The hottest topic in the laser industry in 2023 is undoubtedly the emergence of the 60kW fiber laser and cutting equipment. Penta Laser, in collaboration with Chuangxin Laser, has released the world's first 60kW laser cutting device, continuing to fuel the fire on the "power is king" path.
In recent years, Pental Laser has been galloping on the journey of the "ten-thousand-watt laser era", constantly revolutionizing laser cutting equipment performance, power, speed, and quality, never ceasing to climb new heights and achieving many technological and application breakthroughs.
Regarding the 60kW laser cutting equipment, Penta Laser's President, Wu Rangda, has provided more specific explanations. He believes,"The development of laser cutting machines can come to a halt at 60,000 watts because the current 60kW laser cutting machines already possess the ability to completely replace plasma and flame cutting. Further increasing laser power would not significantly contribute to cutting efficiency and capability but rather increase costs and energy consumption for users."
Looking back at the development of Penta Laser's ten-thousand-watt laser cutting machines, since 2017, Penta Laser has continuously broken world records in laser processing equipment. They have successfully developed the world's first 12kW, 15kW, and 20kW ultra-high power fiber laser cutting machines, filling the gap in the high-end laser equipment market. They have been recognized as the first (set) of its kind internationally, domestically, and provincially for six products. So far, their 30kW high-power laser cutting equipment has achieved 23 patent achievements, including 11 invention patents,11 utility model patents, and 1 design patent. The company will continue to collaborate with domestic and foreign universities and research institutes to carry out core technology research and breakthroughs in various areas such as a 40kW ultra-high power magnetic levitation intelligent laser processing platform, automated laser processing lines, high-power laser welding equipment, control systems, and modular design, tackling many core technical challenges in the domestic and international laser processing industry.
The introduction of the 60kW laser cutting machine by Penta Laser this year undoubtedly represents another breakthrough in the field of high-power laser cutting. It has achieved a global leading level in the laser industry and plays a positive role in promoting industrial innovation. The 60kW machine achieves ultra-high-speed cutting and smooth cutting of thick plates, with speeds reaching 11-12m/min for air cutting of 20mm carbon steel. This will undoubtedly have a significant and epoch-making significance in the industry.
Flame cutting has the widest range of plate thicknesses it can handle, with significant speed advantages for thicknesses above 50mm. It is suitable for processing thick plates and extra-thick plates that do not require high precision. Plasma cutting has a speed advantage in the range of 30-50mm, but is not suitable for processing very thin sheets (<2mm). Laser cutting, which mostly uses kilowatt-level lasers, has significant speed and precision advantages for thicknesses below 10mm. Mechanical punching machines fall between plasma and laser cutting.
In fact, before 2015, high-power lasers in China had not achieved a breakthrough, which resulted in a long-term limitation on the thickness of laser cutting applications. In recent years, with the gradual popularity of high-power lasers in China, laser cutting equipment has started to penetrate the market for medium-thickness plates. Compared to traditional plasma and flame cutting processes, laser cutting has higher quality and can use high production efficiency to spread fixed costs. It can save material and labor costs through high yield and reduce post-processing processes such as straightening and polishing. This offsets the high investment costs and replaces traditional processes. With the rapid rise of domestic ten-thousand-watt fiber lasers, laser cutting equipment has simultaneously improved its ability to cut thicker materials and efficiency, gradually replacing plasma cutting. Currently, mainstream 20kW and 30kW laser cutting equipment can replace plasma cutting in the processing of 30mm-70mm thick plates. However, they still face some limitations when it comes to processing plates thicker than 100mm.
The joint release of the 60kW laser cutting equipment by Penta Laser and Chuangxin Laser is aimed at completely solving the problem of laser cutting replacing thick plate processing. From the test results, the 60kW laser cutting machine has shown significant improvements compared to the 20kW and 30kW machines. It achieves a 667% increase in cutting speed for 20mm carbon steel compared to the 20kW machine, and a 92% increase compared to the 30kW machine. In cutting 50mm stainless steel, it achieves a 1000% increase compared to the 20kW machine, and a 633% increase compared to the 30kW machine. More importantly, the 60kW laser cutting equipment is capable of cutting stainless steel above 300mm, fully demonstrating its ability to replace plasma and flame processing.
From kilowatt cutting of 10mm thin plates to 20kW cutting of 30mm medium-thick plates, and now to 60kW cutting of over 100mm ultra-thick plates, fiber laser technology has covered the entire range of sheet metal cutting applications. Although high-power laser cutting equipment still faces price challenges during the replacement process, the rapid popularity of the 20kW laser cutting equipment indicates that the 60kW laser cutting equipment is expected to achieve large-scale applications this year. After all, the power increase brings another leap in processing efficiency, and laser cutting will completely change the drawbacks of traditional processes such as dust and low processing quality, greatly improving equipment automation and intelligence. This will bring a thorough revolution to high-end manufacturing fields such as construction machinery, steel structures, and shipbuilding. Therefore, the application of 60kW high-power laser cutting is gaining momentum.
Penta Laser has continuously achieved self-breakthroughs and self-innovations in the laser industry, overcoming key technical challenges in a batch of laser processing equipment fields. They have independently developed laser cutting heads, continuously researched new technologies, opened up new ideas, expanded new markets, and effectively created value for customers.
