The rapid evolution of modern laser cutting technology The speed in which fiber laser cutting machines operate is hard to ignore. They make the CO2 laser cutting machines from only 10 years ago look painfully slow.Get more news about laser cutting line,you can vist our website! But speed is not the only reason that metal fabricators are investing regularly in new laser cutting capabilities. Today’s machines have automated tasks that even the most top-of-the-line systems from a few years ago relied on operator intervention to accomplish. As metal fabricators learn to do more with less—not by choice, but because of the tight labor market—they are leaning on technology to keep production moving efficiently through the shop. That same thinking applies to laser cutting. Consider what state-of-the-art laser cutting technology does for the modern-day metal fabricator. This is where powerful nesting algorithms, found in modern laser cutting machine programming software, can make a difference. A metal fabricator can go from simple static nests that match the flow of work through the shop to more dynamic nesting where different jobs might be included on the same nest to maximize material utilization and reduce scrap. This type of programming power results in nests with more intelligent common-line cutting. For example, the laser makes one cut that ends up being a common edge for two distinct parts. Computing power can take that nesting arrangement and expand it to include four parts that might share cut lines in a two-by-two grid or even a collection of different parts that share one common edge resulting from one cut. Today’s nesting algorithms are simply more robust than those from five years ago. The computing power available to today’s machines make them much more efficient in figuring out not only the best ways to place as many parts as possible on one sheet without wasting too much material, but also in calculating the most efficient way to make the cuts to maximize production time and minimize consumables wear. Eliminating Manual Intervention If a laser operator has been around for at least 10 years or more, he or she remembers what was needed to ensure proper cutting. They had to be more engaged with the cutting process, staying on top of numerous factors such as manually inspecting, changing, centering the nozzle, and calibrating the focus position to ensure that it was correct for each material setup. Needless to say, prepping the laser for cutting wasn’t as easy as pushing a button. Today, an operator needs to be engaged, but a lot of the manual intervention that was required with previous generations of laser cutting technology is not really needed. The whole idea behind today’s machines is that a fab shop needs an operator to become acquainted and comfortable with the equipment in a short amount of time. Part of the reason a company may invest in newer laser cutting technology is to enjoy improved cutting efficiencies, and that can’t happen if the machine isn’t producing parts because no one knows how to run it. That’s why present-day controls are designed to look like something found on tablet computing devices. Icons are prevalent, and operators can swipe the screen to engage commands. The controls are tailored to those who likely have never worked in the industry before. Given what happened during the pandemic, this simplification of the control interface is timely. For example, when restaurants and hotels shut down in 2020 because everyone stayed home and put travel plans on hold, many of these displaced workers found jobs in the manufacturing sector. They might have required a much longer learning curve to become familiar with older machines, but with today’s user-friendly control interface and automation features, the learning curve has been incredibly compressed.