Wood laser cutting and engraving for the furniture industry

Laser deep engraving is one of the most promising technologies to be used in wood carver operations. In this method, a laser beam is used to ablate a solid wood bulk, following predetermined patterns. The sculpture is obtained by repeating this process on each successive thin layer. Obviously, in order to achieve larger material removal rates the process needs a controllable variation of the depth to carve a 3D profiles. The degree of precision of the shape, the removal rate and the surface quality during the engraving process strictly depend on the materials properties, the laser source characteristics and the process parameters. The aim of this project is to investigate the influence of the process parameters on the material removal rates by engraving panels made of different types of wood using different laser source, and to create models and CNC programming environment for specifying 'passes' in laser milling and connecting them to beam paths that are able to achieve desired surface quality at reasonable processing time.