Today laser cutting has intruded on the space that historically belonged to punching and it has become the star technology in sheet metal fabricating industry, since it helps fabricators to become more and more productive and competitive.

Tools evolution: laser cutting uses the latest technology-laser to cut the material, which allows a higher precision comparing with punching. Addtionally, as the charactor of laser, to increase the watt power, currently, it is able to cut carbon steel till 28-30mm, which could meet most requirement in the sheet metal processing industry or OEM parts making.

In addition, althrough laser cannot do forming operations, bending method can be the following step to process the metal or other material.

Floor space: In most cases, the floor space needed by a punching machine is usually smaller than a laser cutting machine. However, most laser cutting machine companys could offer pallet charger, which meet the demand of a higher proessing demand.

Production cost: Depending on how thick the material is and the quatity requirements, production cost can be various in between punching machine and laser cutting machine. Generally, it is suitable to process thiner material in larger quatity with punch machine, as the mold & die components have big impact on the total production cost. With a small quatity, or the material is thicker than 4-5mm, it is better to use laser cutting technology. Overall, the choice is still made by the end user, since the precision requirement and the budget could be other important components to look at.

VICCAM includes in its range of sheet metal processing machines with laser cutting technologies, so we study each case and provide the technology that best fits the needs of each customer.