Papers by Keyword: Laser Perforation

Abstract: A study concerning the application of fiber laser to perforate thermoplastic pre-pregs is presented. An IPG fiber laser was used to drill arrays of holes in PEKK carbon-fiber composite pre-preg material. Perforated holes were of the order of 100μm. The effects of laser perforation process parameters including the number of pulses on the geometry of the resultant holes and the thermal damage to the matrix and fibres have been investigated. Dimensional analysis and experimental results have been used to construct the laser perforation process model. Keywords: Laser perforation; Fibre laser; Process modelling; Polymer matrix composites.

Abstract: This study focused on investigating the Nd:YAG laser perforation process of several common plastic films including biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP), biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) films. Films were perforated under various pulse energies of 50, 150 and 250 mJ and with pulse duration of ~10 ns and pulse repetition of 1 Hz. It was found that, BOPP, BOPET and LDPE films could be perforated using our developed Nd:YAG laser perforating system. Perforation width or diameters of all films increased with increasing pulse energies. Observed perforations were different among the three film types. For instance, at the pulse energy of 150 mJ, average microperforation diameters of BOPP, BOPET, and LDPE were 51.9, 57.5, and 31.0 microns, respectively. Overall results clearly demonstrated that a Nd:YAG laser perforation process used in this study was effective in developing breathable packaging films with tailored oxygen permeation property. Commercial BOPP films containing 200-1,400 micro-perforations/m2 (average perforation diameter of  50 µm) showed a significant improvement in oxygen transmission rates (OTR) of 25-700% over that of the regular BOPP. Very high OTR films of 16,000 cc/m2.day could be effectively produced for the micro-perforated BOPP, where OTR values of close to 20,000 cc/m2.day was obtainable in the case of BOPET films.