COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN PLASMA AND LASER CUTTING OF STEELS AND POLYMERIC MATERIALS

Abstract

The paper deals with comparative study between plasma and laser cutting of different materials. C 45 and stainless steel were cut by these mentioned above technologies with different working parameters. The surface quality was studied using scanning electron microscopy. The comparison was extended in the same manner, at laser cutting of some polymeric materials like PVC and Plexiglas. COMSOL Multiphysics, Heat transfer module was used in a dynamic variant with a sweep parameter as machining time in connection to feed rate, aiming at improvement of output technological parameters at plasma and laser cutting. A Gaussian distribution of the energy on laser and plasma spot was introduced as boundary conditions, as well as thermal characteristics of the studied materials. The quality of machined surface was considered based on moderate heating of the material. Some values of working parameters were established due to computerized modelling. These were validated by experimental results.