Laser Cutting Platinum 1

[tiffanycolin]

Our company is looking for a high powered laser to cut platinum tubing up to 120 thousands wall thickness. We are looking for a 4 axis laser that will cut tubing into small pieces about 2mm thick. What company would you suggest? Has anyone ever used a laser to cut PT?

Colin Marker

 

[vinayaklaser]

Hi,

I will like to know the diameter and length of the tubes that you will like to cut.

Thanks

VinayakLaser

 

[tiffanycolin]

Sure,

We are cutting PT tubing which comes to us in 2 foot legnths. There are different sizes we cut but they are all near 20mm in diameter and 120 thousands wall thickness.

Colin

 

[Timelord]

I have to ask, why are you wanting to cut it with a laser? You will lose most of the kerf material because the laser will vaporize it. I would be looking at high speed sawing so the kerf material is recoverable as chips. I have a friend that is in the jewelery findings business and they make silver Heishi (tiny tubular beads) at very high production rates. They saw with custom automated saws and recover over 99% of the kerf material. I have examined laser cutting as an alternative for their process and discarded the idea because of the cost of the lost material. Platinum is a lot more expensive than silver so any cost analysis would favor sawing even more.

 

[tiffanycolin]

Timelord,

We found that very little of the kerf is actually vaporized. Currently we use a water jet to cut the platinum and it is costly to refine the garnet to recover the cut PT. PT is very dense and very difficult to cut. Using any blade to cut the PT would be expenisve to purchase and the thickness of the cuts would be larger than the laser kerf. For these reason we have come to looking into lasers because of the very thin kerf width as well as easy recovery of "clean" scrap.

Colin

 

[Timelord]

Colin,

What happens to the kerf material that is not vaporized? Silver is also very tough to cut, very abrasive. My friend has refined the process so he is able to make 10's of thousands of cuts on a single blade with no burrs. He uses HSS blades that are less than .005 thick at very high spindle speeds and soapy water as a cutting fluid. What size kerf do you get with the laser? Heishi is very small, on the order of <1mm OD x ~2 mm long x .1-.2mm wall and he processes 10's of pounds per day per saw. He draws flat stock into tubing with a plain butt joint and then saws it without distorting the tube or making a burr.

 

[tiffanycolin]

Most of the material is melted and there is high pressuer gas forced down the length of the tube allowing the molten PT to cool and later be collected. We are able to produce a kerf of about .15-.25 mm thick.

 

[vinayaklaser]

Hi!

Sorry for not comunicating before. From various exchanges, it seems that you have discared all other mechanical alternatives and are already using lasers to cut Platinum. If that be the case, it seems that you are interested in getting a regular industrial system which will cut things for you. Is that right? Which laser are you using and are you getting good results from the surface quality viewpoint?

Regards,

VinayakLaser

 

[Rossmetals]

Try a pulsed Nd:YAG laser

http://www.lasg.com