Experimental and numerical investigation of thick plate laser cutting using dynamic beam shaping

Abstract

Further improvement of quality and productivity are some of the most relevant laser cutting process challenges. One way of affecting the process performance is manipulating the laser beam intensity distribution. Within this work, the feasibility of enhancing the cutting speed and edge quality using dynamic beam shaping in 4 kW fiber laser cutting of 15 mm stainless steel is investigated. Moreover, in order to evaluate the effect of dynamic beam shaping parameters on the process zone, a simplified thermal simulation model is introduced. As a result, the effect of longitudinal beam oscillation on the cutting efficiency is studied experimentally and explained using numerical calculation. The obtained results have shown a significant improvement for laser fusion cutting compared with a static top-hat intensity distribution. In particular, the cutting speed can be increased up to 45 % with considerably better quality. Finally, further steps to optimize the dynamic beam shaping technology for laser cutting applications are proposed.