review · The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Laser cutting provides a rapid non-conventional manufacturing method for processing sheet metals such as titanium, steel, and aluminium alloys, which are critical to aircraft, automotive, marine, construction, and military uses. This review examines how operational parameters influence the quality of the cut surface and kerf. It covers different laser sources alongside their thickness limits, material properties, and operational performance metrics. The collected evidence demonstrates that optimal cutting results, characterised by low surface roughness, narrow heat-affected zones, small kerf widths, and small kerf angles, rely on specific processing parameters. In particular, superior cutting quality is achieved using low laser power, high cutting speed, medium gas pressure, high standoff distance, medium pulse frequency, medium pulse width, small nozzle diameter, small material thickness, and nitrogen as an assist gas.
High-strength sheet metals are essential across transport, defence, and structural engineering. Achieving clean cuts without excessive heat damage or wide kerfs is vital for component integrity. By identifying the precise balance of laser power, cutting speed, nozzle configuration, and assist gas, this synthesis helps manufacturing engineers refine processing setups to minimise surface roughness and thermal distortion during laser machining.
This review provides operational guidance for industrial manufacturing users seeking to optimise laser cutting lines for titanium, steel, and aluminium components. By pinpointing parameter settings that reduce surface roughness and heat damage, the findings are directly applicable to workshop practices in aerospace, automotive, and marine fabrication. Because the insights synthesise established machining studies into defined operating conditions, the research sits at an applied stage ready for adoption by manufacturing engineers.
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Abstract Sheet metals such as titanium alloys, steel alloys, and aluminum alloys are significant materials due to their importance among everyday life products as well as high-strength applications in aircraft, ships, automobiles, construction, military, and marine purposes. Recently, laser cutting is one of the best and fastest non-conventional methods to cut sheet metals, so it is necessary to understand how laser cutting parameters affect cutting quality. A comprehensive review was presented to investigate how laser cutting parameters affect the cut surface and kerf quality and which parameters affect cutting quality the most. An overview of the advantages of laser cutting when compared to other methods of machining was presented. In addition, a description of the laser cutting method and the different sources of laser were presented with clearing the range of thicknesses of the cut material for each source and their advantages. Also, a description of the properties and the applications of the studied materials were discussed. The performance parameters ofcutting were illustrated in detail by graphs and equations. The research analysis and discussion were discussed in such organized details by tables and graphs which show the full classification of the studied papers. It was found that the best conditions to obtain low surface roughness, small HAZ width, small kerf width, and small kerf angle are using low laser power, high cutting speed, medium gas pressure, high standoff distance, medium pulse frequency, medium pulse width, small nozzle diameter, small thickness, and nitrogen as an assist gas.
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DOI: 10.1007/s00170-023-12768-1
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