How laser technology is subverting the steel pipe cutting industry
Material cutting is currently a subdivision of laser applications in my country, most of which are laser cutting applications for medium and high-power metal materials. Mainly include stainless steel, carbon steel, copper, aluminum and other daily major metals, of which stainless steel and carbon steel are mostly.
1. The cutting board turns to laser cutting tube
The development of domestic laser metal cutting is in full swing. From YAG lasers, CO2 lasers to fiber lasers, cutting equipment from 500 watts to 20,000 watts, just over ten years. Nowadays, the development of domestic laser cutting equipment is relatively mature. From the power point of view, it can basically meet most of the application requirements. There are a large number of domestic companies deploying metal plate flat cutting equipment, industry competition has become fierce, and even a market pattern of price competition has been formed.
Two-dimensional cutting board has entered a low-profit era, forcing many cnc turning china board equipment companies to find another way out, looking for new growth points, new application scenarios and greater profit margins. At this time, the wave of metal laser cutting has just spread to the field of metal tube cutting.
In fact, laser tube cutting is not a new technology. Many domestic companies have launched similar products many years ago, but at that time there were fewer applications for laser tube cutting, and the price of the equipment was relatively high, which was not widely promoted. In the past, CO2 laser cutting was used, but now it is fiber cnc milling china. Many companies have been hindered in the growth of flatbed cutting machines, competition has intensified, and they have entered the era of meager profit. They have turned to tube cutting machines. There are still certain profits, and companies are willing to do it. Even many companies are constantly promoting new technologies and functions for pipe cutting, including integrated pipe cutting machines for plate and tube, three-chuck pipe cutting machines, automatic feeding pipe picking machines, pipe cutting machines, etc.
2. Steel pipes are used in all walks of life
Metal pipes are widely used in different industries. The length of the general pipeline from the factory is usually 10 meters or even 20 meters. After entering different industries, due to different application scenarios, parts of different shapes and sizes need to be processed to meet the needs of different industries. The processing of metal pipes mainly includes three processes: cutting, bending and welding. In practical applications, the requirements for pipe cutting are very large.
Steel pipes generally include surface-treated ordinary steel pipes and stainless steel pipes.
Steel pipes are widely used in water supply and drainage, liquid and gas transportation projects. Now, most of the cold water supply system is made of plastic pipes. Steel pipes are widely used in electric power, engineering and construction steel structures, home construction, door and window guardrails, automobiles/bicycles/motorcycles, agricultural machinery, sports facilities, etc. In recent years, the application of stainless steel pipes in bathrooms and furniture has received particular attention.
3. The advantages of laser tube cutting
In the past, traditional stainless steel medical machining mostly used saw blade cutting, from manual to semi-automatic, and then to fully automatic, saw blade cutting technology has reached its peak, and the cutting efficiency cannot be improved. At this time, laser tube cutting technology began to enter the tube industry, which is very suitable for cutting various metal tubes. It has the characteristics of high degree of automation, high efficiency and high output. For pipes of different materials, there is no need to replace the corresponding saw blade. In any case, this is a “one-time cutting” with no intermediate downtime, which is very suitable for mass production.
4. Traditional pipe saw blade
The emergence of high speed machining pipe processing has brought a subversive change to the original metal pipe industry cutting process. Laser cutting has quickly replaced many traditional inefficient mechanical cutting. Nowadays, laser pipe cutting machines continue to add new functions, such as automatic feeding, clamping, rotation, and grooving. Suitable for round tube, square tube and flat tube. Laser cutting can almost meet all the requirements of pipe cutting.
In terms of efficiency, according to a manufacturer of cutting steel pipes, it only takes 15 seconds to cut a stainless steel pipe with a saw blade. Now, laser cutting is completed in less than 2 seconds, and the efficiency has increased by nearly 10 times. The important thing is that a saw blade worth several hundred or even several hundred yuan will wear out and become scrapped after 1,000 cuts and need to be replaced. However, laser cutting can almost be regarded as achieving aluminum parts, which can save a lot of costs.
For China’s hundreds of billions of metal tube market, laser cutting tube technology has only just started a few years, and there is a great opportunity for traditional replacement in the future.