{"id":1782,"date":"2021-12-29T12:44:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T12:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/?post_type=novanta_tech_paper&#038;p=1782"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:36:18","slug":"optimal-polycarbonate-processing-with-co2-lasers","status":"publish","type":"novanta_tech_paper","link":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/optimal-polycarbonate-processing-with-co2-lasers\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO2\u00a0Lasers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-technical-paper-overview\">Technical Paper Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO\u2082 Lasers<\/strong><br><em>Wavelength and frequency, not power, decide polycarbonate cut edge quality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Polycarbonate is the right material for clear headlamp lenses, display covers, and tough medical housings \u2014 but it&#8217;s notorious for laser-cutting badly. The standard 10.6 \u00b5m CO\u2082 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This technical paper documents a systematic Synrad-laser comparison across four parameter variables \u2014 wavelength (9.3 \u00b5m vs 10.6 \u00b5m), frequency (1 kHz to 50 kHz), assist gas type (air vs nitrogen), and assist gas pressure (1 bar to 4 bar) \u2014 on three polycarbonate grades (Makrolon\u00ae 2405 standard, 2447 UV-stabilized, 6555 flame-retardant) to identify the recipe that produces clean, colorless polycarbonate cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-key-takeaways-include\">Key takeaways include:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why polycarbonate discolors at the cut edge \u2014 and how absorption physics drive the effect<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How quasi-continuous operation (50 kHz+) eliminates the discoloration that low-frequency pulsed cutting produces<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When to choose 9.3 \u00b5m for speed (70 mm\/s) versus 10.6 \u00b5m for absolute color neutrality (50 mm\/s)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What assist gas pressure matters (\u22654 bar) \u2014 and why nitrogen offers no advantage over pressured air<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A practical four-parameter recipe tested against three Makrolon\u00ae PC grades (standard, UV-stabilized, flame-retardant)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>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 CO\u2082 laser cutting polycarbonate \u2014 before yellow-brown decomposition shows up on your production samples. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical Paper Overview Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO\u2082 LasersWavelength and frequency, not power, decide polycarbonate cut edge quality. Polycarbonate is the right material for clear headlamp lenses, display covers, and tough medical housings \u2014 but it&#8217;s notorious for laser-cutting badly. The standard 10.6 \u00b5m CO\u2082 wavelength under-absorbs into the PC molecule, dissipates energy into surrounding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":4445,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"show_table_of_content":true},"class_list":["post-1782","novanta_tech_paper","type-novanta_tech_paper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO2\u00a0Lasers - Precision Manufacturing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/optimal-polycarbonate-processing-with-co2-lasers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO2\u00a0Lasers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Technical Paper Overview Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO\u2082 LasersWavelength and frequency, not power, decide polycarbonate cut edge quality. Polycarbonate is the right material for clear headlamp lenses, display covers, and tough medical housings \u2014 but it&#8217;s notorious for laser-cutting badly. The standard 10.6 \u00b5m CO\u2082 wavelength under-absorbs into the PC molecule, dissipates energy into surrounding [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/optimal-polycarbonate-processing-with-co2-lasers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Precision Manufacturing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T13:36:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2026\/04\/polycarbonate_processing-737x395-1.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=737&h=395&crop=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"737\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"395\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/novanta.com\\\/precision-manufacturing\\\/resources\\\/whitepapers\\\/optimal-polycarbonate-processing-with-co2-lasers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/novanta.com\\\/precision-manufacturing\\\/resources\\\/whitepapers\\\/optimal-polycarbonate-processing-with-co2-lasers\\\/\",\"name\":\"Optimal Polycarbonate Processing with CO2\u00a0Lasers - 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