Metal foil laser cutting

5x times thinner than a human hair

Foils with a thickness starting from +/-0,01mm can be cut with micro laser cutting. Considering an average human hair is about 0,05mm, it’s quite special that it’s possible to cut foils that are 5 times thinner than a human hair.
Range of foil cutting: +/-0,01 to 0,2mm. Sheets thicker than 0,2mm are no longer seen as foil material. For cutting sheets thicker than 0,2mm, standard laser equipment will do the job.

Low powered fiber laser

Thanks to low energy fiber laser, metal and plastic foils can be cut to shape. Mainly metal foils are processed, both ferrous and non-ferrous. There’s a wide variety of foil material in stock, of course it’s always possible to supply material yourself.

Ultra thin metal foil laser cutting: how is it possible to avoid creases?

Micro cutting with laser is an environmentally friendly solution to cut steel strips and metal foils. But a few crucial factors need to be fine-tuned to process thin material cleanly and accurately:

• Material fixation:
  • Foils and thin sheets must be attached firmly to the laser cutting bed. Otherwise the cutting gas would blow the sheet away. No explanation is needed to make clear this would lead to poor and inaccurate cutting results.
• Material handling:
  • Treating the material carefully is absolutely necessary in order to prevent creases into the foil.
• Laser and gas parameters:
  • Parameters like laser intensity (power), laser frequency and cutting gas settings make the difference between components with clean cutting edges and components with burrs at the cutting edges.

Applications

Typical applications where foil laser cutting is used:

• Reference sheets / shims
• Feeler gauge
• Gauge tape
• Laminated shims
• Fuel cell plates

Large series

Due to the limited material thickness, cutting speeds can be quite high. These fast cutting speeds allow to produce large quantities economically.