Boss Laser · Learn
Fiber & Metal Cutting
Metal is a fiber laser’s job — and it’s the corner of laser work with the most money at stake and the most marketing noise attached. Here’s what actually governs it.
One number explains most of this cluster: metals absorb light at about 1 µm and reflect it at 10.6 µm. That’s why a fiber laser cuts steel and a CO2 laser of the same wattage mostly bounces off it. Everything downstream — how thick you can go, which gas to use, why copper is the hard case — follows from how much of the beam the metal takes in versus throws back.
In this guide
Five ways in
Start with why fiber owns metal, then walk a real cut, then get specific about your material. Each page stands on its own.
Fiber vs. CO2 for Metal
Start here Why wavelength — not wattage — decides which machine cuts your metal, and what each one is genuinely better at.The Fiber Cutting Process
Process Sheet to finished part, step by step — including the pierce, the part everyone underestimates.Which Metals Cut Well
Materials Carbon steel through titanium — how each behaves, and roughly how thick each power class handles.Reflective Metals: the Honest Story
Materials · Limits Copper, brass, aluminum — why they’re hard, what back-reflection actually threatens, and what’s realistic.How to Cut Reflective Metal
Operator The four things that decide success: focus, speed, power, and gas — and the order to set them in.Boss Laser · Learn
Know the metal — now know the machine.
Thickness, gas, and edge quality all point back to how a laser removes material in the first place. If the physics under the cut isn’t settled for you yet, start there and this cluster reads easier.