in industries such as aerospace and automotive industries. Understanding the laser cutting advantages and disadvantages will help you make the best choice for your project. Moreover, you can always contact RapidDirect for help with your laser cutting services.
The laser cutting process uses a tightly focused high-energy light/radiation laser beam to create rapid, high-temperature-gradient heating of a single, small-diameter spot. This triggers rapid melting/vaporization of the target material, allowing the spot to travel down through the material thickness rapidly and precisely.
The hot spot is blasted with gas, blowing away the melted/vaporized material. This process exposes the cut bottom to allow renewed melting and localized cooling, enabling the cut to proceed. For lighter and more reactive metals, the gas assist uses nitrogen to minimize oxidation. Alternatively, for steel, oxygen assistance accelerates the cut process by locally oxidizing material to assist in slag clearance and reduce the reattachment of melted/cut material.
Laser cutting machines are built in a variety of formats. The most common type keeps the workpiece stationary while laser optics (mirrors) move in both the X and Y axes. Alternatively, a “fixed optic” format keeps the laser head stationary and the workpiece moves. A third option is a hybrid of the two previous methods. All methods execute 2D and 2.5D G-code patterns using a computer-controlled programming system to deliver fully automated, complex cutting paths. Figure 1 is an example of a laser cutting process:
Laser cutting advantages include: high precision, no material contamination, high speed, unlimited 2D complexity, a wide variety of materials, and a wide variety of applications and industries.
The narrowness of the energy beam and the precision with which the material and/or the laser optics can be moved ensures extremely high cutting quality. Laser cutting allows the execution of intricate designs that can be cut at high feed rates, even in difficult or fragile material substrates.
Traditional rotary cutter processing of materials requires coolants to be applied. The coolant can contaminate the cut parts, which must then be de-greased. Grinding processes may also require coolant/lubricant to be applied. The ablation of the grinding wheel, a natural part of the process, leaves carbide granules that are a hazard in many products. Similarly, water cutting leaves garnet residues. Laser cutting involves only energy and gases and poses no risk of material contamination of the resulting parts.
Few production methods can come close in processing speed to laser cutting. The ability to cut a 40 mm steel sheet using a 12 kW oxygen-assisted laser provides speeds some 10x faster than a bandsaw and 50–100 times faster than wire cutting.
Laser cutting allows intricacy through the nature of the G-code movement control method of positioning and the small size of the applied energy hot spot. Features that are only weakly attached to the main body are cut without any application of force, so the process is essentially limited by material properties, rather than process capabilities.
Laser cutting is a flexible technology that can be adapted to cut widely different materials efficiently, including: acrylic and other polymers, stainless steel, mild steel, titanium, hastelloy, and tungsten. This versatility is increasing as technology develops. For example, dual frequency lasers can be applied to cut carbon fiber reinforced composites—one frequency for the fiber, one for the bonding agent.
Laser cutting finds application in many manufacturing industries because of the combination of versatility, high processing speeds, and precision. Sheet materials are key to production across most manufacturing industries. Applications of laser cutting across industries include: airframes, ships, medical implants, electronics, prototyping, and mass production.
Laser cutting disadvantages include: limitations on material thickness, harmful gases and fumes, high energy consumption, and upfront costs.
Most laser cutting machines sit in the <6 kW range. Their cut depth is limited to ~12 mm in metal thickness—and they accomplish that only slowly (~10 mm/s). It requires the largest and most powerful machines to reach the practical limits of cutting. However, similar limits apply to waterjet and wire erosion cutting. All three processes perform these deeper cuts faster than can otherwise be achieved.
While many materials—particularly metals—do not produce harmful gases in the cutting process, many polymers and some metals do. For example, PTFE and various fluoropolymers produce phosgene gas (which is incompatible with human environments) when heated to high temperatures. These materials require controlled atmosphere processing.
Laser cutting machines have a higher energy consumption rate than other cutting tools. A 3-axis CNC machine cutting out 40 mm steel plate blanks will consume around 1/10th of the power of a laser cutting machine extracting the same part. However, if the processing time is 1 minute on the laser cutter and 20 minutes on the CNC, the net power usage is 2:1 in favor of the laser cutter. Each part will have a different profile in this regard, but the differentials are rarely simple to analyze.
The alternatives to laser cutting are wire cutting, plasma cutting, waterjet cutting, and CNC machining.
Plasma cutting is similar to electrical discharge machining (EDM) in that it erodes material by applying an arc to ablate the substrate. However, the arc is conducted from an electrode on a superheated gas plasma stream that directs the arc and blasts out the molten material from the cut. Plasma cutting and laser cutting are similar in that both are capable of cutting metal parts. Additionally, plasma cutting is suited to heavy materials and relatively coarse processing, for example, preparing heavy steel components for architectural and ship projects. It is a much less clean process and generally requires significant post-cut cleanup to make presentable parts, unlike laser cutting.
Waterjet cutting is typically a small machine process for the precise processing of a wide range of materials. The garnet abrasive employed is considerably harder than the majority of processed materials, but the hardest workpieces do pose a challenge for the process. Waterjet cannot match the processing speeds of laser cutting on thicker, hard substrates. In terms of similarities, both waterjet cutting and laser cutting produce high-quality cut parts, are suitable for working with many materials, and both processes have a small kerf (cut) width.
CNC machining is considered one of the more traditional methods of extracting parts from flat material stock. It is similar to laser cutting in that both produce high-precision parts, are fast, reliable, and provide excellent repeatability. Compared to laser cutting, CNC requires more setup and more processing time. CNC also delivers lower throughput/capacity and requires greater manual intervention. However, results can be of similar quality, albeit at a generally higher cost. Rotating cutting tools apply considerable forces to the cut material and can result in more extensive local heating. The main advantages of CNC processing are the ability to accommodate complex 3D designs and to perform partial depth (rather than through) cuts.
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