Three ways to turn a flat sheet into a part. Edge quality, slug control, thickness limits, and which cutter the workshop reaches for when the BOQ doesn't say.
Below 2 mm steel and at quantities of 50+, a turret punch outruns laser. Each hit is milliseconds, and the tooling pays back over runs.
A 6 kW fibre laser cuts 1 mm stainless at 30 m/min and 10 mm mild steel at 1.2 m/min. Kerf is 0.15 mm. The edge is square enough to weld on without dressing.
20–40 mm plate where laser tops out and waterjet is too slow. Edge is angled and HAZ is wide. Spec a 1 mm secondary machining allowance.
A laser cuts to scrap, a punch makes slugs you have to evacuate. Lose track of slugs in a hole pattern and the next part jams. Workshop time, not material, drives price.
Indicative cut speeds. Exact rates depend on machine power, assist gas, and material grade.
| Cutter | Thickness · Speed | Edge · Use |
|---|---|---|
| Turret punch | 0.5–3 mm · burst | Holes & forms, sharp edge, high volume |
| Fibre laser 3 kW | 0.5–8 mm · 1–20 m/min | Clean weld-ready edge |
| Fibre laser 6 kW | 0.5–12 mm · 1.2–30 m/min | Production standard for enclosures |
| Fibre laser 12 kW+ | to 25 mm steel | Heavy fabrication, switchgear |
| Plasma (HD) | 3–40 mm · 0.5–4 m/min | Thick steel, 1 mm finish allowance |
| Waterjet | to 150 mm · 0.1–1 m/min | No HAZ, any material, slow |
Decisions at programming time that compound across the whole run.
Two parts sharing an edge get cut once. Programmers who think in single parts leave the saving on the table. Spec common-line nesting in the workshop RFP.
Cut a 10 mm hole 5 mm from the edge in 3 mm steel and the edge bows during cooling. Designers think in pixels, the metal thinks in heat.
The pierce point is hotter and rougher than the rest of the cut. Move the lead-in to a non-cosmetic edge or inside a relief slot. Customers see pierce marks before they see your drawing.
Nitrogen assist gas gives an oxide-free edge on stainless and aluminium, paintable, weldable. Oxygen on mild steel doubles cut speed but leaves an oxide layer that needs cleaning before paint.
Small features first, large perimeters last. The sheet stays cool, parts hold position on the slats, and the kerf width stays inside tolerance across the run.
We run a 6 kW fibre laser, an Amada turret punch, and HD plasma on a single material lane. Nesting software picks the right cutter per part, you get the cheapest cut, not the cut we want to bill for.
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