Experimental optimisation of the gas-assisted laser cutting of thick steel sheets

We report on the experimental optimisation of the oxygen-assisted CO₂ laser cutting of low-carbon sheet steel 5 to 25 mm in thickness. It is shown that the cut edge roughness is minimal when the energy input per unit volume of the material removed and the incident beam power per unit sheet thickness remain constant at ~20 J mm^-3 and ~200 W mm^-1, respectively, over the entire range of sheet thicknesses examined. The corresponding Péclet number is Pe = 0.5. These results can be used to determine the optimal beam power and cutting speed for a particular sheet thickness. At sufficiently large thicknesses, the conditions that ensure the minimum roughness can be written in the form of relations between nondimensional parameters.