Various industries have widely used laser technology with the rapid development of laser technology.
Laser cutting technology has also evolved from the original flatbed cutting to today’s tube cutting.
The birth and application of professional laser tube cutting machines have greatly improved metal tube processing efficiency.
This article will explain the advantages of the professional tube and pipe laser cutting machines and the classification and characteristics of the mainstream professional laser tube and pipe cutting machines on the market today, and look forward to the development trend of professional laser tubes and pipe cutting machines.
The cutting principle of laser tube cutting machines and flat laser tube cutting machines is not much different. A laser tube cutting machine is used for standard metal tubes (round tubes, rectangular tubes, elliptical tubes, etc.), profiles (channel steel, angle steel, etc.), and some shaped tubes.
Compared to traditional processing techniques, it has the following advantages:
Thus, a professional laser tube cutter can replace mechanical drilling, milling, sawing, punching, or burr cleaning, which requires equipment and hard tools to process different metal tubes.
It can realize complex tube structure cutting, chamfering, slotting or hole cutting, scribing, and other possible size and shape features. A laser pipe cutting machine is very widely used. It is used in sheet metal processing, kitchenware, lighting, automotive, medical equipment, hardware, fitness equipment, and other industries.
Laser tube cutting machines can be broadly divided into two categories according to the axial feeding method of the tube.
This type of laser tube cutting machine only processes the fixed length of the tube, mostly used for processing axis constant, cross-sectional changes in the profile of the tube surface, the ends of the tube can not be processed.
Although fixed-length laser tube cutters have great limitations and low productivity, they occupy a large market share due to their special features.
Figure 1 shows the decorative patterns on the surface of lamp poles and lampshades processed by fixed material cutting laser tube cutting machine.
Working Principle
As shown in Figure 2, the fixed material cutting laser tube cutter consists of two clamping chucks, which hold the tube in place. The chucks make synchronous rotational movements around the tube axis, and the laser head makes axial. The radial feed cuts to the tube.
This type of tube laser cutting machine is mainly used to process the same section of the coaxial tube. It can process various contour shapes of the tube surface, but it can also be cut according to the design length of the tube part within the design stroke of the machine.
Compared with laser tube cutters for fixed material cutting, it has higher flexibility, scalability, and cutting efficiency and currently occupies most of the market share of professional laser tube cutters.
As shown in Figure 3, the feed-cut laser tube cutter can batch process standard metal tubes of various profiles such as square and round tubes and cut them.
Working principle
As shown in Figure 4, the tube is clamped by the clamping chuck, and the supporting chuck clamps the tube in the radial direction.
All chucks rotate around the tube axis in synchronous motion, the clamping chuck holds the tube for axial feeding, and the laser head feeds and cuts the tube in the radial direction.
At present, the feed cutting of laser tube cutting machine in the market mainly relies on two chucks, which is cost-effective, but its disadvantages are also obvious.
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1) Poor stability of cutting accuracy
For parts too long or less rigid pipe, under the action of gravitational deformation plus chuck rotation centrifugal force, it is difficult to ensure the stability of cutting accuracy even if the support of servo roller or profiling wheel is added.
(2) Even though the laser head can cut through the supporting chucks, the chuck clamping end of the tail material cannot be cut, resulting in the waste pipe.
In response to these shortcomings, some equipment manufacturers have extended the design of a multi-chuck laser tube cutter based on the laser tube cutter with double-chuck feed cutting, as shown in Figure 5.
Among them.
This also explains why the multi-chuck feed cutting type laser tube cutting machine has not yet become a mainstream trend.
The future demand for tubes is getting bigger and bigger, and the processing requirements will be higher and higher. It is vital to improving processing accuracy and production efficiency for the rapid development of a professional laser tube cutting machine.
The needs of users evolve with time.
Modular design enables the addition or replacement of functional components to fulfill user needs and maximize both parties’ benefits.
Many users already have automatic loading and unloading equipment installed.
Automation’s advancement can effectively liberate workers and solve the problem of labor scarcity in businesses.
With the widespread adoption of the “Industry 4.0” idea and the maturation of 5G technology, the future laser pipe cutting machine will almost probably achieve complete automation.
It will integrate information collection, order placing, feeding, loading, tube identification, length measurement, automatic call program cutting, unloading, palletizing, shipping, and finally realize intelligence.
Fiber laser tube cutting machine is particularly suitable for processing various metal tubes. Laser cutter is much better in terms of both precision and processing efficiency compared with traditional tube cutting methods that rely on manual sawing, sawing, roller extrusion, grinding wheel cutting, gas welding cutting, etc. Therefore, the application prospect of tube laser processing technology in processing metal tubes is very broad.
The tube laser cutting system has an incomparable advantage over traditional processing methods for a variety of processing methods of free-form surfaces and curves in space. In the process of processing, you should first ensure that the cut surface of the tube is cut through to obtain the required length of the tube blank. The traditional tube cutting methods are difficult to meet the needs of mass production, and the tube parts processed by these traditional processing methods have generally poor quality of cut surface, and some even have processing defects such as deformation and collapse. In addition to cutting tubes, some also require other forms of processing, such as: pattern cutting for decoration and lamps, spiral, sine, and cosine wire cutting, marking, etc. If these forms of tube processing use traditional processing methods, not only the processing efficiency is low, but also it is difficult to meet the ideal processing requirements, and some even cannot be processed at all. Production practice shows that the key to tube cutting is to eliminate the cutting quality defects to the greatest extent so as to meet the processing requirements. When processing complex tubes such as piercing, grooving, trimming or undercutting, the tube fiber laser cutting system can greatly guarantee the processing quality.
Advantages of laser processing metal tubes
Laser processing of metal tubes has many advantages such as narrow cut width, small heat-affected zone, fast cutting speed, good flexibility, smooth cut and no tool wear, and it is easier to realize automated and intelligent production mode. The tube laser cutting system cuts tubes (including tangent, oblique cutting, forming cutting, etc.). The cut width is generally 0.1 to 0.3 mm. Compared with traditional processing methods, the cutting efficiency can be increased by 8 to 20 times, and the processing cost is reduced by 70% to 90%， which can save 15% to 30% of material loss. Tube laser cutting system equipped with automatic loading and unloading can the job in one step while traditional processing methods require multiple continuous processes to complete the whole thing.
Problems in laser processing of metal tubes
When the tube is cut (especially for the square tube with small tube diameter), the molten slag adheres to the inner wall of the tube, and most of the heat generated by the cutting is absorbed by the workpiece. When the cutting density is high, the tube will overheat, overburning of the corners seriously affects the quality of the incision, and even cannot be cut. At present, the quality problems existing in the laser tube cutting process such as overburning of the cutting point of the parts, overburning of the corners of the parts, inclination of the cutting surface, and deformation of the circle when cutting round parts or failure to close, etc., directly lead to serious waste of the tube and cutting production low efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen in-depth research on these aspects.
Professional tube nesting software is the basis and prerequisite for realizing large-volume, high-efficiency and high-quality cutting production of CNC tube cutting machines. Through professional tube cutting and nesting software, pre-program drawing, nesting, and blanking on the computer to generate NC cutting programs, and then perform full-stroke automatic laser cutting and blanking of large-length metal tubes. When changing the diameter or shape of the tube, you only need to modify the program. Therefore, the development of tube cutting software is of great research value.
Realizing the complete automation of the entire process of raw steel tubes from feeding, conveying, length fixing to cutting finished tubes after cutting, and transporting to the next link of the assembly line is the current technical solution pushed by many laser equipment companies, and it is also the mainstream. It is also of great significance for laser companies to continue to strengthen the research on automatic tube laser cutting production lines.
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