Laser cutting of aluminum

2025/04/29

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Aluminum properties

It is a very common material, the scope of its use varies so much that we can find it in facets of our smartphone as well as in the body of any airplane. All because it is:

Plastic
Durable
Lightweight
Has anti-corrosive properties
Affordable

It has many alloys with other metals that enhance its key qualities. For example, a combination of aluminum and magnesium enhances its anti-corrosion properties, and an alloy called dural (aluminum and copper) increases strength many times over while remaining lightweight.

Why especially laser cut aluminum?

The presence of such exceptional properties and availability of material has ensured its widespread use in such areas as:

Aviation
Automotive
Shipbuilding
Advertising signage production
Electrical engineering, etc

In the past, all of these industries most often used machining and cutting of material, after which metal needed additional processing. The laser has replaced them, making process much more efficient by:

Process automation
Delicate material processing
The ability to create complex shapes and products
Almost no waste
Flexibility of process control with help of power settings

And these are just main advantages, in addition to them, we can mention that this method, among other things, saves energy, but it can go on for a long time and the advantages of metal and really too many, so just go on.

Alloys

The first feature of laser cutting aluminum is that since it is not used pure, you need to know what kind of alloy lies in front of you.

Technical aluminum A5, A6, A7, A0
Duralumin D1, D16
Alloys AMg2, AMg3, AMg5, AMg6.
Alloys AMz, AD1, AD31, AD0
Alloys B95, 1915, 1925

Aluminum is cut like any other metal – only with a fiber laser. It is able to process almost all types of its alloys

Since metal is never used in its pure form, it is important to look at the proportion of alloy. For example, D16 contains a high percentage of copper and is many times harder to cut than all other alloys.

Metal properties

The second feature is the physical properties of aluminum, namely thermal conductivity and reflectivity. Because of these, it is a little more difficult to work with than other metals.

High thermal conductivity leads to the fact that metal removes a lot of heat from the laser and in order to cut it, you need to increase its power. Aluminum also reflects up to 95% of laser radiation, which also greatly reduces cutting efficiency. This is why material is very limited in processing thickness. Here is a graph that clearly shows how much time and power it will take to cut aluminum alloy 5083 in certain thicknesses.

Of course, you can process aluminum even 30 or 40mm thick, but the quality of the cut, the efficiency of work is reduced many times. As you can see on the graph, also according to our experience we can say that it is not reasonable to process the material more than 10mm.

Cutting with gas

Another feature is that this metal is cut in a gaseous environment – using either oxygen or nitrogen.

Oxygen

Enhances oxidation process of material, but it produces a burnt edge of metal and a poor quality cut. It is usually used when edge quality of material is not important.

Nitrogen

It is a non-flammable gas. It protects metal from oxidation, blows all combustion products away from cutting point, cools it down and thus preserves all its properties.

In addition to above features, material has a few more points that you should definitely be aware of. Below in the form of a table we have listed the positive and negative points when processing this metal.

+	–
High cutting accuracy (up to 0.1mm)	High cost of equipment
No mechanical impact on the workpiece	Need for qualified personnel
Material saving	Limitations on the thickness of the material
Processing of complex shapes
High productivity speed

What machines are suitable for cutting aluminum?

With 22 years of experience with laser machines, Wattsan engineers have created a range of machines to suit our customers’ needs for machining not only aluminum, but metals in general. One such machine is the 1313A.

Wattsan 1313A

This is a medium sized machine with a 1300mm square working field. The 3kW laser head will provide you with any metal up to 3-4 mm. Also in this machine we use Raycus, JPT or MAX Photonics laser sources – these are world renowned manufacturers that we trust and use in all our laser machines.

1313

Work area	1300 x 1300 mm
Laser power	up to 3 kW
Travel speed	80 m/min
Laser source	Raycus/IPG

In addition to series A, Wattsan’s catalog of metal cutters has series E and S. These series are distinguished by power of the laser head, in younger series – 1.5kW and 6kW in older, respectively.

1325

Work area	1300 x 2500 mm
Laser power	up to 12 kW
Travel speed	100-120 m/min
Laser source	Raycus/MAX Photonics/IPG

For especially large production and work with thick materials, Wattsan engineers have developed the HARD series. The working field size of these machines can be up to 6 meters wide. More information about these machines can be found on our website.

1530

Hard

Work area	1500 x 3000 mm
Laser power	up to 30 kW
Travel speed	120-160 m/min
Laser source	Raycus/IPG

Conclusion

Aluminum, although very common, is a metal that is quite specific in processing. In order to be able to process it effectively, it is necessary to pay attention to these points:

Sheet thickness
Type of alloy
The gas used for machining

In addition, key parameters for a quality cut are

Laser power
Speed
Frequency
Focal length

The Wattsan service team can take care of all these parameters, because we help you not only to choose a machine, but also to get you up and running as soon as possible. Because when you grow, we grow too!