ABSTRACT
Laser beam cutting is one of the major applications of lasers in sheet metal working.
In this investigation, an experimental study in CO2 laser cutting process is presented.
The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of the laser cutting process
variables on the cutting-edge quality parameters. A sheet of stainless steel with a
standard grade of 316, 2 mm thickness was chosen as a workpiece material. Several
experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of four input variables: laser
power (P), traverse speed (v), assist gas pressure (p) and focal plane position (F) on
the three most important performance parameters, namely: upper kerf width (UKW),
lower kerf width (LKW), and the average surface roughness (Ra). Minitab software
was used to determine the main effects of the process variables on the performance
parameters. Signal to noise ratio analysis (SN) was used to determine the optimum
process variables in their operating rage. This investigation would provide a good
demonstration for the most significant input variables on the cutting-edge quality
parameters, which will be used for solving related industrial problems.