Hole Drilling in Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) Using CO2 Laser

Abstract

Laser sources are used in a large variety of applications for material processing. It is mainly used for welding, cutting, drilling, laser annealing, etc. This study narrows the scope down to one of the process, namely, laser drilling. The hole depth, width and penetration velocity of evaporation depend on different parameters such as power, material, exposure time, distance between drilling tool and the material, the drilling tool, etc. In this paper; the laser beam was used as drilling tool. 16W CO2 laser (10.6μm) and transparent Perspex (PMMA) which is the abbreviation of polymethyl methacrylate work piece with 8mm thickness were used. The distance between laser beam and the material was 5cm. Different powers for CO2 laser were used for different exposure time. Hole depth, time required for boiling, heat flow per unit area and penetration velocity of evaporation were calculated. Measured and calculated results were approximately the same. Many figures which representing the relations between laser power, time to reach boiling, hole width, hole depth and exposure time were obtained by using Matlab 2008 software program