Gas laser cutting of metal with oxygen concentration control in assist gas mixture

At the present time the methods of the gas assisted laser cutting (GALC) of the different steels (alloyed and non-alloyed) and also of non-ferrous metals, such as Al and Ti, using one of the inert gases (nitrogen, argon, helium) or the active gas (oxygen) or air as assist gas are widely spread. However these cutting methods have the series of essential shortcomings. Heaving performed the theoretical and practical investigations of the mentioned methods we concluded that the great interest is the use of mixtures containing inert gases and oxygen with controlled concentration. The application of such assist gas mixtures permits the laser cutting velocity to be increased as against the use of pure inert gas. The chose of optimal oxygen concentration leads to reduction of expensive gases consumption and makes the cutting process cheaper.