Laser head is the essential component of the laser cutting machine, which is mainly composed of laser generator, a semi-reflective prism, objective lens, optical lens and photo diodes. In the early years of laser cutter, the laser heads were manually focused. With more and higher demands of production in recent years, automatic focusing laser heads have gradually appeared.
So, which one is better, auto focus or manual focus?
In the early application of laser cutting machine, there was no auto focus. Therefore, the laser head needed to be focused manually, which not only requires technical skills for the operator, but also influences the product accuracy and production efficiency. With the continuous high requirements for production, a new type of automatic focus laser head came out. The conventional manual focus laser head is gradually eliminated, and this new auto focus laser head is being widely used.
Because the penetration focus of the manual focusing cutting head cannot be adjusted, it is same as the cutting focus. When cutting thick plates/sheet, the penetration energy is insufficient and the penetrating time is long. However, for auto focusing cutting head, the focal length can be adjusted. The penetration energy can be increased by adjusting the focal length, meanwhile, the penetration speed can be accelerated when cutting thick plates.
As far as penetrating time is concerned, the speed of auto focus is twice that of manual focus. The cutting effect is basically the same, but the auto focusing can reduce the plate over-melting phenomenon caused by short overheating time.
The advantages of autofocus are outstanding. It can significantly improve production efficiency, greatly reduce the cutting time of thick plate materials. Moreover, when processing different metal materials and thickness, it is able to adjust the focus to a suitable position.
In summary, auto focusing laser cutting machine is ahead of manual focusing in most aspects. With the development of science and technology, auto focusing laser cutting machine will be more practical, and the processing effect will be more perfect.
