Investigation of SOD control on leather carbonization in diode laser cutting

Laser beam machining has a significant advantage over hand cutting of leather in terms of output rate and efficiency. The pulsed mode diode laser was chosen for leather cutting in this investigation owing to its controlled optical power and less power consumption while the continuous mode lasers are uncontrollable. There is no technique available in the field of adaptive control approach for Stand-off Distance (SOD) in diode laser leather cutting application. Hence an attempt has been made to investigate the effectiveness of SOD on leather surface carbonization using power diode-based laser beam machining approach. Chrome tanned goat leather was taken as workpiece due to its widespread application in the manufacture of footwear, apparel, and wallets. An adaptive controller has been developed using ultrasonic sensor which sets the standoff distance accordingly from the workpiece surface to the laser diode, which reduces the overall time consumption for manual setting of standoff distance and enhances the machining process. This study reports the carbonization values during leather cutting under the adaptive control of standoff distance.