As we all know, glass is an important industrial material, which is widely used in automotive, construction, medical, display, electronic products and other industries.
The remarkable feature of glass is that it is hard and fragile, which brings great difficulties to processing. The traditional glass cutting tool is made of cemented carbide or diamond. The cutting process usually includes: first, scratch the glass surface with diamond tip or carbide wheel or high hardness metal wheel, and then mark the glass by mechanical means. In the process of scoring glass with grinding wheel or mechanical wheel, tangent tension is generated along the cutting direction, so that the glass breaks along the scratch. The result of this method is that the edge is not smooth, and there are small cracks and residual debris left on the material. In many applications, small cracks caused by debris can cause equipment failure and must be polished. In addition, auxiliary processing is needed to assist the cutting in mechanical wheel processing. The auxiliary agent may also adhere to the edge of the finished product, and it needs to be treated by water cleaning or ultrasonic cleaning. Complex processing steps and low output will increase the cost of finished glass.
Nowadays, the quality requirements of glass products are getting higher and higher, and more precise and meticulous processing effects must be achieved. As the traditional process is difficult to meet the requirements of no microcracks and edge quality, the technical innovation of glass cutting is urgently needed. Laser cutting technology has matured and has been successfully applied to the cutting of metal plates and pipes, organic plates and pipe materials. Glass is an inorganic material with low thermal conductivity. Theoretically, the laser cutting machine should have a good effect on glass.
Laser cutting machine is used to cut glass
Principle of laser cutting glass
The laser cutting method of glass can be divided into two principles: one is the melting (evaporation) cutting method, and the other is the crack control method.
Fusion cutting
Taking advantage of the advantages of better plasticity and ductility of glass at softening temperature, CO2 laser or UV laser will be focused on the softened glass surface, and the higher energy density of laser will lead to glass melting. Then, the molten glass is blown off with air flow to form a groove, so as to realize the melting cutting of glass.
Crack control method
This is a common laser cutting method. First of all, when laser heats the glass surface, higher energy will cause a sharp rise in the glass temperature, and the surface will generate greater compressive stress, but the compressive stress will not cause the glass to break. Second, cool the area quickly. Generally, cooling gas or coolant is used. Sharp temperature drop will cause large temperature gradient and large tensile stress on the glass surface. This tensile stress will break the glass surface along the direction of the predetermined line and achieve glass cutting.
Other common problems of laser cutting glass?
1. Can laser cutting machine cut transparent glass?
Transparent glass can certainly be cut, but tempered glass and quartz glass are very difficult, and the glass material will cause fragmentation.
If it is a large piece of glass that does not require high cutting accuracy, machining is the most appropriate.
If the glass is very thin and has high accuracy, such as mobile phone screen, back cover or glass used for experimental research, it is more suitable to use a low-power laser cutting machine.
2. Can laser cut tempered glass?
Tempered glass cannot be cut with laser cutting machine.
Tempered glass cannot be cut and processed, and can only be processed into the required shape before tempering, and then tempered.
