PhotoMachining, Inc. - clear plastic and polyimide Sample Cuts

Here are some examples of cuts in both clear plastic and polyimide using a variety of laser types, as featured in the May 2002 issue of Industrial Laser Solutions.
The (248 nm) Excimer laser has been added for this online page.
In the following figures, "A" shows clear plastic, while "B" shows polyimide.

Figure 1A

Figure 1B

Figure 1 shows the 1.5W, 355nm laser results. Both cuts are relatively clean with a small heat affected zone (HAZ). It took about one minute to make a complete part.

Figure 2A

Figure 2B

Figure 2 shows the 3.0W, 355nm laser results. A slightly higher HAZ, but still decent quality. These parts took about 18 seconds to process at double the power of the previous.

Figure 3A

Figure 3B

Figure 3 shows the 1.5W, 266nm laser results. With one of the best cut qualities, this one still took the least time of the tested UV lasers, 12 seconds.

Figure 4A

Figure 4B

Figure 4 shows the broadband RF CO₂ laser. It only took about 400ms to make the cut, but it's pretty poor quality with a large HAZ.

Figure 5A

Figure 5B

Figure 5 shows the 9μm RF CO₂ laser. Still can't compete with the UV lasers. This also took about 400ms.

Figure 6A

Figure 6B

Figure 6 shows the results of a line-narrowed CO₂-T laser. Good cut quality, nice thin line.

Figure 7A

Figure 7B

Figure 7 shows Q-switched CO₂ results. The process speed was about 700 ms and produced results comparable to the UV lasers.

Figure 8A

Figure 8B

These cuts were made with a 248nm KrF Excimer laser. The process took hours, not seconds, but note the exceptional edge quality.

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