New to Laser Cutting need help!!

[Jwoody44]

Hello Everyone,
My company decided to go with an 1995 Amada Pulsar and I got thrown into the mix to try and get this machine running..
The Amada people have been here and got all the parameters and maintenance done to it and it's up and running. I know how to operate the machine I just need info on settings for stainless steel and I also need too know what edge data is, as well as focal point and any other useful information I could use , I would greatly appreciate anyone's time too help, the oxygen settings seem to work fine for mild steel up too .250 and I'm using nitrogen on stainless but any stainless no matter what size seems to have a huge burr on the backside, not really signs of burning but a ton of burr, and also should I be cutting paper or paper down because people have told me both...I'm sorry for the ranting I'm just so overwhelmed right now!! So any power settings frequency settings duty settings or anything else I need to know would be wonderful!!
Thank you for anyone's help!!

 

[la71]

Ok let`s see,giant black hard burr in the bottom is caused by focalpoint to high or gaspressure to low and speed to low,when you do adjustment of the cutting parameters,do it in big steps so you can see the differens,focalpoint 1mm at time,gasprassure 1-2 bar at time. in my machine 3mm ssteel focal=-3,5 nozzle= 2,5 power=4000 w

 

[LASERNINJA]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I can imagine how frustrated you must feel.

To expand on what LA71 said, I recommend increments of 10% on the cutting parameters. Example, if your feed rate is 150 ipm, then try 165 and see if there is a change.

I am sure others would agree that stainless, in some respects is easier to cut than steel. With full power, full frequency,and full duty, 8 kg of gas pressure, there are not too many other variables.

The short answer, 2mm nozzle, up to 0.125, and 8kg for pressure. All that is left is focus and feed rate.

Stainless doesn't require edge data. Not now anyway.

 

[rambynas]

I get better results reducing Duty to 75% or 65%

 

[rambynas]

BTW no paper at all for best result.

 

[rambynas]

With paper I'm using high pressure O2 5kg/cm paper down.

 

[LASERNINJA]

Food for thought:

It has been my experience that if you have to lower the duty (100% to 75%)to improve cut quality clean cutting stainless steel, your feed rate is too slow.

 

[rambynas]

Right. More speed higher duty. Slower less duty. But for SS in my experience slower is better.

 

[drossfree]

ok basic rule of thumb in my experience for ss always paper up and use a premelt.
focal point for stainless should be a negative value from 70% to 90% of the matrial thickness.
I use 10 bar nitrogen pressure and 2mm nozzle for 3mm thickness and thinner, 12 bar for 6mm with a 3mm nozzle , 15 bar for 10mm and 18 bar for anything thicker with a 4mm nozzle. cutting speeds depend a lot on power of your machine, but you definately found the right place for info there are a lot of very bright people on this forum

 

[Jwoody44]

Thank you everyone for your time and information!!
Drossfree--I found your insight the most helpful and easy to understand.
(no offense to anyone else on here, I'm a beginner on the Amada)
But anyways I have ordered a bulk liquid nitrogen tank...close to 600 liters...until then I can only run 5 bar with the nitrogen bottle, because I will go through one every minute it seems like. My shop is all standard so I will have to convert your material thickness but no worries.
Also our material comes with a protective sticker paper on it to protect the finish.
We need to keep this on, and we've been running with it up, but what is a pre-melt?
Is that where you run like a etch program before you make your cut?
But anyways thank you for your time it is much appreciated!
Oh and btw my machine has 1500power max and 2000 freq max 100 duty max
Any insight on settings for me up to 1/8" material for SS would be awesome!!!
Thanks again,
JW

 

[drossfree]

yes premelt is an etch you run before the cut. my machine is 4000W so my settings would not work for you but adjust in 10% increments and you will figure it out.

 

[Foostrap]

If you have laser quality film, it is very sticky and may not require a pre-melt. Those plastics usually say "Laserfilm" or "Nitto" on them. At least for thickness below 14Ga (0.075, about 2mm) it works well. On thicker, because of the higher gas pressure required to get a burr free cut, you may have to pre-melt; otherwise the plastic could bubble up

For 1/8 stainless settings, power to the max (1500W in your case); freq to the max (2000), duty to the max (100), speed probably around 60"/min. Focal around 3/4 down into the material (-0.09).
You can start from half the tickness down; then lower the focal until the burr goes away. The higher the focal point, the faster you can cut. But if it's too high, you get a long hard burr.