Leading Laser Cutting Service Companies

Laser cutting is a hot cutting process used to cut materials like metal or sheet metal. Laser cutter service providers generally employ a carbon dioxide laser to perform the low-distortion hot cutting. The “cut” of a laser is actually an energy transfer that causes the material to melt or burn along a line. Read More…

Laser Cutting Services Laser cutting is a hot cutting process used to cut materials like metal or sheet metal. Laser cutter service providers generally employ a carbon dioxide laser to perform the low-distortion hot cutting.

At Edge Metalworks, we pride ourselves on providing top-notch laser cutting services to our valued customers. Our team is equipped with state-of-the-art laser cutting technologies that range from 4kw – 24kw and enable us to precisely cut a wide variety of metals and thicknesses, catering to the unique specifications of each project. Our commitment to quality ensures that our products meet the...

Edge Metalworks $$$

Great Lakes Engineering is a trend setting manufacturer of surface mount stencils, precision laser cut parts, and photo chemical etched parts. We work with a wide range of materials, including Stainless Steel, Copper, Brass, Titanium, Nitinol, Nickel, Kovar and many others.

Great Lakes Engineering, Inc. $$$

Our teams at Remaly Manufacturing Company, Inc. utilize state of the art equipment to provide you with laser cutting capabilities. Our teams provide cutting services for a wide range of materials such as steel, aluminum, stainless steel, monel and much more.

Remaly Manufacturing Company, Inc. $$$

Our fiber optic metal laser cutting capabilities include Stainless steel, Aluminum, CRS and other ferrous and nonferrous metals. We can laser cut flat blanks, stencils, signs, prototypes, and custom formed fabricated parts.

American Industrial Company $$$

Sharpe Products specializes in custom pipe and tube bending and tube laser cutting. With three powerful, 4kW laser cutting systems, and a robotic, multi-axis 3 kW laser cutting system, we cut round, square, rectangle and open profiles, up to 6-inch OD. Typical cutouts include angles, copes, notches, perforations, slots, or other custom hole patterns, either before or after tube bending. We...

Sharpe Products $$$

Our laser cutting services are used by leading manufacturers. We have a 10k square foot laser production facility with cutting capabilities up to .625” on steel which processes material quickly. Stocking much carbon steel allows us to pass along the savings. We serve automotive & trucking industries.

Accuburn, Inc. $$$
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The word “laser” is an acronym that stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” and a laser beam is a highly focused wavelength radiation that will not dissipate. Laser cutting allows for tighter accuracies on a smaller scale than any other metal cutting method.

Laser Cutting Applications

In addition to cutting, slicing, vaporizing, and melting, lasers can perform various machining and micromachining services, such as laser drilling, laser welding, laser etching, and laser engraving.

This wonderful technology is instrumental in many industries, especially in those that require microscopic tolerances and meticulous accuracy, like microtechnology and electronics. It is also used in HVAC, medical device, communications, automotive manufacturing, plumbing, and military and defense.

Products Produced from Laser Cutting Services

Aerospace and automotive manufacturing industries use laser cutting to fabricate pieces like precision parts, gaskets, solar cells, nozzles, and circuit boards. Cell phone parts, transducers, microchips, and military and communication devices rely on laser cutting as well. Even water piping and refrigeration systems have some laser cut elements. In the medical industry, laser cutting is used to drill hypo-tubes, catheter holes, filtering devices, gas flow orifices and other highly intricate devices.

Laser Cutting History

Laser cutting technology is an innovation of the mid-20th century. While Albert Einstein theorized laser technology in the early 1900s, engineers did not build the first laser until 1960. The first laser was built by an American engineer and physicist named Theodore H. Mainman. It was a solid-state pink ruby laser. Four years later, Kumal Patel, an engineer in New Jersey, developed the first gas laser cutter, which used CO2.

Just one year later, engineers at Western Electric Engineering Research Center produced the first ever metal cutting laser. These engineers used it to drill holes into diamond dies. In a New York Times article he titled New Work Found for Lasers at Western Electric, William Freeman described the laser as, “A beam of light so intense it can penetrate far into space carrying a voice, that can cut metal as a power saw cuts lumber and that can burn a hole in diamonds is fast becoming an industrial workhorse.”

In 1967, British engineers came out with the first laser-assisted oxygen jet cutting system. They used their invention to cut sheet metal. By the ‘70s, manufacturers around the world were using laser cutting systems for all sorts of applications, from titanium cutting for aerospace to textile cutting.

Today, laser cutting services have come a long way. For example, CO2 lasers are now strong enough to cut metal materials when they could not do this back in the 1970s. In general, laser cutting services have become less expensive, more efficient, able to make more precise cuts and more versatile (new wavelength bands, etc.). As time goes on, this trend will continue.

Laser Cutting Service Details

Laser cutters are frequently controlled through precision programs. These precision programs, which direct the laser cutting process with minimal human intervention, get the information they need from CNC systems that use CAD designs to input machining details.

In general, laser cutting services go like this:

1. The precision program gathers the required information for proper laser machining.

2. Technicians/the cutting machine cast the laser beam onto the material to be modified.

3. Either the workpiece or beam move in order to melt the workpiece in localized areas. Manufacturers focus and direct the laser beam either using CNC control or CNC control combined with fiber optics or mirrors.

4. Technicians may partner an “assist gas,” like nitrogen or carbon dioxide, with laser cutting in order to ready newly cut surfaces for painting or corrosion resistance coating. CO2 laser cutting, for example, is a gas assist laser cutting technique, and it is considered the most powerful wave laser in the world today.

Laser Cutting Design

Before beginning laser cutting, manufacturers map out what they’re going to do based on a number of factors as they relate to your application. These include part material, required tolerances, part dimensions, the preferred laser cutting system and position of the head or nozzle.

Manufacturers can create custom laser cut products by adjusting certain elements of the laser cut machine, such as CNC programming inputs, cut speed, heat affected zone (HAZ) and type of assist gas.

Machinery Used in Laser Cutting Services

To perform their services, laser cut part manufacturers use multiple main laser types. These include metal lasers, fiber lasers, Neodymium (Nd) lasers, Neodymium yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd: YAG) lasers, CO2 lasers and high-powered lasers.

Metal lasers are any lasers that manufacturers design to exclusively modify metal workpieces. Among the most common laser cut metals are titanium, stainless steel, carbon steel, mild steel, and scribing metals.

Fiber lasers rely on the use of fiber optic (optical fiber) lasers that have been treated with rare earth elements such as ytterbium, thulium, erbium, or thulium. Fiber lasers are popular for their low operating costs, easy maintenance, and lack of moving parts.

  • A fiber laser is a special type of solid-state laser, and the gain medium of this type is the optical fibers.
  • The silica glass is mixed up with other rare earth elements.
  • The emitting light of this silica is a property that makes it ideal to use.
  • The light is smaller and straighter than any other laser, assisting with precise, focused work.
  • The fiber lasers are low-cost, low maintenance, have a smaller footprint, and are highly efficient.
  • These are used in laser cutting, texturing, markings, and welding.
  • A specially-designed glass fiber is used for this purpose that uses energy from pump diodes.
  • Fiber lasers have working hours of 25,000 and can amplify the intensities up to 100 times higher than those of CO2 lasers.
  • These lasers produce smaller focal lengths with a wavelength of 1.064 micrometers.
  • Fiber lasers are used for many applications and are best suited for metal markings, engraving, and marking thermoplastics.
  • Along with that, they also work well with non-metals, glass, wood, and plastic.

CO2 lasers are versatile lasers capable of cutting anything from wood to stainless steel sheet to paper. Manufacturers primarily select them to perform industrial cutting, engraving and boring. Subtypes of CO2 lasers include slab lasers, slow axial flow lasers, fast axial flow lasers and transverse flow lasers.

  • This laser runs through a gas-filled tube with the help of electricity.
  • This process produces a light beam in the tube, and this is an invisible light that falls in the far infrared range.
  • The gases used in CO2 lasers are CO2, helium, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
  • The tube used in this process has mirrors on both ends. One is reflective in nature, whereas the other is partially reflective.
  • The power of a typical CO2 machine is 25-100 Watts, and the wavelength is 10.6 micrometers.
  • This laser best works with non-metallic materials. It can cut thin aluminum sheets and non-ferrous metals. 
  • The power of this laser can be increased by increasing the oxygen content in it, but it will be difficult to handle.
  • CO2 lasers are commonly used for working on wood, plastic, paper, leather, fabrics, wallpapers, and acrylic plastics.
  • CO2 lasers are also used for food processing, such as chestnuts and cheese.

Neodymium (Nd) lasers are a type of fiber laser. They work best with boring applications that call for high energy but require little repetition. Manufacturers also use them to perform laser welding. They work best with ceramic and scribing metals.

Neodymium yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd: YAG) lasers, another fiber laser, are extremely similar to Nd lasers. They, however, work best with engraving and boring applications that call for exceptionally high power. They can also be used for laser welding.

These lasers use specialized crystals (Nd: YAG) or crystallized material (Nd YVO) as their medium:

  • Crystal laser cutting can be performed through Nd YAG, but most commonly Nd YVO is used for this process.
  • These lasers have high cutting power but are highly expensive.
  • The wavelength of these lasers is 1.064 micrometers and they feature a life expectancy of 8000-15000 hours.
  • Nd:YVO has high pump absorption, broader bandwidth, high refractive index, and a low thermal conductivity.
  • These lasers are used in many applications, such as in medical, military, and in manufacturing settings.
  • These lasers are used for metals, as well as for non-metals, ceramics, and plastics.

High power lasers are specially designed to cut strong material, such as those same stainless steels, mild steels, and scribing metals that metal lasers cut. High power lasers may double as many other kinds of lasers.

Semiconductor lasers are also called laser diodes and have a PN-junction.

  • The PN-junction of diodes is covered with a layer responsible for spontaneous emission.
  • This layer is polished and amplifies the photons emitted, converting electric current into laser energy.
  • These are commonly used in barcode reading, laser pointing, laser printers, and laser scanners.

Dye lasers are a liquid laser that uses organic dye in liquid form as its gain medium.

  • Dye lasers have a wide range of wavelengths and can be controlled at any time during operation. 
  • These lasers are used for spectroscopy, birthmark removal, laser medicine, and isotope isolation.

Solid-state lasers work using solids such as crystal or glass mixed with other rare elements.

  • These elements are neodymium, chromium, erbium, or ytterbium.
  • The first-ever constructed solid-state laser was the ruby laser.
  • These are used in tattoo making, hair removal, tissue ablation, and kidney stone removal.

Gas lasers produce light by passing an electric current through a gas.

  • This process is known as population inversion.
  • The commonly used gasses are CO2, krypton, helium-neon, and argon.
  • These lasers are used in holography, spectroscopy, material processing, barcode scanning, and laser surgery.

Laser Cutting Variations and Similar Processes

Variations on laser cutting include laser drilling, waterjet cutting, laser engraving, fusion cutting, thermal stress cracking and laser welding.

Laser drilling is a process service providers use when they want to create holes, whether for decoration or function. They do so using laser beams, which create holes with tight exact tolerances.

Waterjet cutting subs out lasers from highly pressurized water. By using waterjet cutting, manufacturers can save money, resources and energy. However, waterjet cutting is not universally applicable. Rather, manufacturers can only use it on certain materials. It will not work on hard materials and it will likely break materials like glass.

Fusion cutting, also known as melt and blow cutting, involves blowing molten material from the cutting area using pressurized gas. In doing so, manufacturers circumvent the task of raising the material temperature. This process is popular for its low power requirements.

Thermal stress cracking is an alternative to cutting that involves causing thermal expansion via localized surface heating. When applied to especially brittle materials, which are sensitive to thermal expansion, thermal expansion will cause cracking. Manufacturers can use their laser beam to guide this cracking in the pattern they want. Thermal stress cracking works best with glass.

Laser welding, also known as laser beam welding, is a technique laser cutters use to join high volumes of thermoplastics or metals. The laser welding machines emit focused high heat beams that create deep, precise and narrow welds. This process is most useful in automotive manufacturing.

Laser engraving, or laser etching, lets manufacturers precisely etch surfaces. Instead of melting surfaces, laser engraving vaporizes or fractures surfaces. Manufacturers perform laser engraving with laser engraver machines, which are controlled by a combination of CNC technology, CAD programming, and human operators. It is an engraving or marking method in which a high-energy laser beam is used to irradiate the workpiece locally. It is used to locally mark, vaporize or color change the surface material, which results in permanent marking. Laser engraving has come a long way and has made itself an important part of the industry. Laser engravings are used to make permanent markings, patterns, symbols, or writing on sheet material. Laser engraving machines use high speed and precision with the help of some tools for carvings. 

Laser engravers are so precise because the laser spot is so thin that it is focused only on one specified area. The engraver locates the area that needs to be engraved and emits a focused beam of light that alters its properties and appearance. This focused and precise engraving makes laser engravers ideal for many industries. Laser engraving can be done on almost anything, like jewelry, medical kits, and wooden and plastic sheets.

  • Laser engraving works by vaporizing the material surface into fumes and engraving permanent, deep marks onto the surface.
  • It is like an inkjet printer and uses lasers instead of ink.
  • A laser engraving machine that uses a high-powered laser to engrave a specified area is needed.
  • The desired design is programmed, which then sends the design to the laser engraving machine.
  • The material is put inside the machine, and the laser beams will begin to engrave it.
  • The specified areas exposed to lasers receive a massive amount of heat energy that is enough to vaporize the surface.
  • Laser engraving is precise and able to handle different types of media.
  • It is used for a variety of applications.
  • It is accurate, consistent, and safe to use.
  • Laser engraving is high-speed and low-cost.
  • Laser engravings are used in prototyping, whether for building an app or a physical product.
  • Laser engravings are used for the personalization of products by engraving important information onto the product.
  • Laser engravings are used on products for decoration purposes.

There are three types of laser engravings. These are:

Cutting and Engraving

This type of cutting method is used for engraving patterns on the surface material. The patterns are decomposed, expressed in lines, and then cut with the laser.

  • This engraving process uses the same process as laser cutting on the surface of the material.
  • The required pattern is first decomposed, then lines are formed.
  • The lines are then cut by the lasers and expressed as the required pattern.

Concave Carving

This type is often seen in two situations. One is the same cutting process for the surface, and the other is done by forming dark and light patterns on the surface. The former is ideal for carving patterns of objects like animals, plants, etc., while the latter is good for details such as facial expressions. 

  • Concave engraving is done by outlining the material surface with the required pattern.
  • It leaves the surface material around the pattern as its part and the same cutting force is applied to each part.
  • Another concave engraving method is done by the distribution of light and dark patterns.
  • The dark pattern is cut or engraved more and the bright ones are cut less.
  • This outline pattern type is used for engraving animals, characters, and plants.
  • The dark pattern of engraving is used for details such as facial expressions and characters.

Convex/Toppan Engraving

This engraving only cuts the material around the pattern and is suitable for graphics, outlines, and texts.

  • Convex engraving is done by cutting the material around the pattern with the same cutting force at each point.
  • Convex engraving is suitable for engraving text, graphic outlines, etc.
  • In both engraving methods, the material is removed with the laser head movement.

Differences Between Laser Cutting and Engraving

Both laser cutting and engraving are done on the same machine but there is a difference in between these two. Laser cutting is a thermal process in which a laser beam is focused to melt and cut down a localized area. Laser engraving, meanwhile, is a process in which a laser beam is used to leave marks on an object; Laser engraving vaporizes the material into fumes and leaves permanent marks on the object’s surface.

The main difference between these two processes involves the lens of the laser machine. The focal length of the lens that is used for engraving purposes is shorter, which is necessary for fine spots on the material. Meanwhile, the focal length of the lens used for a cutting purpose is longer, which helps in cutting thicker edges easily.

Components of a Laser

  • Energy Source

      The function of the energy source is to pump light into the gain medium. It varies according to the type of laser used, such as electric discharge, laser diode, flashlight, etc.

  • Gain Medium

      The gain medium functions by emitting light of different wavelengths. It is a source of optical gain and is named after the type of gain medium.

  • Resonator

         Mirrors surround the gain medium, and the resonator doubles the optical gain by using these mirrors.

Applications of Laser Engraving and Cutting

  • Laser engraving is used for engraving on awards and trophies.
  • Laser engraving is also used for barcode creation on materials.
  • Laser engravings are also used for decorative annotations and medical and electronic components.
  • Laser cutting is used in the automobile industry for making replicas and dies.
  • Laser cutting is also widely used in the aerospace industry for welding purposes.
  • The jewelry industry uses laser cutting in making jewelry pieces.
  • Wooden signboards are also made by using laser cutting and engraving techniques.

Laser Cutting Benefits

There are many reasons to love laser cutting. First, laser cutting produces parts with nearly zero edge deformation, roll-off, or edge factor. This means that very little burring is left on their cut edges. Second, with consistently quicker turnaround times, laser cutting is faster than other tool-fabrication methods. Part of the reason laser cutting services have such fast turnaround times is the fact that the service allows manufacturers to implement design changes with ease. Another great thing about laser cutting is its use of CNC machinery means, which translates to the requirement of fewer technicians and the assurance of greater safety. Finally, laser cutting services are versatile, varied, and very efficient. While creating many options, they create little waste.

Things to Consider Regarding Laser Cutting Services

Disadvantages
This popular method of cutting does have some disadvantages, most of which relate to hot cutting. For example, because the material gets so hot, narrow areas may experience thermal expansion and/or warping. Also, when oxygen is used as a gas assist, it puts stress into the cut edge of some materials, causing distortion and oxidation. (This is mostly seen in dense hole patterns.) Lasers aren’t very effective on metals like aluminum and copper alloys (because they reflect light and absorb and conduct heat), and neither are compatible with glass, crystal or any other non-metals. Additionally, they require large amounts of energy. This and limited material options, make laser cutting a costlier process. Finally, all lasers, but especially infrared and ultraviolet ones, present potential danger to one’s eyesight.

Despite these drawbacks, laser cutting still offers manufacturers distinct advantages over traditional cutting processes such as mechanical and thermal machining, EDM, arc welding, and flame cutting. Stable motion systems ensure outstanding control of laser beams and extremely high-quality cuts. Laser cutting accuracy rates top those of any other cutting methods, with slightly higher precision tolerances and smaller slicing widths than even water jet cutting.

Choosing the Right Manufacturer
If you decide that laser cutting services are right for you, you need to need to connect with a high-quality service provider. To assist you in this endeavor, we’ve put together a list of several top-rated, industry leading laser cut parts manufacturers. Before you look at them, we encourage to write a list of your requirements, questions and concerns, standard application information like project description, pattern requests, request volume, etc. Also make sure to write down specifications like budget, timeline, preferred delivery method, standard requirements, etc.

Once you’ve compiled your list of specifications, start looking at the laser cut service providers we’ve listed on this page. You’ll find them sandwiched, complete with profiles, in between these informational paragraphs. As you browse, frequently reference your specifications list for comparison. Pick out three or four manufacturers you’d like to speak to at length, then reach out to them individually. As you talk to them, take note of their demeanor and helpfulness. Remember that customer service is just as or more important than price tags. After you’ve spoke with each of them, decide which one has the most to offer you. Then call them up and get started.

Laser Cutting Informational Video

 

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