Study of the kerf taper produced by the process of cutting acrylic sheets using a carbon dioxide laser

Abstract

In this research, the process of cutting acrylic sheets using a carbon dioxide laser was analyzed to study the effect of some cutting parameters, such as the focal position from the surface of the material, auxiliary gas pressure, laser power, cutting speed, and sheet thickness, on the kerf taper resulting from the cutting process. The experiments were carried out using a CNC laser cutting machine with an average power of (150 W), according to Taguchi's L36 mixed design, and it was found Increasing the focal position and sheet thickness decreases the kerf taper, while the effect of auxiliary gas pressure was less important among all parameters, and that increasing the laser power leads to an increase in the deviation until a limit value and then the deviation decreases sharply, and that increasing the cutting speed leads to a decrease in the kerf taper until the limit value and then, the kerf taper increases with the increase in cutting speed.