Deep Engraving Process of PMMA Using CO2 Laser Complemented by Taguchi Method

Abstract

This work studies the effect of laser parameters on the engraving process. A CO2 laser beam with a wavelength 10.6μm was used for engraving a solid bulk of PMMA matter. A number of closely spaced parallel lines were used for filling the area of the matter to be engraved. This method has many advantages as compared with the traditional way such as, contact-less with the machine, high-speed, flexibility, versatility, high accuracy as well as complex forms and machining different material. In this paper, design of the experiment was done using L25 Taguchi methodology. The laser process parameter that has been used during the engraving process are laser beam power, scanning speed and line overlaps of the scanned beam each of them has different value (20,30,40,50,60 W), (100,300,500,700,1000 mm min-1 ) and (0.01,0.03,0.05,0.1,0.2 mm) respectively. To estimate the deep engraving and minimum surface roughness of the engraved surface. Furthermore, the results show that the engraving depth and surface roughness (Ra) interaction changes depending on the process parameter.