Generally speaking, laser cutting offers the possibility to obtain cuts with high quality. Nevertheless, fusion laser cutting, the most common laser cutting technique to process the majority of engineering materials offers poor quality in certain materials as ceramics, some aluminium alloys, etc. Cuts with dross, excessive roughness and a substantial heat affected zone (HAZ) are produced. Research efforts performed to improve the cut quality have been focused into the precise selection of laser operating parameters or on the aerodynamics of the assist gas. However, this inadequate finishing can be related to the dynamics of the melt during the process. Therefore, the understanding of melt dynamics during the laser cutting is a topic of great importance.

In this work, the real-time behaviour of the laser cutting process is analysed by using lateral visualization of the cutting front during laser cutting of glass with a high speed video camera. Influence of processing parameters on the process is presented and related to the quality characteristics.

1.
Steen
,
W.M.
(
2003
)
Laser material processing
,
Springer
.
2.
Kaplan
,
A.F.H.
(
2002
)
Theoretical analysis of laser beam cutting
.
Shaker Verlag GmbH
.
3.
Riveiro
,
A.
,
Quintero
F.
&
Pou
,
J.
(
2010
) Laser fusion cutting of difficult materials in
J.
Lawrence
,
J.
Pou
,
D.K.Y.
Low
&
E.
Toyserkani
(eds)
Advances in laser materials processing technology: Technology, research and application
,
Woodhead Pub
.
4.
Arata
,
Y
,,
Maruo
,
H.
,
Miyamoto
,
I.
&
Takeuchi
,
S.
(
1979
)
Dynamic behaviour in laser gas cutting of mild steel
.
Transactions of JWRI
8
(
2
),
175
86
.
5.
Poprawe
,
R.
&
König
,
W.
(
2001
)
Modeling, Monitoring and control in high quality laser cutting
.
CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology
50
(
1
),
137
140
.
6.
Yudin
,
P.
&
Kovalev
,
O.
(
2009
)
Visualization of events inside kerfs during laser cutting of fusible metal
.
Journal of Laser Applications
21
(
1
),
39
45
.
7.
Arata
,
Y.
,
Abe
,
N.
&
Oda
,
T.
(
1985
)
Fundamental Phenomena in high power CO2 laser welding
.
Transactions of JWRI
14
(
1
),
5
11
.
8.
Jin
,
X.
&
Li
,
L.
(
2004
)
An experimental study on the keyhole shapes in laser deep penetration welding
.
Optics and Lasers in Engineering
41
(
5
),
779
790
.
9.
Kaplan
,
A.F.H.
(
1996
)
An analytical model of metal cutting with a laser beam
.
Journal of Applied Physics
79
(
5
),
2198
2208
.
10.
Olsen
,
F.O.
(
1994
)
Fundamental mechanisms of cutting front formation in laser cutting
.
Proceedings of SPIE 2207
,
402
413
.
11.
Riveiro
,
A.
,
Quintero
,
F.
,
Lusquiños
,
F.
,
Pou
,
J.
&
Pérez-Amor
,
M.
(
2008
)
Laser cutting of 2024-T3 aeronautic aluminium alloy
.
Journal of Laser Applications
20
,
230
235
.
12.
Quintero
,
F.
,
Pou
,
J.
,
Lusquiños
,
F.
,
Boutinguiza
,
M.
,
Soto
,
R.
&
Pérez-Amor
,
M.
(
2003
)
Comparative study on the influence of the gas injection system on the Nd:yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser cutting of advanced oxide ceramics
.
Review of Scientific Instruments
74
,
4199
4205
.
13.
Riveiro
,
A.
,
Quintero
,
F.
,
Lusquiños
,
F.
,
Comesaña
,
R.
&
Pou
,
J.
(
2010
)
Parametric investigation of CO2 laser cutting of 2024-T3 alloy
.
Journal of Materials Processing Technology
210
(
9
),
1138
1152
.
14.
Wierzba
,
A.
(
1990
)
Deformation and break-up of liquid drops in a gas stream at nearly critical Weber numbers
.
Experiments in Fluids
9
(
1-2
),
59
64
.
This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.