Laser cutting price list: cost per metre by material and thickness

Laser cutting is charged by machine time, and machine time is set by two things: how far the beam travels and how thick the sheet is. YBT’s rate card therefore has two components. The first is a fee per metre of cut path, which covers the outer profile and any opening of 30 mm or more. The second is a fee per round hole below 30 mm in diameter, because a small hole is dominated by the pierce rather than by the length of the cut. Both rates rise with thickness, and both differ by material: stainless and galvanised sheet cut at about half the speed of mild steel, aluminium at about a third. The figures below are in US dollars and are the cutting fee only.

Add the perimeter of the outer profile to the perimeter of every opening of 30 mm or more, in metres, and multiply by the per-metre rate for your material and thickness. Then count the round holes below 30 mm and multiply by the per-hole rate. As a worked example, a 2.0 mm mild steel bracket with a 400 mm outer profile and four 6 mm holes costs 0.4 m × 0.69 USD = 0.28 USD for the profile plus 4 × 0.09 USD = 0.36 USD for the holes, a cutting fee of about 0.64 USD per piece before material, bending or finishing. The same bracket in 2.0 mm stainless would be 0.55 USD plus 0.72 USD, about 1.27 USD. Holes cost more than their length suggests, so reducing hole count or replacing small holes with a single larger cutout usually saves more than negotiating the rate.

The rate card covers the three material families that make up most laser cutting work: mild steel (SS400, SPHC, SPCC), stainless and galvanised sheet (SUS304, SUS316, SECC, SGCC) and aluminium (AL1050, AL5052, AL6061), each from 1.0 to 6.0 mm. Material choice is usually decided before price: the materials and processing guide compares these grades by cost, corrosion resistance and formability. Thicker plate and copper alloys are cut on the same machines and quoted per drawing. Cut accuracy is ±0.1 mm across the range.