You would probably have better luck with shop air. Visually, the cut should be clean; but you may feel a little something if you rub your finger at the bottom of the cut.
My problem is that SS sheets comes with protective layer of plastic which burns badly. No matter how I change cutting conditions. Plastic up or plastic down doesn't make big difference. And I need to keep plastic to prevent parts of being damaged.Probably wrong kind of plastic.
Try to get stainless with laser quality plastic film from your material supplier; those are very sticky and will not "bubble up" or burn too much. The results should be really good.
Laser paper should be etched before making final cut. This eliminates the contaminates when cutting. Laser software should have a check box to laser etch before cutting.
Chad
yes you must have a software,with folie burn option, the machine run the part two times,first with low power (in my machine ca250 watt)then with the normal power
I am running a prima laser,and trumf,both have this option in their software im sure amada have it too in some way,cut thru plastic folie is so good,call them and they will help you. by the way i am from sweden so escuse my language.
Are you cutting with paper up or down? If you cut your stainless with the paper or plastic down, using the pre-burn will obviously not help.
With paper up, try to lower your gas pressure as much as possible and use the smallest nozzle possible. This will limit the plastic coming off if you don't have the pre-burn option.
Hi, first of all I don't have an option in cnckad to make a double cut. 1st cut for cutting plastic/paper second for cutting steel. when I'm cutting plastic down with N2(high pressure 8kg/cm) assist I'm getting big burns around edges. Using O2 (5kg/cm) not too bad. I'm Using 2 mm nozzle. power max 1500W Freq. 2000Hz Duty 75-90%.
No way to cut paper/plastic up gas stream goes under the plastic lifts it and clogs the nozzle.
There is a ssteel manufactor from finland we buy from called OUTO KOMPU.their foile stays on the sheets most of the times without precut.they are worldwide i think,so try them.
Hey all. In my experience it's best to cut stainless with a nitrogen assist, i find that even shop air comes out cleaner than oxygen.
If you're having problems with vinyl bubbling up try reducing the gas pressure or lowering the power. Lower gas pressure makes it so that the gas only removes the plastic that is vaporized and bubbles can't form simply because there isn't enough pressure. Reducing power burns less vinyl and gives less area for gas to flow in between the material and the plastic.
For example on the trumpf 1030 i cut laser guard using 150 watts, 10,000hz, 750 in/m and only 1 bar of shop air with a 1.7mm nozzle. i haven't had a problem with the plastic bubbling and clogging the nozzle or that horrible shrieking noise since.
24 gage stainless is very thin, if you cut it with nitrogen try using more gas pressure say 10-11 kg/cm and a smaller nozzle, a 1.2 or 1.4. With oxygen i'd use A LOT less gas and a small nozzle, 0.4-0.6 kg/cm and a 1.0 mm. I cut 0.25 in hot rolled steel with 0.8 bar and a 1.0 mm nozzle.
I think your plastic burning issues are from the oxygen assist though.
Generally you can cut SS with O2 at less pressure than with N2.
You will not get as clean an edge, and may get some oxide adhesion to the back edge of the cut.
But, the plastic or paper on the front may stay better.
There is my options High pressure N2 and O2 low, med, high.
I tried low pressure O2 ~1 kg/cm still no good.
And now I have a bigger problem constant -Z over travel alarm at random times. I'm using HS98 head with metal sensing. I know it suppose to work from 20GA and up but I'm getting alarm when cutting 18 GA. Ran HS98 calibration, no effect. Raise nozzle gap no effect. Raise focus no effect. What can I do?
