Within the garment industry, pleather, a leather substitute made from polyurethane film, has increased in popularity over time due to its inexpensive price and ease of care compared to genuine leather products. Pleather breathes easily due to the porous nature of polyurethane and can be lined with, or laminated to, other fabrics that provide additional comfort or insulating properties.

Like many other fabrics cut with CO₂ lasers, pleather provides a clean, sealed edge and exhibits little or no discoloration. In this application, a foam backing was laminated to the pleather substrate giving an overall material thickness of 0.115 inches (2.9 mm).

Using an XY table for motion control and a 2.5” positive meniscus lens (0.004” spot size / 0.07” depth of focus) for beam delivery, we cut this composite fabric using 100 watts of power at a speed of 400 inches per minute (IPM). Nitrogen at 20 PSI provided the gas assist.

Welding Electrical Connectors

These electrical connectors were welded using the new firestar f201 laser. This 200 watt, water-cooled laser features a fully integrated laser/RF power supply design that is perfect for mounting on robotic arms as well as high-speed flatbed cutting systems. Power density, a critical factor in metal cutting and welding applications, is a result of the f201’s superior beam quality (M² factor) of 1.1 ±0.1 and mode quality of TEM₀₀, 98% purity.

Laser welding is typically performed without adding filler material to the weld. This creates a homogenous junction between the two pieces without introducing foreign material in the form of filler alloys. The downside is that part fit up at the weld interface must ideally be zero to prevent undercutting of the weld joint. In actual practice, a slight gap not exceeding 10% of the thinnest piece or the weld depth, whichever is less, is acceptable.

This application involved fillet welding a 0.006” (0.15 mm) thin steel cover to a thicker steel substrate. Our beam delivery setup consisted of a 2.5” positive meniscus lens, which provides a 0.004” spot size with a 0.07” depth of focus, and argon shield gas flowing at 3.9 CFM. The weld was completed in approximately 1.3 seconds using 200 watts of power at a velocity of 15 inches per minute.