Laser beam drilling and cutting of PMMA

Abstract

Due to its excellent mechanical, chemical and optical properties, also on fatigue, polymethilmetacrylate (PMMA) is widely used for many purposes. PMMA has a reputation as a material that cannot be machined well, but, its elasticity and toughness enable its shaping by the deformation processes. Laser drilling and cutting are also available techniques for PMMA sheets shaping, used when both mechanical and optical PMMA properties must be preserved. In this work, the influence of CO2 laser cutting/drilling on transparent and coloured PMMA surfaces is investigated, as well as by the other laser systems. The cut surfaces were investigated by a light microscopy and, on those surfaces, the average surface roughness Ra was measured. The material zone affected by the laser beam during the cutting process was monitored by a thermal imaging, and theoretical simulations of temperature distribution in this area were performed using the various versions of COMSOL packages.

Keywords

• pmma
• laser cutting/drilling
• surface roughness
• thermal imaging
• temperature distribution calculations