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View Full Version : Fiber laser bonded aluminum to glass.. what did I actually do?



Morgan Jackson
06-17-2019, 4:09 PM
Hey Folks..

I was fooling around experimenting today and I put a piece of glass on the bed covered the surface with perm marker and set it on an aluminum plate.

Default settings (200mms/100% power (20 watts, fiber laser) and 20khz) and burned a cm square block.

When I picked the glass off, a layer of aluminum had fused to the back of the glass. I even tried to scrape of off.. I COULD, but in short, it was there permanently. The glass was pretty rough in the first place, but the alum was nicely coated and pretty specific to the prescribed burn point.

I ASSUME I performed some sort of vapor deposition or something?

But.. what DID I do? (not a trivia question.. I'm honestly curious)

Bill George
06-17-2019, 5:40 PM
Hey Folks..

I was fooling around experimenting today and I put a piece of glass on the bed covered the surface with perm marker and set it on an aluminum plate.

Default settings (200mms/100% power (20 watts, fiber laser) and 20khz) and burned a cm square block.

When I picked the glass off, a layer of aluminum had fused to the back of the glass. I even tried to scrape of off.. I COULD, but in short, it was there permanently. The glass was pretty rough in the first place, but the alum was nicely coated and pretty specific to the prescribed burn point.

I ASSUME I performed some sort of vapor deposition or something?

But.. what DID I do? (not a trivia question.. I'm honestly curious)

Well you might have discovered a new process.

John Lifer
06-17-2019, 5:56 PM
I figure the aluminum 'cut' from the sheet was hot enough to slightly melt the glass and as you said inbed itself in the glass plate. metal is sparked off at pretty high temp by these things

Kev Williams
06-18-2019, 12:20 AM
^^ What John said ^^ :)

1064nm lasers pass right thru glass, and they turn aluminum into molten goo near immediately, definitely hot enough to melt glass...

Gary Hair
06-18-2019, 7:14 AM
I've done that with brass, works pretty well actually. It wasn't long after I got my first fiber and I didn't have a need for it so I didn't save the settings, but I believe it was 100% power and probably 40f, 500s.