Nylon gears are commonly used in many automotive, electronic, and medical applications as well as in various industrial machines. Nylon gears offer increased service life because they wear less than metal gears (even though they require less lubrication) and reduce gear noise, which is important in consumer products. Adding a 20% to 30% glass fill to the nylon blend increases the material’s stability, rigidity, and wear-resistance.

This application demonstrates the ability of a Synrad CO2 laser to precisely remove the machining hub from the center of this helical-cut gear after the last manufacturing step.

Our laser cutting setup consisted of a Firestar f201 laser delivering the beam via XY “flying optics” into a cutting head containing a 127 mm (5.0”) plano-convex focusing optic. This optic produces a 203-micron (0.008”) spot with a 6.3 mm (0.25”) depth of focus. During the cutting process, we supplied 2.8 bars (40 PSI) of breathing-grade bottled air coaxially with the beam as gas assist.

Visible mirror film is a Multilayer Optical Film (MOF) technology developed by researchers at 3M™. The paper-thin film is fabricated using hundreds to thousands of layers of transparent polymers laid with nanometer precision on a substrate. Due to the optical interference effects of the layered polymers, the mirror film’s reflectivity is greater than 98% at all angles of incidence.

This highly reflective film was slit using a SYNRAD sealed CO2 laser and an FH Series marking head. Beam delivery was achieved using an 80mm focusing lens featuring a 116-micron (0.005”) spot and 0.8mm (0.032”) depth of focus. The 21 slits, each 5-mm long and approximately 100-microns wide (0.197” x 0.004”), were cleanly cut using 5 watts of power at a velocity of 127 millimeters per second (5 inches/second). Total cycle time for the slit-cutting process was 1.13 seconds.