Joint Performance for Laser Cutting-welding of Zinc-coated Tailored Blanks

The process of laser bull welding of zinc-coated steel（SGCD3 and WLZn）blanks was presented.whose edges were prepared by laser cutting.The properties of the butt joints.such as tensile strength.bending,stamping.weld shape,and corrosion-resisant were tested.The experiments of laser cutting and welding were carried ont on a custom-made system designed.which is a set of equipment for wide sheet butt welding based on a laser cutting-welding combination process.The experiments proved the technological feasibility of laser butt welding for thin zinc coated steel sheets whose edges were prepared by laser cutting on the same equipment.

Experimental Study on Inert Gas-assisted Laser Cut Veneer Based on LOM

Based on the LOM(Laminated Object Manufacturing)process,an inert gas-assisted laser method for wood cutting was proposed.The carbonization degree of wood surface was improved by the introduction of helium(He)gas,and the influence of process parameters on the carbonization layer of wood surface was solved,it was significance to reduce the post-processing of LOM and improve the quality of forming workpiece.The cherry wood veneer was used as the experimental material,under the condition of the same process parameters,the wood was cut with or without inert gas-assisted,and the influence factors of kerf quality were studied by variance analysis.The results showed that under the same condition,compared with traditional laser processing,the kerf width was obviously reduced in the inert gas-assisted cutting.Because the He gas had oxygen-isolation and flame retardant effect,which prevented heat accumulation and conduction.The micro morphology of the kerf surface showed that the flatness was better in the inert gas-assisted cutting.As the excess heat was blown out by the cooling and purging of the gas,the phenomenon of oxidation and burning was reduced,the range of HAZ(heat affected zone)was reduced,and the carbonization phenomenon was obviously improved.The surface quality of kerf was improved effectively.According to the analysis of variance,in addition to the effect of laser power,cutting speed and inert gas flow on the cutting width,the interaction between inert gas flow and laser power,laser power and cutting speed were also the main factors which affected the cutting width.The feasibility of the combined inert gas and laser processing to improve wood cutting quality has been verified through experimental research,which provided a certain reference for the followup research on improving the wood processing quality.

Prediction and Analysis of Surface Quality of Northeast China Ash Wood during Water-Jet Assisted CO_(2) Laser Cutting

As a natural and environmentally friendly renewable material,Northeast China ash wood(NCAW)(Fraxinus mandshurica Rupr.)was cut by water-jet assisted CO_(2) laser(WACL),the surface quality was evaluated by surface roughness of cut section.The surface roughness was measured by three-dimensional(3D)profilometry.Furthermore,the micromorphology of machined surface was observed by scanning electronic microscopy(SEM).Carbon content changes of machined surface were measured by energy dispersive spectrometer(EDS).A relationship between surface roughness and cutting parameters was established using response surface methodology(RSM).It is concluded that the cutting speed,laser power and water pressure played an important role in surface roughness of cut section.The surface roughness increased as an increase in laser power.It decreased caused by increasing of cutting speed and water pressure.Measurements revealed that the surface quality of NCAW part was improved using the optimized combination of cutting parameters.The established quadratic mathematical model of a good prediction is helpful for matching suitable cutting parameters to obtain expected surface quality.

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CO_2 LASER CUTTING OF METALLIC COATED SHEET STEELS

An experimental investigation is outlined for the CO 2 laser cutting process of metallic coated sheet steels, GALVABOND. It shows that by proper control of the cutting parameters, good quality cuts are possible at high cutting rate. Visual examination indicates that when increasing the cutting rate to as high as 5000 mm/min (about 100 times that suggested previously), kerfs of better quality can be achieved. Some kerf characteristics such as the width, heat affected zone and dross in terms of the process parameters are also discussed. A statistical analysis has arrived at a recommendatio on the optimum cutting parameters forprocessing GALVABOND.

Prospects of Robot Laser Cutting in the Era of Industry 4.0

Laser cutting is a non-contact thermal cutting process and an integral part of manufacturing. In metal processing, laser cutting is at the forefront of the manufacturing chain followed by joining and manufacturing processes like welding. The future of metal manufacturing processes like laser cutting shall rely on intelligent systems such as automation and robotics based on the advancement of technology and digital transformation spearheaded by Industry 4.0. Moreover, the digital transition where robots and automated systems are key drivers creates a broader platform to utilize energy-efficiency materials. Such energy-efficient materials include high-strength steels (HSS) for structural applications (e.g. bio-energy structures, wind turbines, ice-going vessels) onshore, offshore and in the Arctic region. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the prospects of robot laser cutting systems in the framework of integrated metal manufacturing in future factories. Previous studies on laser cutting technologies are examined based on scientific and industrial perspectives. Robot laser cutting system is compared with the well-known flat-bed laser cutting CNC machine in several aspects including flexibility in manufacturing, ease for digitalization, off-line capabilities and investment analysis. The findings shall help to determine the competitiveness of robot laser cutting systems with flat-bed laser cutting CNC machines, especially when considering metal manufacturing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The outcome of this study is to stir up experimental and computational research on robot laser cutting systems of metals, and help companies in their decision-making process when deciding which laser cutting system will best suit their manufacturing operations in the future.

Mechanical Properties of Remote-Laser Cut CFRP and Thermographic Laser-Process Monitoring

Remote-laser beam cutting is a productive technology without tool wear. Especially when cutting carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), it offers constant manufacturing quality. Since it is a thermal process, a heat-affected zone (HAZ) is formed at the edge of the cut. Based on quasi-static and cyclic mechanical tests on open-hole specimens, the influence of the process on the mechanical properties of CFRP is shown. The quasi-static tests are in good correlation with results from other researchers by indicating an increase in the maximum tensile stress of the test specimens, cut by remote-laser. The reason is the rearrangement of the shear stresses and a reduction of the notch stress concentration. However, the results of the present study show that excessive expansion of the HAZ leads to a reduction in the maximum tensile stress compared to milled test specimens. Under cyclic load conditions, remote-laser beam cutting does not lead to a more pronounced degradation than milling. The mechanical properties of the notched test pieces are sensitive to the expansion of the HAZ. For the production of components it is therefore necessary that the remote-laser beam cutting is carried out under controlled and documentable conditions. For this purpose, process thermography was tested as a tool for quality assurance. The results show that the technology is basically suitable for this task.

Development of Automatic Programming System for NC Laser Cutting of Chinese Characters

This Paper presents an automatic programming system developed for NC laser onning of Chinese charaCterswhich combines AutoCAD with NC Under Windows environment, and generates numerical controlled Programs by extracting outline (stroke) figures of Chinese Characters from outline character base, optimizing cutting routes, transferring them to AutoCAD for editing operations, such as rotation transfer, enlarging an mirroring, the system can transferto a laser cutting machine througy RS-232 series interface to accomplish laser cutting of large Chinese characters.

Modeling by regression for laser cutting of quartz crystal

Presents the theoretical models built by analysis of the mechanism of laser cutting of quartz crystal and regression of test results for the laser cutting of quartz crystal, and comparative analysis of calculation errors for these models, and concludes with test results that these models comprehensively reflect the physical features of laser cutting of quartz crystal and satisfy the industrial production requirements, and they can be used to select right parameters for improvement of productivity and quality and saving of energy.

Heat-affected zone in pulsed laser cutting of titanium alloy

For the machining of bladed ring parts of an aeroengine, experiments on Nd∶YAG pulsed laser cutting of TC1 titanium alloy sheet were carried out to investigate the influences of laser cutting parameters on heat-affected zone (HAZ). The selected laser cut samples were photographed by scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the microstructure in HAZ layers is characterized by metastable acicular martensite grains with a slight increase of hardness by 10%. The thickness of HAZ layers was studied as a function of laser cutting parameters. Medium pulse energy, higher pulse rate, higher cutting speed and argon at higher pressures help to reduce the thickness of HAZ layers.

Error assessment of laser cutting predictions by semi-supervised learning

Experimentation data of perspex glass sheet cutting, using CO2 laser, with missing values were modelled with semi-supervised artificial neural networks. Factorial design of experiment was selected for the verification of orthogonal array based model prediction. It shows improvement in modelling of edge quality and kerf width by applying semi-supervised learning algorithm, based on novel error assessment on simulations. The results are expected to depict better prediction on average by utilizing the systematic randomized techniques to initialize the neural network weights and increase the number of initialization. Missing values handling is difficult with statistical tools and supervised learning techniques; on the other hand, semi-supervised learning generates better results with the smallest datasets even with missing values.

Study on the Role of Supersonic Nozzle in Fiber Laser Cutting of Stainless Steel

Striation-free laser cutting, especially for thick section steel, is hard to obtain due to several factors. The inside shape of the gas nozzle is considered to be one of the most vital factors in striation-free fiber laser cutting. 0.8 mm normal nozzle and a supersonic nozzle are used to cut 0.8 mm AISI316L stainless steel (022Cr17Ni12Mo2) separately. The orthogonal experiment takes nozzle standoff distance, cutting speed, Laser power and gas pressure as its impacting factors. The same orthogonal table is adopted in different condition, using normal nozzle and using supersonic nozzle. In the mean time, Ar gas is used as assisted cutting gas in the experiment. The data from this experiment show that supersonic nozzle seems to be a strong helper for fiber laser cutting. Feed rate’s effect seems stable and inconspicuous under the condition of using supersonic nozzle.

Analysis of Striation Formation and Suppression Strategy on Upper Edge of Cutting Surface in Laser Cutting

Metal laser cutting belongs to mature laser material processing technologies in industry applications. However, without understanding of the mechanism underlying the overall process, the improvement of the cutting quality is restricted. In this paper, an instantaneous melt removal model is presented to describe the process of material removal and striation formation. In the temperature field calculation, melted metal layer is removed when it grows to an assumed thickness. The effects of cutting parameters including cutting speed, gas pressure and laser power on the shape of striation are discussed. A novel method of getting striation free cutting surface is presented. Finally, laser cutting experiments of mild steel is conducted to validate the model. The striation variation trend can be well predicted by the model presented here and the disagreement may be caused by the coupling effect of cutting speed and critical thickness value.

Laser cutting of thermoplastic film:Mechanism and processing technology

The mechanism of ultraviolet(UV) nanosecond laser cutting of thermoplastic films and the influence of process parameters on process quality are systematically discussed.The photothermal effect plays a dominant role in the interaction between the UVnanosecond laser and thermoplastic materials.In this photothermal reaction,a heat source with the focal point as the core is formed,around which a thermal carbonization layer,a thermal melting layer,and a thermal expansion layer are formed in order from the inside to the outside.Among them,the thermal carbonization layer is not prevalent,and the thermal melting layer and thermal expansion layer are prevalent.The process quality can be adjusted by adjusting the cutting speed,the laser power,and the repetition number of cuts to regulate the process of heat generation and heat dissipation.In the effective range,the faster the cutting speed and the lower the laser power,the smaller the kerf width and heat-affected zone(HAZ) width.Within a certain range,the depth of kerf can be increased by increasing the repetition number of cuts.

Analysis and comparison of laser cutting performance of solar float glass with different scanning modes

Cutting quality and efficiency have always been important indicators of glass laser cutting.Laser scanning modes have two kinds,namely,the spiral and concentric circle scanning modes.These modes can achieve high-performance hole cutting of thick solar float glass using a 532-nm nanosecond laser.The mechanism of the glass laser cutting under these two different scanning modes has been described.Several experiments are conducted to explore the effect of machining parameters on cutting efficiency and quality under these two scanning modes.Results indicate that compared with the spiral scanning mode,the minimum area of edge chipping(218340µm)and the minimum Ra(3.01µm)in the concentric circle scanning mode are reduced by 9.4%and 16.4%respectively.Moreover,the best cutting efficiency scanning mode is 14.2%faster than that in the spiral scanning mode.The best parameter combination for the concentric circle scanning mode is as follows:Scanning speed:2200 mm/s,number of inner circles:6,and circle spacing:0.05 mm.This parameter combination reduces the chipping area and sidewall surface roughness by 8.8%and 9.6%respectively at the same cutting efficiency compared with the best spiral processing parameters.The range of glass processing that can be achieved in the concentric circle scanning mode is wider than that in the spiral counterpart.The analyses of surface topography,white spots,microstructures,and sidewall surface element composition are also performed.The study concluded that the concentric circle scanning mode shows evident advantages in the performance of solar float glass hole cutting.

Numerical Analysis and Experimental Study of the Effect of Workpiece Thickness on Flow Field in Laser Cutting

Based on Navier-Stokes equation and renormalization group(RNG) onflow model,the 3D symmetrical impinging jet model of laser cutting is established by adopting a taper nozzle and a convergence nozzle. Numerical simulation of gas flow in laser cutting is used to investigate the effect of workpiece thickness on flow field of assist gas in cutting slot. The isolines of static pressure as well as the distributions of static pressure and velocity are analyzed in details with different workpiece thickness,and the trend of dynamics characteristics of gas jet is shown in the study. For taper nozzles and convergence nozzles,the dynamic structure of assist gas being close to the lower surface of workpiece is exacerbated while the cutting quality and cutting effciency become worse with the increasing of workpiece thickness. The parallel degree between assist gas and the axis of convergence nozzle is better than that of taper nozzle after the gas goes out of the nozzles. Two typical subsonic nozzles are designed for the cutting experiment at the end of the paper.

Dimethicone-aided laser cutting of solar rolled glass

Solar rolled glass,with one micro-structure surface and another roughness surface,can cause diffuse refraction of the focused laser spot,and this phenomenon restricts the application of laser manufacturing.In this study,laser cutting of solar rolled glass with a thickness of 2.5 mm was successfully achieved with the help of dimethicone to ensure laser focusing.Dimethicone was coated on the top surface of the rolled glass processing zone,and a bottom–up multilayer increment with the spiral line was applied to control the cutting path.Different viscosity values of dimethicone were considered.Results showed that surface quality increased as the viscosity increased until a certain threshold was reached;afterward,the surface quality decreased or directly caused the cutting to fail.The minimum surface roughness(3.26µm)of the processed surface(chipping:Width≤113.64µm,area 215199µm)was obtained when the dimethicone viscosity and laser pulse frequency were 1000 mm/s and 43 kHz(power 25.4 W),respectively.The micro-defects on the processed surface were few,and the edge chipping width and depth of the laser processed surface were small.

Cutting of nonmetallic materials using Nd:YAG laser beam

This study deals with Nd：YAG laser cutting nonmetallic materials, which is one of the most important and popular industrial applications of laser. The main theme is to evaluate the effects of Nd：YAG laser beam power besides work piece scanning speed. For approximate cutting depth, a theoretical study is conducted in terms of material property and cutting speed. Results show a nonlinear relation between the cutting depth and input energy. There is no significant effect of speed on cutting depth with the speed being larger than 30 mm/s. An extra energy is utilized in the deep cutting. It is inferred that as the laser power increases, cutting depth increases. The experimental outcomes are in good agreement with theoretical results. This analysis will provide a guideline for laser-based industry to select a suitable laser for cutting, scribing, trimming, engraving, and marking nonmetallic materials.

Influence of cutting parameters on surface characteristics of cut section in cutting of Inconel 718 sheet using CW Nd:YAG laser

Recently, laser cutting technologies begin to use for manufacturing mechanical parts of Inconel super-alloy sheet due to difficulties of machining of the Inconel material as a results of its extremely tough nature. The objective of this work is to investigate the influence of cutting parameters on surface characteristics of the cut section in the cutting of Inconel 718 super-alloy sheet using CW Nd:YAG laser through laser cutting experiments. Normal cutting experiments were performed using a laser cutting system with six-axis controlled automatic robot and auto-tracking system of the focal distance. From the results of the experiments, the effects of the cutting parameters on the surface roughness, the striation formation and the microstructure of the cut section were examined. In addition, an optimal cutting condition, at which the surface roughness is minimized and both the delayed cutting phenomenon and the micro-cracking are not initiated, is estimated to improve both the part quality and the cutting efficiency.

Numerical Controlled Two Optical Paths CO_2 Laser Die-Cutting Technology

A CO2 laser die-cutting system, which does not need die board any more, is a new technique for manufac-turing packing box. Two optical paths, the galvanometer scanning system and the flying optical system, are used to satisfy different processing needs. The scanning system is composed of galvanometer scanning mirrors and F-θ lens. And the flying optical system is driven by two servo motors. This paper presents the software and hardware design of the laser die-cutting system, the difference between the two optical paths, as well as the relationship among the cutting speed, thickness of wrapping paper and laser power. The cutting speed and thickness of wrapping paper are linearly increased by the incremental laser power, while the cutting speed is hyperbolically decreased by the incremental thickness of wrapping paper when the laser power is constant. The amount of incision is reduced by 20% and the processing time by 40% when tested by a low power RF CO2 laser die-cutting system using the optimized program. This tech- nique is also used for the reference of other rapid laser processing systems.