MODELLING OF PERPENDICULARITY OF CUT IN HIGH POWER CO2 LASER CUTTING OF 5 MM THICK ALUMINIUM ALLOY

Abstract

Beside productivity and costs, the cut quality is the third most important criteria in laser cutting. An important quality indicator of laser cutting is perpendicularity of cut. In this paper, the effects of the laser power, cutting speed and assist gas pressure on perpendicularity of cut in CO2 laser cutting of 5 mm thick aluminium alloy was studied. In order to develop mathematical relationship between laser cutting parameters and perpendicularity of cut, full factorial design experimentation, by varying each parameter at three levels, was conducted. Based on the obtained experimental data, regression based mathematical model was developed upon which the effects of considered laser cutting parameters on perpendicularity of cut were analysed.

Keywords

• CO2 laser cutting
• aluminium alloy
• perpendicularity of cut
• regression analysis