Machinability investigation of agel leaf fiber unsaturated polyester composite with CO2 laser cutting machine

Determination of optimal cutting parameters is important in the CO2 laser cutting process to obtain good cutting result. In this experiment, agel leaf fiber/unsaturated polyester (ALF/UP) are being used as test specimen. Agel leaf fiber usage as composite reinforcement is in order to fulfill sustainability issue. The purpose of this study is to find the material removal rate (MRR) of laser cutting process of ALF/UP composites. Taguchi's L27 orthogonal array was implemented in experiment to determine which parameter are most influential in the CO2 laser cutting process. ANOVA used to find which cutting parameters affect MRR the most. Four parameters from laser cutting machine, the laser power (36, 48, 60 W), the cutting speed (2, 4, 6 mm/s), the nozzle tip distance (24, 26, 28 mm), the cutting angle (0, 30, 45°), and one parameter from composite itself, the number of layers (4, 6, 8 layers) were used in the experiment. It was found that optimum MRR is obtained with 48W power and cutting speed of 6 mm/s. Another parameter such as nozzle tip distance and cutting angle have no significant effect to the MRR.