Laser or Waterjet, Which Is Better?

Laser cutting and waterjet cutting both have their advantages and disadvantages. Before asking “which is better?”, let’s go over the characteristics of both methods:

Characteristics of Laser Cutting

It uses laser radiation heating to cut the workpiece. This technology is unmatched in terms of speed and accuracy. Cutting precision is high, and it produces very little waste while being able to process workpieces with complex shapes.

It’s suitable for cutting thinner materials, such as plastic, ceramic, or metal, less than 25 mm thick. Cutting can be done quickly in any direction.

There are currently two types of laser cutting machines: one is CO₂ cutting (carbon dioxide cutting), and the other is fiber laser cutting.

Differences Between CO₂ Cutting and Fiber Laser Cutting

Cutting Power: Fiber laser cutting machines adopt a diode Aurora system that can effectively transmit very high power without any attenuation. In CO₂ laser cutting machines, it’s difficult to increase power, and the mirror it uses can burn out when power is high. For this reason, a fiber laser cutting machine’s available power is much higher than that of a CO2 laser cutting machine.

Cutting Thickness: Currently, in many cases, the thickness a fiber laser can cut is nearly the same as CO2, but it’s more efficient than CO2, with 70% less power consumption and less wear.

Simplicity: Many fiber laser manufacturers call fiber laser cutting machine setup “plug and play”. For users who need this technology, fiber laser offers high efficiency and quick cost recovery.

Laser cutting has become a low-cost form of production due to its fast cutting speed, short cycle time, and high accuracy.

Characteristics of Waterjet Cutting

Waterjet cutting is more economical than laser cutting.

Because it’s a cold cutting process and can be applied to many types of materials, it has a wider range of application than laser cutting. It’s a suitable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly cutting method for heat-sensitive materials.

It doesn’t cause thermal damage to the workpiece and can be used in industries with high requirements, such as aerospace, marine, automobile manufacturing, textiles and shoemaking, ceramics, machining, and other industries.

It can’t be used to cut absorbent materials like wood, or materials that could rust when exposed to moisture.

Another advantage of waterjet cutting is that, since it can cut from any direction, it can use 3D nesting software.

Pure water alone can be used when cutting softer materials. For harder materials, garnet sand is generally used, mixed with water suitable for cutting sheet metal.

The nozzle size varies depending on the workpiece’s thickness.

The smaller the nozzle, the thinner the material that can be cut, and vice versa. However, cutting very thick and hard materials takes more time, which increases cost.

Although waterjet cutting is more economical, its maintenance cost is high, since parts like high-pressure pumps and cutting heads wear out.

Conclusion: Which Is Better?

Laser cutting and waterjet cutting share one common advantage: compared to other methods (plasma and oxy-fuel cutting), their kerf widths are very small, so they can be used for workpieces too small to be cut by other machines.

To summarize, laser and waterjet cutting methods are completely different, but neither is better than the other — they complement each other. Businesses can use laser cutting or waterjet depending on their needs. When your factory has both of these cutting machines, your competitive advantage will undoubtedly increase significantly.

Because you can have more flexible options regarding the type of cutting materials, the thickness of the workpieces, or the factory’s subsequent order management system.

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