There are many different ways to use laser cutting, and different types are used to cut different materials. Today let’s take a look at how laser cuts plastic.
Vaporization Cutting
In vapor cutting, a focused beam heats the surface of the material to the boiling point and creates a keyhole. Keyholes cause a sudden increase in absorption, rapidly deepening the hole. As the hole deepens and the material boils, the resulting steam eats away at the molten walls, blowing the ejecta out and further enlarging the hole. Non-molten materials such as wood cut, carbon and thermoset plastics are commonly cut by this method.
Melt
Melting and meltblown, or fusion cutting, uses high-pressure gas to blow molten material from the cutting area, significantly reducing power requirements. The material is first heated to its melting point, then a jet of gas blows the molten material out of the cut, avoiding the need to further raise the temperature of the material. The material cut using this method is usually metal.
Thermal Stress Cracking
Brittle materials are particularly susceptible to thermal fracture, a feature found in thermal stress cracking. The beam is focused on the surface, causing localized heating and thermal expansion. This causes cracks, which can then be directed by moving the beam. The crack can move in the order of m/s. It is commonly used for cutting glass.
Invisible Cutting Of Silicon Wafers
The separation of microelectronic chips prepared in silicon semiconductor device manufacturing from silicon wafers can be carried out by the so-called stealth dicing process, which uses pulsed Nd:YAG lasers whose wavelength (1064nm) is well used in the electronic band gap of silicon (1.11 electron volts or 1117 nanometers).
Reactive Cutting
Also known as “combustion-stabilized laser gas cutting” and “flame cutting”. Reactive cutting is like oxygen torch cutting, but with a laser beam as the ignition source. Mainly used for cutting carbon steel with thickness exceeding 1 mm. How To Laser Cuts Plastic?This process can be used to cut very thick steel plates with relatively little laser power.
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