Single and dual gas jet effect in Ytterbium-doped fibre laser cutting of dry pine wood

Abstract

This paper presents single and dual assist gas jet effects in the single-pass laser cutting of dry pine wood. The laser wood cutting process is influenced by the assisting gas jet(s) applied. Therefore, it is important to understand their roles in the removal of fumes and combusted materials from the cutting kerf. A computational fluid dynamic model is developed to investigate the effect of single and dual gas jets in the laser wood cutting process. In order to obtain a close approximation of the actual process, a three-dimensional model was considered. Results obtained in the simulations were compared with experimental data collected from a multifactor experiment analysing the laser cutting process of dry pine wood. A high brightness, 1 kW IPG single-mode, continuous-wave Ytterbium fibre laser was employed to cut cubic wood samples parallel to the wood fibre direction. It has been found that shear stresses produced by the gas jet(s) on the kerf walls have an important correlation with the yield and cut quality.