At the beginning of 2023, 60,000-watt laser cutting machine came out, with the breakthrough performance in the field of thick plate blew the horn of laser cutting to fully replace the plasma/flame cutting, and "no more thick plate in the world" sound resounded throughout the industry. In the second half of the 80,000-watt laser cutting machine, further enhancing the advantages of laser cutting in the field of thick plate processing. In the future, will the laser cutting market introduce even higher power? Does the industry really need the power to continue to increase?
Laser power demand from steel applications
To answer this question, we must also focus on the fiber laser cutting machine's main object of service - steel applications. In practice, people will be less than 4mm thick steel plate known as thin plate, 4-20mm steel plate known as medium plate, 20-60mm steel plate known as thick plate, thickness greater than 60mm steel plate needs to be rolled in a special special thick plate rolling mill, so it is called special thick plate. According to Mysteel statistics of China's plate production capacity data: in 2022, China's general plate production accounted for about 45.7% of all the plate, thick plate production accounted for about 40.7%, the production of special thick plate accounted for about 13.6%.
China's thick plate and extra-thick plate applications are mainly concentrated in construction, machinery, shipbuilding, bridges, boilers, pressure vessels and many other industries, with heavy machinery, steel structure and shipbuilding in particular. According to Mysteel data: in 2022, the downstream terminal proportion of medium and thick plate accounts for 31.3% in the machinery field, 28.4% in the steel structure field, and 13.6% in the shipbuilding field.
In the past, the vast majority of laser cutting is used for thin and medium plates, a small number of thick plates, almost impossible to get involved in extra-thick plates, so the early years there are 6kW is enough to cover 90% of the market laser cutting needs. With the arrival of the 10,000-watt era, laser cutting in the field of thick plate cutting capacity has been strengthened, for thick plate cutting market pattern has gradually begun to change.
The emergence of 60,000-watt cutting machine, on the one hand, broke the laser can not be stabilized to cut more than 200mm thick plate limitations, so that ingots, iron ingots and other ultra-thick materials processing has become possible; on the other hand, 60,000 watts of air cutting 20mm carbon steel can easily reach a speed of 11m/min, will be required in the past project to tackle the difficult thick plate cutting into the ranks of the thin plate.
Combined with the current market pattern and years of practical experience, I will be the application of the power band laser scene is divided into five gears:
The first gear - laser cutting traditional position:
With 6kW as the representative of the kilowatt laser cutting machine, can fully meet the needs of thin plate processing;
The second gear - 10,000 watts early representative:
1-2 million watt cutting machine is basically able to meet the needs of all medium plate processing, can also take into account part of the thick plate processing (but no obvious advantage);
The third gear - an upgraded version of the second gear:
3-5 million watts in the plate processing efficiency than the previous product to achieve a multiplier, but also basically covers the needs of thick plate processing, can partially replace the plasma / flame cutting process;
The fourth grade - epoch-making products:
60,000 watts, 80,000 watts to fully realize the full coverage of the needs of the field of thick plate, "cutting thick as thin" is its most obvious feature, in thick plate cutting compared to plasma has obvious advantages (50mm carbon steel cutting, 60,000 watts efficiency is 3 times that of the plasma), can be in the field of thick plate to completely replace the plasma; at the same time, it can also be upward to break through the limit of the extra-thick plate cutting (200mm stainless steel cutting, 60,000 watts efficiency is 15 times that of the sawing machine), and further enhance the cutting efficiency of the plate (1 set of 2 sets, 60,000 watts capacity is comparable to 30,000 watts + 40,000 watts);
Fifth gear - a full breakthrough in extra-thick plates:
Currently unavailable more than 100,000 watts of products, I predict that 10-15 million watts can be realized in the field of thick plate on the fourth generation of products to multiply the efficiency, while further increasing the advantages of processing in the field of extra-thick plate, and more importantly, is to be able to realize the field of extra-thick plate to fully replace the plasma/flame and other products.
Where are extra-thick plates used? Land and sea are indispensable!
The downstream terminal proportion of extra-thick plate is slightly different from the downstream proportion of medium-thick plate, which can be roughly summarized as construction (including high-rise buildings, large-span buildings such as bridges/tunnels, marine platforms and other steel structure parts), machinery manufacturing (including heavy machine tools, large pressure vessels, large ships/submarines/aircraft carriers, etc), petrochemical industry (including petrochemical containers, petroleum pipelines) and so on.
Although the real estate market is currently in a downturn, from a macro point of view, China's urbanization process is not yet complete. As of 2023, China's urbanization rate reached 66.16%, which is still a distance away from the urbanization rate of over 80% in developed countries, and experts predict that China's urbanization rate will gradually increase to 80% or even higher in the next two to three decades. Under this trend, the construction of new first-tier cities and first-tier city clusters will continue for a longer period of time, which also means that a large number of high-rise buildings, bridges and tunnels will continue to be built. For high-rise buildings, the bottoms and columns of the buildings need to withstand greater loads and pressures, thus requiring the use of extra-thick plates with greater thickness. The abutments and deck plates of large-span bridges usually require extra-thick plates, for example, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which opened to traffic in 2018, is 56km long and has used a total of 1.1 million tons of steel, of which the base plate of the dolphin-shaped bridge tower is made up of four pieces of extra-thick steel plates up to 150mm thick, spliced together.
Offshore platforms are structures that provide production and living facilities for drilling, oil extraction, transportation, observation, navigation, construction and other activities at sea. Since offshore platforms stand on the sea for a long time and are subject to large external loads such as wave force, wind force and water pressure, they need to use extra-thick plates to ensure their safety and stability, especially for parts that need to withstand large weights and external loads such as support structures, decks and conduit racks.
Also relevant to the sea is the shipbuilding industry. In recent years, the Internet often use the word "dumplings" to describe the current situation of China's shipbuilding industry, not only theships to achieve outstanding results, some civil and commercial ship orders are also scheduled for several years later. Generally speaking, large ships with steel to 20-60mm thick plate majority, of which the bottom plate and the belly plate to withstand greater liquid pressure, usually high thickness, some of the ship's bottom plate thickness of more than 60mm, or even up to 100mm; while the side plate and the upper armor plate is the use of smaller thickness of steel plate, generally between 10mm and 30mm. According to my understanding, some private shipyards have started to introduce 10,000-watt laser cutting machine and have plans to expand the scale of laser cutting.
Someships have higher requirements for steel plate, such as submarines work underwater for a long time, bear huge underwater pressure, the thickness of its pressure-resistant shell steel plate is often in the 20-60mm, the thickness of nuclearpressure-resistant shell steel plate is more than 70mm; Aircraft carrier flight deck needs to withstand the weight of the carrier's aircraft and the impact of the take-off and landing, the thickness of its steel is generally in the range of 50-80mm or so, and there are also some special parts The thickness of steel is generally about 50-80mm, and there are some special parts which are more than 100mm. The hangar deck has less impact, but it needs to bear the weight of the airplane and the environmental factors in the hangar. Its steel thickness is generally about 40-60mm, and there are some special parts of more than 80mm. The carrier's hull side and bottom is to withstand the water pressure of the main area, so need to use thicker steel plate, its steel thickness is generally between 200-300mm, of which the thickness of the bottom steel plate may be thicker.
Land-based machinery manufacturing is also supported by extra-thick plates. For example, heavy machine tools are used to process heavy parts, need to withstand greater weight and external loads, bed and base, etc. need to use extra thick plates to ensure the stability of the machine for a long time. For the storage and transportation of gases or liquids, large pressure vessels, due to the face of strong internal and external pressure, and even face some high temperature, corrosion, strong radiation and other conditions, so the steel requirements are very high, mostly used in petrochemical,power plants and other fields.
