The Determination Of Laser Drilling Parameters Of High Density Polymer Materials (PE 1000)

Making holes on materials especially multilayered materials using lasers has been gaining popularity in recent years as it is more advantageous making micro scale holes using lasers over traditional methods. This is especially true for polymer based materials as they are less heat resistible compared to metallic materials. This paper reports results on PE 1000 polymeric material as it is commonly used in machinery, food processing industry, engineering, mining, paper industries etc. due to its chemical endurance, low density and excellent wear properties. Furthermore, PE 1000 has recently found applications in health sciences such as in orthopedics. High accuracy microscale holes in polymeric materials will have important applications especially in biomedical engineering such as prosthesis-orthesis, implant manufacturing, filtration, sensors etc. Processing of PE 1000 materials has traditionally been carried out mechanically which is both time consuming, expensive and prone to mistakes. Results from a successful use of Nd:YAG laser (532 nm, 10Hz pulse width) to make holes that are approximately 200 microns in diameter on a 5mm thick PE 1000 plate are reported in this paper. Drilling is done under argon gas and with laser pulses at different energy levels. They were then examined using a microscope and optimum parameters were determined. Keywords: PE 1000, Nd:YAG Laser, Material Tooling With Laser, Micro Imaging.