Step 2 · Material
Material Profiles — Type, Thickness & Price per kg
Six common alloys, metric thickness presets, price per kilogram, scrap allowance, and assist gas — material cost from each part’s bounding box mass.
Material profiles pair grade with thickness (mm), density, $/kg, and scrap %. The calculator multiplies bbox mass by price/kg and quantity; gas type and gas cost per hour roll into laser assist gas on the quote.
How material cost is calculated
Material profiles use price per kilogram, not a flat sheet price. Mass comes from each part’s bounding box, thickness, and material density, with an optional scrap allowance.
material $ = bbox area × thickness × density × (1 + scrap%) × $/kg × qty
- Bounding box from parsed DXF geometry (same parser as nesting).
- Density defaults per alloy; you can override when quoting exotic stock.
- Assist gas type and gas cost per hour feed the laser side of the quote.
Supported material types
Common stock thicknesses (mm)
Mild vs stainless
Swap profiles when the same DXF moves from carbon steel to 304 — speeds and $/kg update together.
Scrap allowance
Add a scrap % on skeleton waste or buy-to-flight surplus without a separate spreadsheet column.
Gas on material step
N₂, O₂, or air assist selection lives with the material profile and rolls into laser gas cost.
More Calculator features
Machine rates
Set hourly cutting rate, shop overhead, pierce time, and laser markup on step 1 — with 13 laser machine presets from 500 W to 20 kW and saved profiles per account.
DXF for quotes
Step 3 of the five-step wizard: upload DXF, review cut length and pierce counts per part, then set quantities before results.
Cutting speeds
Chart speeds by fiber power, material, and thickness — interpolated between rows, then scaled to 90% for realistic shop feed rates.
Quote breakdown
Results step shows laser cutting (cutting, overhead, gas, markup on laser), sheet material by type and thickness, and aligned part and job totals.
Try it in the calculator
Walk through machine → material → upload → quantities → results with your next DXF job.
Calculate cutting costFeature: Material pricing