Recently, laser cutting is used in many industries. Generally, in laser cutting of metallic materials, suitable assist gas and its nozzle \r\nare needed to remove the molten metal. However, because of the gas nozzle should be set closer to the surface of a workpiece, \r\nexistence of the nozzle seems to prevent laser cutting from being used flexible. Therefore, the new cutting process, Assist Gas Free \r\nlaser cutting or AGF laser cutting, has been developed. In this process, the pressure at the bottom side of a workpiece is reduced \r\nby a vacuum pump, and the molten metal can be removed by the air flow caused by the pressure difference between both sides \r\nof the specimen. In this study, cutting properties of austenitic stainless steel by using AGF laser cutting with 2 kW CO2 laser were \r\ninvestigated. Laser power and cutting speed were varied in order to study the effect of these parameters on cutting properties. As \r\na result, austenitic stainless steel could be cut with dross-free by AGF laser cutting. When laser power was 2.0 kW, cutting speed \r\ncould be increased up to 100 mm/s, and kerf width at specimen surface was 0.28 mm.
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