PLASMA CUTTING VS LASER CUTTING

PLASMA CUTTING VS LASER CUTTING

Many people often use the term ‘Laser cutting’ to mean ‘Plasma cutting’ when they want to talk about using hot, high-powered light to do the special cutting on workpieces. Although they are very similar, it’s wrong to take them for the same thing. For instance, the cutting process of plasma different is different from that of a laser as they used entirely different mechanisms throughout the process. Yet, we need to strike the exact difference between plasma cutting and laser cutting

A quick look into the Laser Cutting?

The laser cutting process started in the mid-60s after plasma cutting had been in use. It's a precise thermal cutting process that uses a focused beam of amplified laser light during its operation process. Laser cutting is usually performed using a Computer Numerical Control (CNC), to enable perfect and extreme accuracy when cutting workpieces. The optics help the laser light focus on a small point and become smaller and hotter as the laser light enters the optics. Then, the computer controls the focused laser beam of light to cut through the workpiece.

The three primary types of lasers used in laser cutting: CO2 laser, neodymium (Nd), and Yttrium-Aluminium-Garnet (Nd: YAG)

Plasma Cutting

The plasma cutting process started around the 1950s. It uses a plasma torch in the cutting process. The plasma torch creates a hot jet of plasma that can even melt through the hardest materials. When the plasma torch is activated, it projects a mixture of gases, such as nitrogen and hydrogen, through the nozzle, which consequently creates plasma.

Most people believe that plasma uses fire or flame, but, on the contrary, plasma cutting doesn’t. Instead, it uses conductive ionized gas, also known as plasma. It’s an understatement to say plasma is hot. Typically plasma reaches about 40,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

When performing plasma cutting, workers need to wear proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect their face from arc eye (also referred to as photokeratitis or ultraviolet keratitis), which occurs as a result of eyes exposure to high levels of radiation.

In Conclusion

Both laser cutting and plasma cutting works in different ways, but both are capable of cutting metal workpieces. Laser cutting uses amplified laser light, while plasma cutting uses plasma.

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