Dimethicone-aided laser cutting of solar rolled glass

Abstract

Solar rolled glass, with one micro-structure surface and another roughness surface, can cause diffuse refraction of the focused laser spot, and this phenomenon restricts the application of laser manufacturing. In this study, laser cutting of solar rolled glass with a thickness of 2.5 mm was successfully achieved with the help of dimethicone to ensure laser focusing. Dimethicone was coated on the top surface of the rolled glass processing zone, and a Z bottom–up multilayer increment with the X–Y spiral line was applied to control the cutting path. Different viscosity values of dimethicone were considered. Results showed that surface quality increased as the viscosity increased until a certain threshold was reached; afterward, the surface quality decreased or directly caused the cutting to fail. The minimum surface roughness (3.26 µm) of the processed surface (chipping: Width≤113.64 µm, area 215199 µm²) was obtained when the dimethicone viscosity and laser pulse frequency were 1000 mm²/s and 43 kHz (power 25.4 W), respectively. The micro-defects on the processed surface were few, and the edge chipping width and depth of the laser processed surface were small.

Keywords

laser cutting / solar rolled glass / dimethicone / viscosity / surface quality

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