A study on laser engraving process parameters and performance characteristics for wood base materials

Nowadays, laser engravings have become the most innovative technology used to engrave or mark an object by removing materials layer by layer. This research presents a study on the parameter of laser engraving on pine wood and WPC materials by using EleksMaker Laser A5-Pro model with low diode laser (500Mw, 405nm wavelength). The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of using input parameters such as scanning speed, burning time and laser height towards the output results which were identified as surface roughness, depth of engraving and Head Affected Zone (HAZ). A second order equation by Response Surface Method (RSM) was used to get the prediction result that was compared with the experimental result. The experimental result showed that burning time, scanning speed and laser height produced a significant effect towards the surface roughness and depth of engraving where better results for both materials were obtained when the lowest burning time (10 s), higher scanning speed (250 mm/s) and higher laser height (100 mm) were used. As a result, the average scanning speed, burning time and laser height values for both materials were (242 to 250 mm/s, 10 to 30 s and 82 to 100 mm). Meanwhile, the average surface roughness and depth of engraving were (0.89 to 2.1 μm and 10.1 to 14.4 μm) for Pine wood material and (1.29 to 2.6 and 11.2 to 16.1) for WPC material with difference engraving parameter respectively. Moreover, some defects were found in microstructure such as burning and melting surface that changed the material color from brownish to a darker tone. Due to various desired engraving surface roughness and depths of product, it is suggested that the fitting of all the input parameters are important for valuable engraving and cost effectiveness