You may have noticed that we haven’t discussed cutting speed yet. It is possible to cut up to 500 inches per minute on a tube, but that’s not always realistic. In laser tube cutting, the real focus should be on how long it takes to load a tube, index it so it’s in the right position for cutting, pierce and cut it, and unload the part. It’s more about part-processing time with laser tube cutting machines, not cutting speed.
Many believed that fiber lasers were only suitable for thin materials. Because of its longer wavelength, CO2 created enough kerf to allow for material removal. The fiber laser could not produce the same results or kerf with thicker materials. This problem has been solved by collimating technology, which can create a wider fiber laser-generated beam. This allows for materials separation and more room to remove thicker materials. The machine can switch between the beam widths, so it can process thinner materials with the narrower beam. This allows for faster processing of different-sized materials using the same fiber laser cutting machine.