Laser Cutting Trends and Market Analysis in 2024

Laser cutting machine is indispensable in the manufacturing of intelligent equipment, and it is also one of the key roles for the manufacturing industry to move towards high-end and intelligence. Compared with the traditional processing equipment, the laser cutter has stronger processing capacity, higher precision, and improved processing efficiency.

Laser Cutting Control System

1. The compound growth rate of the laser industry will reach more than 20% in the next 3 years.

The laser industry has a wide variety of downstream applications. The overall market size of the industry is 144 billion, and the compound growth rate is expected to reach 20% in the next three years.

A. The laser industry chain includes upstream components and materials, midstream lasers and equipment, and downstream laser application services. Downstream application services of the industrial chain include laser cutting, welding, marking, drilling, medical treatment, cosmetics, display, additive manufacturing, where laser cutting is one of the laser applications, which can be widely used in the processing of metal and non-metal materials in.

B. The market size of the laser industry in 2018 reached 144 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22.14%. Among them, the laser component market size was 28.8 billion, an increase of 22.03% year-on-year, the laser application market size was 54.7 billion, an increase of 22.1% year-on-year, and the laser equipment market size was 60.5 billion, an increase of 22.22% year-on-year. The overall market size is expected to reach 248.9 billion in 2024, with a compound growth rate of 20% in the next three years.

2. The replication of successful experience of low power cutting in the field of high power is the biggest drive in the future.

The laser is one of the most important inventions of the last century. In the past 20 years, its application in the industrial field has continued to grow and achieved great success. Laser cutting technology is an important part of laser processing technology. Laser cutting machine should be developed in the direction of CNC laser cutting machine in accordance with the requirements of high speed and high precision. In order to meet the requirements of the new laser cutting machine and develop a laser cutting CNC system with high efficiency and high precision, this subject uses a dual galvanometer scanning system and a two-dimensional linear motor worktable to realize the combination of galvanometer scanning movement and table movement. The cutting speed and precision are improved, and the problem of small galvanometer cutting range is solved, and large-scale processing is realized.

3. The sales growth rate of the laser cutting control system is expected to exceed 30% in the next three years.

In the next three years, the compound growth rate of low- and medium-power laser cutting equipment demand will reach 17.99%, and the compound growth rate of high-power demand will reach 38.49%. The rapid development of the manufacturing industry and the updating and upgrading of traditional industrial manufacturing technologies have driven the sales of laser cutting equipment. In 2017, the number of low- and medium-power laser cutting equipment sales reached 22,500, an increase of nearly 60% compared with 2016. In 2018, due to the impact of the macroeconomic downturn, sales reached 26,000 units, an increase of 15.6% year-on-year; while the number of high-power laser cutting equipment sales In 2018, sales will increase to 6,250 units, a year-on-year increase of 30.2%. Considering the overall industry's compound growth rate of up to 20% and the historical growth rate of low- and medium-power, high-power, it is expected that under the natural growth of the market and the replacement of the stock, the sales of low- and medium-power laser cutting equipment in 2019-2024 will be 31200 respectively / 36816/42707 units, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.99%. The sales volume of high-power laser cutting machine is 9100/12700/16600 units, with a compound annual growth rate of 38.49%.

CNC Laser Cutting Trends

In the future, laser cutting technology will be more diverse in the choice of generators, the power supply types of generators will be more diverse, the energy output will be more stable, and the structure will have certain characteristics. The use cost of laser cutting machines will be significantly reduced. The harm to the human body will also be significantly reduced.

The application fields of CNC laser cutting technology are increasing. The technology of three-dimensional cutting, automatic focusing and constant optical path is gradually mature. The technical operation of using an onboard laser to cut large-format thick plates by moving beams will also be gradually improved.

1. Connotation analysis of CNC laser cutting technology.

In general, the working principle of laser cutting is to use a mirror to process the laser beam to process the material to be cut. The laser emits a laser beam at a specific position of the mirror. After the mirror refracts, the laser beam is focused and focused by a special lens.

In the process of laser cutting, auxiliary gas is sprayed from the nozzle and added to the laser focusing beam, and finally a cutting tool containing strong energy is formed. The power of laser cutting is affected by the moving speed of the nozzle. The cutting process on the material to be cut needs to be realized by referring to the movement trajectory of the machine tool platform. CNC laser cutting is mainly used to cut metal. In addition to cutting this high-hardness material, different laser technologies can complete three-dimensional cutting, leather wood paper cutting and glass ceramic cutting, etc., and laser direct writing technology can also complete medical treatment. Operational activities.

In the laser cutting quality system control, technicians should reasonably adjust the position of different focusing lenses, use a multi-axis motion control card to control the trajectory of the filter and CCD beam. In CNC laser control activities, technicians should adjust the positioning speed of the laser beam movement (X / Y axis) according to the parameters of the CNC system that can withstand the size of the processed plate. Determine the maximum processing speed according to the effective cutting length. In the direction processing of the laser beam, the positioning accuracy of the cutting is wrong

2. The development trend of CNC laser cutting technology.

Laser cutting technology is widely used. It is a precision technology in the production of CNC machine tools. It has many different modes and attributes. Different laser types have different working modes, and the difference in laser power and beam polarization determines that the laser has different mode stability during the cutting process.

The new laser processing technologies mainly include laser three-dimensional etching, laser microstructure manufacturing, laser-SPM composite processing and excimer mask etching. The industrial processing and production fields pay more attention to CNC laser technology, and technical R & D personnel should carefully analyze the characteristics and application status of CNC laser cutting technology and optimize the application mode of CNC cutting technology. CNC laser cutting technology will develop in the direction of high speed and multiple degrees of freedom. Due to the obvious growth trend of the high-power CNC laser cutting machine market in recent years, the total demand for laser cutting machines in the industrial manufacturing field continues to rise.

In order to meet the development of market demand, in the field of CNC laser machine production and manufacturing, there will be high-speed high-precision laser cutting machine, three-dimensional laser cutting machine, large-format thick plate laser cutting machine and other special laser cutting machine equipment. The cutting capacity of laser cutting machines is gradually enhanced, and the adaptability and freedom of cutting technology will continue to increase. The horizontal laser cutting machine uses gantry moving optical path processing technology to complete plasma cloud detection and other operations while cutting. The new 2.5D and 3D laser cutting machine with dual laser cutting system can meet the high-speed cutting requirements in the industrial manufacturing field and meet the needs of processing difficult parts. Using fiber laser cutting machine equipment can also cut high-hardness materials, and the wound surface after cutting is neat, which is conducive to the later coating processing operations.

3. Application analysis of CNC laser cutting technology.

A. General standard analysis of CNC laser cutting technology.

At present, the general standard of laser cutting machine industry parameters is mainly German laser cutting machine. The development trend of CNC laser cutting technology is the direction that consumes the least energy, and the type of working gas available for laser operation is more adaptable. At present, the two common laser cutting machines in the field of CNC laser technology are SLAB-D025 laser (2500W) and axial fast flow laser (3000W). These two laser cutting technologies represent the mainstream development content in the current industrial production field.

The structure principle of SLAB-D025 laser is plate discharge, diffusion cooling, it has no fixed gas flow device, gas does not need to flow, so there is no gas power device. The beam characteristics of this laser are TEM00 mode, the beam divergence angle is 0.15mrad, the laser output window lens life is about 40,000 hours, the pulse frequency is 5000HZ, and only the gate pulse function. SLAB-D025 laser cutting machine has many kinds of working gas, mainly carbon monoxide, helium, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. This cutting machine can also use German special mixed gas, the total carbon monoxide of mixed gas is 6%, other Is 94%.

This laser cutting machine consumes the least amount of gas, only 0.2L / H. At present, another mainstream laser cutting machine is an axial fast flow machine. Its structural principle is the movement characteristics of fast axial flow discharge. The turbine is a gas flow device. The air consumption of this laser cutting machine is relatively large, up to 35L / H, but its cutting efficiency is the highest. The pulse frequency of the axis fast flow CNC laser cutting machine can be adjusted. It has multiple functions of super pulse and extra super pulse, and can output 2.5 times of rated power. (That is, a 3000W laser can output 7500W of power), and its perforation and cutting capabilities are relatively strong.

B. Analysis of the development prospect of laser cutting technology.

The new market of laser cutting technology is developing towards the field of ultra-high precision operations, and the control precision of laser cutting, such as the width and narrowness of the incision and the surface roughness of the incision, is higher. The types of materials processed in the laser cutting market are more extensive, and new development areas in the material cutting market will enter textile machinery, food machinery, medical machinery, lighting decoration, packaging industry, shipping, automotive, aviation and steel industry. New markets for laser processing development include the laser numerical control lathe processing equipment market, and the application fields include abrasives, devices, machinery, ships, automobiles, aerospace, and the steel industry.

The motion controller is used for axis I servo control and axis N servo control to adjust the direction of I / O input and output to ensure that the cut surface of the material to be cut is smoother and reduce the wear of the corner wool caused by laser cutting. According to the hardware structure of the CNC system, a simplified audit of the control system is performed, and the main board (PC bus) is used to control the entire laser processing system. In the development of laser cutting technology, the focus is on optimizing and upgrading the software control plate functions.

Conclusion

CNC laser cutting technology will develop in new fields. The demand for laser processing products in industrial production requires technicians to continuously develop new markets. In order to improve the efficiency of CNC laser cutting technology, technicians should optimize the control plate of the CNC laser system. Among them, in the system management module of CNC laser cutting, technicians should do a good job of system database management. According to the standard process library management standards, the laser cutting mode is monitored in real time, the current processing process parameters are tested according to the requirements of common processing methods, and the industry process standard parameters are analyzed to modify unreasonable process preparation information.