The Effect of Laser Parameters on Cutting Metallic Materials

This experimental study investigated the effect of laser parameters on the machining of SS41 and SUS304. The metallic materials play an important role in engineering applications. They are widely used in high-tech industries such as aerospace, automotive, and architecture. Due to the development of technology and high-tech industrialization, the various processing technologies are being developed with the requirement of high precision. However, the conventional cutting process is difficult to meet high precision processing. Therefore, to achieve high precision processing of the SS41 and SUS304, laser manufacturing has been applied. The current study investigated the process quality of laser cutting for SS41 and SUS304, with the usage of a continuous wave CO₂ laser cutting system. The experimental variables are set to the laser cutting speed, laser power, and different engineering materials. The results are significantly affected by the laser parameters. As the result, the process quality of the laser cutting has been observed by measuring the top and bottom kerf widths, as well as the size of the melting zone and Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) according to volume energy. In addition, the evaluation of the laser processing parameters is significantly important to achieve optimal cutting quality. Therefore, we observed the correlation between the laser parameters and cutting quality. These were evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis. The experimental results of kerf top, kerf bottom, melting width, and HAZ on the laser parameters are properly predicted by multiple regression. In addition, the effect of laser parameters on the materials is determinant by the percentage of contribution of ANOVA.