Tensile strength and crack tip stress distribution of modified glass in the composite laser beam separation

Abstract

The tensile strength of the modified cross-section (MCS) determines to a certain extent whether the composite laser can complete the separation of glass, and the quality and efficiency of the separation. In this work, the effect of the picosecond Bessel laser on the tensile strength of soda-lime glass was systematically investigated for the first time. The relationship between the tensile strength and residual stress was not negatively correlated absolutely. The tensile strength was also related to the homogeneity and micro-structure of MCS, including micro cavities, cracks, and voids. Meanwhile, it was pointed out that by selecting appropriate modified parameters, the plasma shielding effect can be suppressed and the micro-morphology of MCS can be controlled to obtain smaller tensile strength and better cutting quality. Secondly, the stress field distribution at the crack tip was simulated to analyze the mechanism when the continuous wave (CW) laser interacted with the modified glass. The simulation results showed that only the stress perpendicular to the laser incidence direction and the scanning direction exceeded the tensile strength of glass material, ensuring that the cracks propagated only along the MCS. Finally, one-time separation of glass was achieved by using a composite laser beam separation (CLBS) technology with a speed of 50 mm/s, which was comparable to the industrial level, and the roughness of separated sidewall was less than 0.5 μm.