Laser cutting technology is one of the basic approaches used for thermal processing of parts fabricated from almost all engineering materials. Various types of lasers are utilized in the industry with different attendant gases such as nitrogen or argon. When the laser beam interacts with a metal surface, the area underneath is heated to the melting point. This liquid or vaporized metal is ejected from the kerf area to the surrounding atmosphere by attendant gas and becomes undesirable waste in the form of powder. In the presented work, the X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy methods were used to analyze AISI 304 stainless steel, which was cut by a semiconductor fiber laser, and the waste powder generated during the laser cutting process. The results suggest that this waste material may be reused for industrial applications such as additive manufacturing.

In the presented research, the methods of scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were applied to analyse the powder waste obtained by cutting of AW-3103 aluminium alloy using a fibre laser. The scanning electron microscopy allows to analyse the morphology of the waste microparticles, the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy revealed their chemical composition, which was compared with the composition of the original cut material. In the waste powder, mainly plate-like particles were observed that contain almost pure aluminium. X-ray powder diffraction measurements confirmed that the waste powder is composed of aluminium phase with only a slight presence of other phases (magnetite, austenite and graphite) and the transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of nanoscale particles in this waste powder. Furthermore, it was found that the average size of the microparticles depends on the thickness of the cut material: particles obtained from a thicker workpiece were substantially bigger than those obtained from the thinner material. On the contrary, the dimensions of the workpiece have only a little impact on the particles’ shape and no significant influence on their chemical composition. The results also suggest that the microparticles could be used as an input material for powder metallurgy. But there is also a certain health risk connected with inhalation of such tiny particles, especially the nanoparticles, which can penetrate deep into the human pulmonary system.