Cutting silver ?

[onur cakir]

Hi Everyone !

Is it possible to cut 1 mm (0,25") silver with 45W laser power ?

As far as i know silver is not so resistant to heat so i thought i might have a chance with it :)

I'm looking for a small 1 mm silver plate to try but i counldnt find yet.

[Frank Corker]

I can't definitely answer your question because I've not tried, but I am plumping for 'not in a million years'.

[Mike Null]

You might melt it but I don't think cutting is a possibility with a laser.

[Dave Johnson29]

Is it possible to cut 1 mm (0,25") silver with 45W laser power ?


I can't see it happening Onur, the silver will conduct the heat away too fast and I doubt it will even melt unless it is a small piece you can saturate, even then very doubtful.

Try a thin piece of copper. Copper has the closest Thermal Conductivity to silver.

[onur cakir]

Thanks everyone....what about decreasing Freq. down to 200-300 with power %100 ?

Hope i'll find silver or copper plate soon, i'm so curious about the result.

[Rodne Gold]

Dont bother trying , you will never cut 1mm silver with our lasers , you wont even cut 0.2mm...try some tin foil ..see how far you get :)

[onur cakir]

hmm...it looks i wont become rich soon !

what about 100W power from synrad tube ?

[Mike Mackenzie]

You will need minimum 200 watts with a gas assist to even start to cut metal. Try a yag type laser that is your better bet. Actually you could probably cut thin metals using less power with a high pressure gas nozzle assist. Be careful if you try foils the beam will reflect off of the material.

[John Noell]

A friend who designs circuit boards asked me to try etching a board with thin copper cladding. 45 watts at 100% power and 1% speed did not even mark it.

[Dan Hintz]

The wavelength of CO2 lasers is about the worst you can use for absorption in metal... YAG is 1/10th the wavelength and is readily absorbed.