Optimization of CO2 Laser Cutting Process Parameter for AL7075-T6 Sheet Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Abstract: Aluminium alloys are used in the aerospace and automotive industries because of their light weight and excellent corrosion resistance. Since aluminium material has highly reflective and thermally conductive in nature, it is difficult to apply laser cut on it. The cut quality is mainly determined by the combination of the laser processing parameters. Surface roughness, cutting width and cutting cone were the most important quality indices for evaluating CO2 laser cutting, and the processing parameters considered were laser power, speed and gas pressure. For analysing the laser cutting variables and to determine the optimal value for the surface roughness mainly three approaches are used - Design of Experiments (DOE), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The analysis in proposed work shows that the pressure has a greater influence on the response behaviour than the cutting speed and the laser power. In proposed work, the optimized values for above mentioned parameters are calculated for laser cutting process.