Laser Cutting Machines for Metal

How to choose a laser cutting machine

A fiber laser cuts metal with a focused beam — mild and stainless steel, aluminium, copper and brass — with no tool that goes blunt and no allowance left for further machining. The catalog carries our own LUNA ORION machines and Italian BLM GROUP ones: working areas from 3000×1500 to 16,000×3200 mm, tube up to Ø550 mm on ORION and Ø610 mm on BLM, tube length 6 and 12 m, and Raycus, Maxphotonics or IPG sources from 1.5 to 60 kW.

Seven sections: sheet, tube, combined and special

How many kilowatts you need

On the ORION machines the source power is not fixed by the model: the same 3000×1500 mm area is supplied with a source from 1.5 to 60 kW. Kilowatts buy both thickness and speed — here are a few modes from our laser power selector.

The pattern is easy to see: on thin sheet kilowatts turn into speed — 3 mm mild steel runs seven times faster at 6 kW than at 1 kW. On thick sheet power is what makes the cut possible at all. Stainless steel and aluminium need more power than mild steel of the same thickness because they are cut with nitrogen; thick mild steel is cut with oxygen — slower, but with less power and with scale on the edge.

What else to compare

• Working area. 3000×1500 mm covers the most common sheet sizes; 4000×2000 and 6000×2000–2500 mm are chosen for long parts and less offcut. The LUNA ORION L 12020 has a 12,000×2000 mm area, while the ORION G gantry machines run on floor rails with a 2500, 3200 or 4000 mm working width.
• One table or two. On a single-table machine loading stops the cutting. An exchange table — the D and E series and the BLM LS machines — lets you unload finished parts and load the next sheet while the machine cuts.
• Open or enclosed. The cabin of the LUNA ORION E 3015 and the ES keeps radiation, fume and noise inside. An open machine is easier to load by crane and better for odd-sized blanks.
• Tube: diameter, length, chucks. ORION T machines cut tube up to Ø120, 240, 350 or 550 mm in 6 or 12 m lengths. There are two, three or four chucks: more chucks mean better support for long, heavy stock. The T2L and T3L versions come with automatic loading.
• The source. Raycus, Maxphotonics or IPG, depending on configuration. The source affects the price of the machine, the availability of service and the lead time for spare parts.
• What else the project includes. Besides the machine — a chiller, fume extraction with a filter, a compressor or nitrogen and oxygen cylinders, the CNC and the safety system. Nitrogen consumption on stainless steel is noticeable, so for steady work a nitrogen generator is worth costing in.

Common mistakes

• Choosing power only by the maximum thickness, forgetting that most of the work is thin sheet, where kilowatts buy speed rather than the ability to cut at all.
• Budgeting for the machine only — without extraction, chiller, compressor, gas and the electrical work.
• Not checking that a 6 m sheet gets into the shop and that there is room for loading and unloading next to the machine.
• Cutting stainless steel with oxygen to save money: the scaled edge then has to be cleaned before welding or painting.

Send a drawing or DXF, the materials and thicknesses, the sheet size or tube diameter and the monthly volume — we will select the power, the working area and the automation, and cost delivery, commissioning and training. Cut parts are then bent on press brakes; if tube is cut in small batches without shaped cut-outs, a band saw.