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Experimental investigation on the CO2 laser cutting of soda-lime glass

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Abstract

This study reports on complete glass cutting using a single CO2 laser beam with a low power of several tens of watts. In this study, the morphological characteristics of a cut surface and the process window for complete cutting were investigated at various process conditions. The damage threshold (in laser energy per unit length) for the glass surface was found to be ∼0.0203 J/mm. Increasing the laser energy above this level induced surface melting and crack generation, and the complete cutting of the glass eventually occurred due to huge crack propagation along the scan direction when the laser energy was above 0.67 J/mm. The line edge roughness (LER) measured along the cut surface was in the range of 106–500 µm and tended to increase with the laser energy. According to the result of the process window test, it was found that the process conditions using low laser power (8 and 16 W) and scan speed (12 and 15 mm/s) have a relatively wide process margin for cutting.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2018R1D1 A1B07040563), Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan, 34103, Korea

    SeungGu Kang & Joonghan Shin

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  1. SeungGu Kang
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Correspondence to Joonghan Shin.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Hyung Wook Park

SeungGu Kang is currently studying for a master’s degree in Mechanical and Automotive Engineering at Kongju National University, Cheonan, Korea. He received his B.S. in Mechanical and Automotive Engineering at Kongju National University, Cheonan, Korea, in 2018. His research interests include applied laser and thermal process for manufacturing, optimization of manufacturing processes and numerical simulation.

Joonghan Shin received B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Inha University, Incheon, Korea in 2001, M.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 2003 and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA in 2010. From 2010 to 2017, he was a Research Engineer at a Semiconductor R&D Center, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Ki-Heung, Gyeong-gi-Do, Korea. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan, Korea.

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Kang, S., Shin, J. Experimental investigation on the CO2 laser cutting of soda-lime glass. J Mech Sci Technol 34, 3345–3351 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0727-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0727-x

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