Experimental Investigations of Relations Between Adjustable Process Parameters and Quality Parameters in CO2, Laser Cutting

Author(s):  
H. Jørgensen ◽  
F. O. Olsen
2015 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shib Shankar Banerjee ◽  
Anil K. Bhowmick

ABSTRACT The application of the low-power CO2 laser-cutting process to fluoroelastomer (FKM), polyamide 6 (PA6), PA6/FKM thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), and their thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) is reported. The main laser process parameters studied were laser power, cutting speed, and material thickness. The value of the top and bottom widths of the slit that were formed during laser cutting (kerf width), melted transverse area, and melted volume per unit time were measured and analyzed. Interestingly, TPE showed a smaller melted area and melted volume per unit time when compared with those values with PA6. Dynamic vulcanization further decreased these values. For example, the melted areas of PA6 and TPE were 510 × 10−3 mm2 and 305 × 10−3 mm2, respectively, which reduced to 238 × 10−3 mm2 for TPV at 40 W laser power. FKM showed the lowest value (melted area of 180 × 10−3 mm2). In addition, the output quality of the cut surface was examined by measuring the root mean square (RMS) roughness of the cut edges and heat-affected zone (HAZ). The obtained results indicated that the dimension of the HAZ and RMS roughness largely decreased in TPE when compared with PA6. For example, the HAZ of PA6 was 700 μm, which decreased to 230 μm for TPE at 40 W laser power. On the other hand, HAZ was nonexistent for FKM. Infrared spectroscopic analysis showed that there was no structural change of TPE or pristine polymers after applying the low-power CO2 laser on the surface of materials. CO2 laser cutting will be a new technique in this industry, and this analysis will assist the manufacturing industry to choose a suitable laser system with exhaustive information of process parameters for cutting or machining of rubber, TPEs, and TPVs.


2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 1068-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.A. Eltawahni ◽  
M. Hagino ◽  
K.Y. Benyounis ◽  
T. Inoue ◽  
A.G. Olabi

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep S. Wangikar ◽  
Manthan M Dixit ◽  
Saurabh G Wadekar ◽  
Harshal R Nagtilak ◽  
Nitin D Hingmire ◽  
...  

Laser has been employed for producing the complex specimens very efficiently and magnificently. The use of acrylic components is becoming prevalent day by day. Hence it is required to study the various machining techniques for engraving or cutting of acrylic material. The one of the non-traditional machining processes which can be employed efficiently for machining of acrylic is CO2 laser machining. The parametric study of acrylic materials by using CO2 laser machining is discussed in this paper. The scanning speed and the laser power were considered as process parameters and the influence of these parameters is studied on the depth as response measure. The engraving depth is observed to be increasing with increase in power and noted to be decreasing with increase in the scanning speed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 4956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvio Genna ◽  
Erica Menna ◽  
Gianluca Rubino ◽  
Vincenzo Tagliaferri

Laser beam cutting is a non-contact, production-flexible and highly productive technique that allows accurate profiling of a wide range of sheet materials. To these and further benefits, laser machining is increasingly being adopted by industry. This paper investigates the effect of material type, workpiece thickness, cutting speed and assistant gas pressure on cut quality for industrial-relevant applications using a CO2 laser. AlMg3 aluminum alloy, St37-2 low-carbon steel and AISI 304 stainless steel were selected to represent the most established materials in many industrial fields and gain insight into different processes (i.e., inert-assisted fusion cutting and oxygen cutting) and absorption behaviors with respect to CO2 laser wavelength. The aim was to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms through which laser cutting parameters and workpiece parameters interact in order to identify general criteria and well-optimized process parameters which guarantee the kerf quality. The quality of laser cut was analyzed in its basic terms: kerf geometry, surface roughness and cut edge quality. The experiments were performed by using a systematic experimental design approach based on Design of Experiments, and the results were validated via Analysis of Variance. Quality assessment was presented and discussed. The visual inspection of cut sections confirms good overall quality and limited presence of laser cut imperfections. The experimental investigation demonstrates that the different materials can be successfully processed within a wide range of the tested values. In addition, optimum cutting conditions which satisfy the straight requirement of the quality standard adopted are identified for each material. This study involves an analysis of both phenomenological and practical issues.


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