Experimental Study on Laser Plasticizing Polyamide 12

Considering the efficiency and microscale requirement of melting polymer in micro-injection process, we present an experimental analysis of the CO2 laser irradiating Polyamide 12 (PA12) based on the photo-thermal effect of laser-materials interaction. The orthogonal experiments of laser plasticizing were designed by Taguchi method of Minitab software, the influence of process parameters on PA12 plasticization was investigated, and the effect sequence rule of the experiment parameters to melting depth was analyzed. Accordingly，the optimal process parameters combination on PA12 plasticization were obtained，i.e. laser power 3 W, beam diameter 2 mm, scanning velocity 200 mm/min, scanning distance 0.5 mm and environment temperature 20°C.