This paper investigates the effect of material type, material thickness, laser wavelength and laser power on the efficiency of the cutting process for industrial state-of-the-art cutting machines. The cutting efficiency is defined in its most basic terms: as the area of cut edge created per Joule of laser energy. This fundamental measure is useful in producing a direct comparison between the efficiency of fiber steels with different lasers from the point of view of one question: ‘How much cut edge is produced for each kilojoule of laser energy?’ This measure of efficiency can be described by the following simple equation; and CO2 lasers when cutting any material.

It is well known that the efficiency of the laser cutting process generally reduces as the material thickness increases, because conductive losses from the cut zone are higher at the lower speeds associated with thicker section material. However, there is an efficiency dip at the thinnest sections. This paper explains this dip in terms of a change in laser-material interaction at high cutting speeds.

Fiber lasers have a higher cutting efficiency at thin sections than their CO2 counterparts, but the efficiency of fiber laser cutting falls faster than that of CO2 lasers as material thickness is increased. This is the result of a number of factors including changes in cut zone absorptivity and kerf width.

This paper presents phenomenological explanations for the relative cutting efficiencies of fiber lasers and CO2 lasers, and the mechanisms affecting these efficiencies for stainless steels (cut with nitrogen) and mild steel (cut with oxygen or nitrogen) over a range of thicknesses. The paper involves a discussion of both theoretical and practical engineering issues.