Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate the effect of CO2 laser
machining on wood, perspex and glass. These materials are very
important due to their wide applications and thus there is need to
machine them as desired. Glass is a hard, optically transparent and
used for a variety of purposes such as eyewear, bottles, windows and
even certain types of furniture. Perspex is the clear, light weighted,
hard and thick plastic, widely used for watch glasses, advertising
signs, domestic baths, motorboat windscreens, aircraft canopies, and
protective shields. To eliminate the possibility of the CO2 light being
diffused by dirt/dust particles on the surface of these materials being
experimented on, thorough cleaning of the surfaces is done and these
specimens left to dry before use. A continuous wave (cw) CO2 laser
beam with an estimated power of 35 Watts is then focused on the
surfaces of the specimens. Machining time and the number of scans
are varied and their effect on depth, hole diameters, kerf widths,
taper, aspect ratio and heat-affected-zone (HAZ) investigated. Effect
of compressed air as the assist gas on hole profiles and the point at
which glass cracks was also investigated. During these experiments,
the machining velocity, laser and optics parameters were kept
constant. Results showed that in an increase in the input parameters
resulted in an increase in the features under investigation.
