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Sheet metals with thicknesses >8 mm have a distinct cutting performance. The free choice of the optical configuration composed of fiber diameter, collimation, and focal length offers many opportunities to influence the static beam geometry. Previous analysis points out the limitations of this method in the thick section area. Within the present study, an experimental investigation of fiber laser fusion cutting of 12 mm stainless steel was performed by means of dynamical beam oscillation. Two standard optical setups are combined with a highly dynamic galvano-driven scanner that achieves frequencies up to 4 kHz. Dependencies of the scanner parameter, the optical circumstances, and the conventional cutting parameters are discussed. The aim is to characterize the capabilities and challenges of the dynamic beam shaping in comparison to the state-of-the-art static beam shaping. Thus, the trials are evaluated by quality criteria of the cut edge as surface roughness and burr height, the feed rate, and the cut kerf geometry. The investigation emphasizes promising procedural possibilities for improvements of the cutting performance in the case of fiber laser fusion cutting of thick stainless steel by means of the application of a highly dynamic scanner

An increase of the cut quality or enhanced process efficiency is still an aim for cutting of thick metal plates with 1.07 μm laser radiation. Nowadays, linear polarization is well investigated for CO2-lasers as an approach to a solution. The same attempt is not explored as much for laser beamfusion cutting of thick metal plates with high power solid state lasers. For this case, the present letter examines the linear polarization in contrast to statistically polarized cuts

Best edge quality for thick metal plates is one of the current main challenges to create a unique selling proposition for laser cutting machines. Various approaches have been used to optimize the cutting performance of different materials. The reported results show in general that when a new material batch is loaded to the laser cutting machine, even of the same material type, diverse results are obtained. These differences have been attributed to fluctuations in the chemical composition of the used alloys. This letter analyses the influence of five different material compositions of Cr/Ni-steel (X5CrNi18-10/1.4301/SUS304/stainless steel) and compares achievable qualities and process windows using a solid state fusion cutting system. A larger process window is observed by increasing sulfur content of the material in this study.