Experimental Investigation of Industrial Laser Cutting: The Effect of the Material Selection and the Process Parameters on the Kerf Quality

Abstract

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.

Simulation of Melting Efficiency in Laser Cutting of Hardox 400 Steel

“…This is due to the energy received from the laser, the oxidation reaction, and the focus position. When the radiation penetrated the metal, a smooth surface was found due to the combined effect of the input parameters, observations similar to those identified in the papers [ 41 , 42 ].…”

Energy Efficiency in CO2 Laser Processing of Hardox 400 Material

“…In the past few years, researchers studied the possibility of cutting with a CO 2 laser of different materials such as methyl polymethacrylate [16], Al 6061-T6 alloy [17], 304 stainless steel [18], AISI 1045 austenitic steel [19], AlSI 304, AlMg3 and St37-2 [20], SS41 and SUS304 [21], pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloys [22], Ti6Al4V alloy [23] and Nickel-based super alloys Nimonic 263 [24].…”

Analysis of specific cutting energy in laser fusion cutting of an aluminium alloy

“…Anghel et al [5] investigated the effects of the process parameters on the material removal rate (MRR) and dimensional deviation in CO 2 laser cutting of miniature spur gears of stainless steel. Recently, Genna et al [6] applied factorial designs to analyze the effect of material type (AlMg3 aluminium alloy, carbon steel, and stainless steel), workpiece material thickness, cutting speed, and pressure of assist gas on the kerf geometry characteristics, surface roughness and cut edge quality in high power CO 2 laser cutting. A hybrid machine learning approach, consisting of clustering and classification methods, aimed at enhancing the planning process of the laser cutting operations was proposed by Tercan et al [7].…”