Further developments in the CO2 laser cutting of ceramic tile

This paper details developments in the laser cutting of ceramic tile previously reported in [1] specifically those tiles of greater thickness (8.5 mm and 9.2 mm). These tiles were cut at a combination of different cutting speeds to determine the necessary cutting parameters for various tile geometries. Different cutting modes were used in conjunction with different cutting speeds to investigate cut quality after laser processing. The work also looked into the effects on cutting through using various shield gases. Multipass cutting and underwater cutting were performed to examine their effects on thermal load during processing, and a simple two-dimensional analysis was performed in order to model the theoretical temperature distribution within a ceramic tile arising from laser cutting.