First results of experimental and theoretical investigations concerning an industrial application of oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) are reported. The dependencies of the largest cut depth on the laser emission power, cut width and rate, and kind of processing gas (oxygen or nitrogen) were determined for carbon and stainless steels, and aluminium alloys. A developed simple engineering model determines parameters of separating gas-laser cutting of metals allowing for principal channels of heat loss: warming, melting, material evaporation and heat conductivity, convection and radiant heat exchange. It was shown that when oxygen is applied as a processing gas it is necessary to take into account the additional heat emanation that is usually about 10% of the material oxidation energy. A good agreement between calculative and experimental data was obtained.
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