Evaluation of Ultra-Thin Glass Cutting Edges Using an Ultrashort Pulsed-Laser Robot System

We report on an evaluation of cutting edge ultra-thin glass processed by a novel ultrashort pulsed-laser robot system. The system consists of a six-axis articulated industrial robot with an ultrashort pulsed laser integrated on the link after the robot’s elbow. Mirrors are used for beam aligning and guiding, and a 2D galvanometer scanner and an F-Theta lens mounted on the last robot axis are used for material processing. Ultra-thin glass AF 32 eco is cut using robot motion only and combined scanner–robot motion, with additional axis rotations about the laser beam focusing in two directions. Hybrid cutting is compatible with a wide range of rotation angles, achieving cutting-edge angles from 88.9° to 119.7°. The influence of cutting-edge angles and cutting methods is further evaluated using residual stress measurements and three-point bending tests, revealing that the cutting method has a dominant impact on cutting-edge quality. To demonstrate the large-scale cutting with defining cutting-edge angles, a trapezoid is cut using the hybrid method with extra robot axis rotation, which achieves an average cutting-edge angle of 91.9°.