Technical Paper Overview
Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO₂ Lasers
Wavelength and frequency, not power, decide polycarbonate cut edge quality.
Polycarbonate is the right material for clear headlamp lenses, display covers, and tough medical housings — but it’s notorious for laser-cutting badly. The standard 10.6 µm CO₂ wavelength under-absorbs into the PC molecule, dissipates energy into surrounding material, and produces yellow-to-brown decomposition along the cut edge. For optical applications where the cut shows, that discoloration is the whole problem.
This technical paper documents a systematic Synrad-laser comparison across four parameter variables — wavelength (9.3 µm vs 10.6 µm), frequency (1 kHz to 50 kHz), assist gas type (air vs nitrogen), and assist gas pressure (1 bar to 4 bar) — on three polycarbonate grades (Makrolon® 2405 standard, 2447 UV-stabilized, 6555 flame-retardant) to identify the recipe that produces clean, colorless polycarbonate cuts.
Key takeaways include:
- Why polycarbonate discolors at the cut edge — and how absorption physics drive the effect
- How quasi-continuous operation (50 kHz+) eliminates the discoloration that low-frequency pulsed cutting produces
- When to choose 9.3 µm for speed (70 mm/s) versus 10.6 µm for absolute color neutrality (50 mm/s)
- What assist gas pressure matters (≥4 bar) — and why nitrogen offers no advantage over pressured air
- A practical four-parameter recipe tested against three Makrolon® PC grades (standard, UV-stabilized, flame-retardant)
Download the full technical paper to get the polycarbonate absorption-spectrum data, side-by-side cut comparisons across all four parameter variables, and the validated parameter recipe you can apply to any CO₂ laser cutting polycarbonate — before yellow-brown decomposition shows up on your production samples.
