Development of Design and Fabrication of a Water-Jet-Guided CO2 Laser Chamber

An experimental investigation has been done on the existing CO2 laser in order to study the feasibility of the water-jet-guided laser cutting technique. The characteristics such as water jet quality, reduction of heat affected zone, laser beam divergence, total internal reflection of light in water jet, and limitations in using the CO2 laser in the laser micro-jet cutting technique are studied computationally and experimentally. The chamber, which is used to combine the laser light and water jet, is designed using CATIA, analyzed with the ANSYS and fabricated by the CNC machining with employing Aluminum rod AA6061. Value of 50 mm is found as a fairly reliable upper limit for the cutting distance. The 500-W laser and a wavelength of 10.6 ?m for CO2 laser are not well suited for coupling with water jet because of high heat absorption of water. The couplings of the laser light and the water jet have been achieved experimentally. Heat absorption of water, the divergence of the laser beam, and some of the laser characteristics have been recognized as the main limitations of this technique.