Laser cutting stainless steel nests
Laser cutting stainless steel sheet metal whether it’s coated or plain is no problem when you have a Trumpf 3030 fibre laser machine. Plain stainless steel laser cuts beautifully with a clean edge and very little burring. Thin gauges can simply be cut with compressed air and thicker gauges with pure nitrogen. When laser cutting stainless steel with a protective peelable plastic film a slightly different technique is needed. The laser cutter is programmed to mark out the profile to cut at a low power to fuse the plastic to the top surface of the stainless steel. This happens at speed and is automatically programmed at the machine if needed. The profile is then cut again fully using pure nitrogen to cut out the parts with the plastic film in place. This process enables the laser to cut the parts out without forming a gas bubble under the plastic film.
Laser cutting stainless steel panels
Any grade of stainless steel can be laser cut although our customers seem tend to favour 316 for top quality parts needing the best corrosion resistance. 304 is the most popular grade giving a good balance between performance and cost with 430 being the cheapest.
As far as gauges are concerned we have been laser cutting stainless steel form 0.3mm thick to 6mm thick. Our Trumpf 3030 fibre laser is capable of cutting much thicker than this but it’s not required for our customer base.
These images show rather nicely the advantages of laser cutting a range of parts from the same sheet of metal. The parts were all used to build an assembly as part of a display stand. With all the parts being from the same material and thickness our Radan CNC programming software could easily find the best fit for all the parts saving money on material.
Laser cutting stainless steel
So what do you do next?
Well if you have a sheet metal project and you want it laser cut we will be happy to produce some prices for you. Or perhaps you need some help with a design or selecting the right materials, again we can advise you. With over 30 years of experience in sheet metal work we have a solution for all your design problems.
Call us on 01489 577786 if you want to chat through your ideas.
Send us your drawing data to sales@vandf.co.uk if you like and we will take a look for you.
If you want to see past laser cutting projects our Pinterest Boards are well worth a view.