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2018
Conference Paper
Titel
High-pressure jet cutting with liquid CO2 of plastics
Abstract
Dry and residue-free cutting of materials is an important topic of today's research in manufacturing engineering. Due to these advantages, high-pressure liquid CO2 jet cutting has the potential to open new fields of applications in which water jet cutting is not suitable. The liquid CO2 jet with up to 300 MPa can be used to machine various materials and functional surfaces before it expands to gas and atmospheric pressure. However, the transition from liquid to gaseous phase implicates density differences which change the cutting performance. As a result, the knowledge about water jets cannot be adapted to CO2 jets and further investigations are necessary. Technological investigations concerning the formation of kerfs with high-pressure liquid CO2 and water jets were performed and subsequently analysed. Identical cutting tests were carried out on parts of various technical plastics. Similarities as well as differences of both fluids are shown in the cutting surfaces and kerfs produced by the jet. The experiments indicate that the performance of the CO2 jet, as well as the water jet, depends mainly on pressure and nozzle diameter but show different cutting behaviour. The investigations reveal that high-pressure liquid CO2 jet cutting has a high potential in the field of dry and residue-free cutting of technical plastics. Furthermore, no temperature influence was observed and the potential for jet cutting in 3D-applications and hollow profiles was proven.