CO2 Laser Micro-Engraving of PMMA Complemented By Taguchi and ANOVA Methods

Abstract

Laser micromachining is used in the microfluidic application, especially in biomedical technology, the point of care diagnostics, and chemical analysis. In this research work, a micro-engraving was done on PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) using a CO2 laser. Based on the Taguchi design of the experiment; 25 experiments were done to study the effect of laser parameters on the micro-engraving process. The effect of input parameters, laser power, engraving speed, and overlapping space has discussed on the micro-engraving characteristic, surface roughness, engraving depth, and overall time of the process. The results show different surface roughness ranged between 7 – 1.72 µm. Also, the depth results ranged between 20.4 – 5800 µm which could be used in many various applications. The ANOVA results showed that the engraving speed has a significant”effect on surface roughness and”engraving depth, but in engraving time, the laser power has a substantial impact at 94.06%.