Laser Cutting
Laser cutting uses a focused beam to cut the outline and openings of a flat sheet metal part along a programmed path. K-Display laser cuts panels, plates, brackets, and enclosure covers from your DXF or STEP files.
What laser cutting does to a sheet
The beam heats the sheet along its path and a stream of cutting gas drives the molten metal out through the underside, leaving a narrow gap, the kerf. Each part comes off the sheet with its outline, holes, slots, and cutouts in place, and no tool is made for it. We cut carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, galvanized steel, and galvanneal, and the parts leave bare or powder coated with hardware installed.
CNC punching forms knockouts and raised details as it cuts, and it strikes a large pattern of identical openings from one set of punches.
The nozzle stays above the sheet, so only the beam and the gas reach the metal. The kerf trails behind the beam, so the sheet stays connected ahead of it until the beam arrives.
Parts we laser cut
Choose laser cutting for intricate outlines, low quantities, and thicker or mixed material. Choose CNC punching for panels with a large pattern of the same opening.
- Mounting plates with component and cable openings cut from the component drawing
- Enclosure covers with cutouts for switches, displays, and connectors
- Brackets cut flat, with holes positioned for the bends that follow
- Guard panels with a sensor window and a cable cutout in solid sheet
- Access covers with one window cut to the outline of the part behind them
- Materials
- Carbon steel, Galvanized steel, Galvanneal, Stainless steel, Aluminum
Cutting from the formed part
A hole cut in a flat sheet lands somewhere else once the sheet is bent. For a part that is formed next, we unfold the cut outline from the formed model, so each hole ends where the drawing puts it.
Lay the sheet under the nozzle
The sheet lies flat on the cutting table, in the material and thickness the drawing names, with the nozzle above it.
Follow the path
The beam travels along the outline, the holes, and the slots until each part is free of the sheet.
Release the parts
We ship the cut parts flat and bare, or send them on to bending, welding, powder coating, hardware installation, and assembly and ship them finished.
Design for laser cutting
Dimension the mounting holes and the openings they serve from one datum edge, the edge every measurement starts from, and take that edge from the formed part when the sheet will be bent. Two datums add their tolerances, and a pattern that misses its component by the sum will not seat. We cut each feature from the datum edge on the drawing.
The cut removes a strip of metal, so the beam has to run to one side of a hole's drawn line for the hole to come out at its drawn size. A self-clinching nut, which locks into the sheet when it is pressed in, seats only in a hole of its published size. Name the hardware part number on the drawing, and we cut the hole to that size.
Five features locate this panel on its component: the four corner holes and the access opening. The three slots between the opening and the short edge only vent, so they can move without changing the fit.
What to send for a laser cutting quote
- Files and revision
- DXF for flat geometry, STEP for 3D intent, and PDF for dimensions and notes.
- Material
- Metal, grade, and the thickness of each sheet.
- Formed part
- The bent-part model or drawing, where the cut part will be bent.
- Critical features
- Tolerances, mating interfaces, and the datum edges they are dimensioned from.
- Hardware
- Part numbers of the nuts, studs, and standoffs that seat in cut holes.
- Quantity
- Part quantities, repeat releases, and the delivery target.