The Application Of Laser Manufacturing Technology In Building Materials
Laser uses its high energy to interact with materials to achieve machining effects. The easiest way to apply laser beams is metal materials. It is also the most mature market for development and application at present, mainly including general iron plates, carbon steel, stainless steel, copper, aluminum alloys, etc. kind. Iron plates and carbon steel are mostly used as metal structural parts, such as automobiles, construction machinery components, transportation pipelines, etc., which require higher power cutting and welding. Stainless steel is commonly used in bathrooms, kitchen utensils, knives, etc. The thickness requirements are not high, and a medium-power laser is sufficient.
Our country's housing and various infrastructure projects are developing rapidly, and a large number of various building materials are used. For example, our country uses half of the world's cement and is also the country with the largest use of steel. Building materials can be said to be one of the pillar industries of our country's economy. Building materials require a lot of machining and micro manufacturing, so what applications can laser technology have in building materials?
At present, hydraulic shearing or grinding machines are mainly used for rebar and iron bars used in building foundations or structures. At present, lasers are mostly used in pipes, doors and windows.
Laser Machining Of Metal Pipes
Pipes on building materials are used for water pipes, gas/natural gas pipes, sewage pipes, fence pipes, etc. The metal ones include galvanized steel pipes and stainless steel pipes.
As people's expectations for the strength and aesthetics of pipes in the construction industry have increased, pipe cutting requirements have also increased. General pipes are often 10 meters or even 20 meters in length before leaving the factory. After being distributed to various industries, due to different application scenarios, they need to be processed into parts of different shapes and sizes to meet the needs of different industries.
Laser pipe cutting technology has quickly entered the pipe industry and is very suitable for cutting various metal pipes. It has the characteristics of high automation, high efficiency and high output. The thickness of metal pipes for building materials is generally less than 3mm, and 1000 watts of laser power is sufficient for cutting. High-speed cutting can be achieved with more than 3000 watts of power. In the past, it took about 20 seconds for a grinding wheel cutting machine to cut off a length of stainless steel pipe, but laser cutting only takes 2 seconds, which greatly improves the efficiency. Therefore, in the past four or five years, laser pipe cutting equipment has replaced many traditional mechanical knife cutting.
The emergence of pipe laser cutting technology can automatically complete all traditional sawing, punching, drilling and other processes on one machine. It can cut, drill holes, contour cutting and pattern character cutting on pipes. The pipe laser cutting process only requires Input the required specifications into the computer, and the equipment can complete the cutting task automatically, quickly and efficiently. Automatic loading, clamping, rotation, bevel cutting, suitable for round tubes, square tubes, flat tubes, etc. Laser cutting meets almost all requirements for tube cutting, achieving an efficient machining mode.
Door And Window Applications
Doors and windows are an important part of China's real estate construction industry. All houses need doors and windows. Due to the huge demand in the door and window industry, as the production cost of doors and windows increases year by year, people have also put forward higher requirements for the machining efficiency and quality of door and window products.
A large amount of stainless steel is used in doors, windows, anti-theft nets, railings, etc., mainly steel plates and round cans with a thickness of less than 2mm. At the cutting end, laser technology can achieve high-quality cutting, hollowing, and pattern cutting of stainless steel plates and round cans. Nowadays, handheld laser welding is very convenient. The metal parts used for doors and windows can be seamlessly welded. There will no longer be gaps and bulging solder joints like spot welding, making the overall performance of doors and windows better and more beautiful.
The annual usage of doors, windows, anti-theft nets, and guardrails is very huge. Cutting and welding can be achieved with small and medium laser power. However, since most of these products are customized according to the size of the house and are undertaken by small door and window installation stores or decoration companies, the current mainstream still uses the most traditional grinding wheel cutting, arc welding, flame welding, etc. There is a lot of room for laser machining to replace traditional processes.
Possibility Of Laser Machining Of Non-metallic Building Materials
Non-metals in building materials mainly include ceramics, stone, and glass. These processes mainly use grinding wheels and mechanical knives, which completely rely on manual operation and manual positioning. When femtosecond Laser cutting, large amounts of dust, debris, and disturbing noise will be produced, which is harmful to residents. The potential harm to the human body is extremely high, and now fewer and fewer young people are willing to do it.
These three building materials have the possibility of chipping and cracking. Laser machining of glass has been developed. The components of glass are silicate, quartz, etc., which easily react with laser beams to achieve cutting effects. There are many methods for glass machining. Discuss. As for ceramics and stone, laser cutting is rarely considered at present and needs further exploration. By finding a laser with the right wavelength and power, we can also try to cut ceramics and stone, and achieve less dust and noiseless cutting. We hope that domestic companies will try to make breakthroughs in the future.
Exploration Of Laser On-Site Scene Machining
In residential construction sites, or infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, and tracks, many materials need to be laid on-site. However, the machining of workpieces with laser equipment is often limited to the workshop, and then the workpieces are transported to a second location for application. Therefore, exploring how laser equipment can process on-site in real-time application scenarios may be an important direction for future laser development.
For example, argon arc welding is popular and widely used. In addition to its low cost, its equipment is very light, has low power requirements, has high equipment stability, and strong scene adaptability, and can be taken to the site for machining at any time. In this regard, the emergence of handheld laser welding provides the possibility for on-site machining of laser exploration applications. Handheld laser welding equipment and water chillers can now be integrated, more compact, and suitable for use on construction sites.
Rusting of metal parts is a very troublesome problem. If the rust is not treated in time, the product will be scrapped. The development of laser cleaning makes rust removal more efficient, the cost of single machining is lower, and rust removal becomes simpler. Providing professional door-to-door laser cleaning services for workpieces that cannot be moved and require equipment to be cleaned on-site may be a direction for the development of laser cleaning. Vehicle-mounted mobile laser cleaning equipment has been successfully developed by a company in Nanjing, and some companies have previously developed backpack-type cleaning machines to achieve on-site cleaning of building exterior walls, awnings, steel sheet metal frame structures, etc., and provide on-site machining for laser cleaning New options are provided.
