Abstract
Since its early development, lasers had big impact in today’s technology advancement by facilitating our daily life. The manufacturing industry has taken the largest share of laser technology, and it has become a preferred technology in many manufacturing applications. Almost all material types can be processed with the laser and laser technology is widely used in industry for marking, engraving, and cutting processes. This article discusses designing and manufacturing of a low-budget CO2 laser machine, for marking, engraving, and cutting applications. All major components of the machine including resonator, optical train, cutting head and control systems have been discussed in detail for interested readers to implement a similar system. The resonator on the machine was designed and manufactured to allow repeated gas filling which is a major benefit for economical and extended service life as compared to similar commercially available systems. The machine has been described from initial material list and manufacturing process involved, all the way to the final aforementioned application examples for rubber, wood, and plastic materials. The laser machine system is currently installed in Karabuk Univesity’s manufacturing engineering department and used for undergraduate teaching and learning. Furthermore, it is sufficient capacity for use in medium-sized operations in advertising, hobby, forest products, textile, leather, and small-scale engineering works.