CO_2 LASER FREE-SHAPE CUTTING OF FLEXIBLE GLASS SUBSTRATES

摘要

We investigated CO_2 laser free-shape cutting offlexible glass substrates. The technique uses tensilestress to propagate a full-body crack along theperimeter of the glass article to be cut. The tensilestress was generated by the CO_2 laser heating andsubsequent ambient air cooling process. A round laserbeam was rapidly (＞10 m/s) scanned along theperimeter of the glass using an optical scanner. Therapidly moving laser beam generates a fast movingtensile stress field during the process and a free-shapeglass article was cut out in few seconds. We presentfree-shape cutting examples on flexible glasssubstrates.