Comparing the effects of anatomical structural differences in different wood species on the industrial processing capabilities of computer controlled lasers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22320/s0718221x/2026.27Keywords:
Laser wood processing, laser wood carving, CNC laser, industrial production, anatomical differences in woodAbstract
This study aims to compare the effects of anatomical structural differences in different tree species on the industrial processing capabilities of CNC lasers. For this purpose, solid wood materials were laser-cut at a speed of 10 mm/s and laser-engraved at a feed rate of 200 mm/s using a 130-watt carbon dioxide-filled glass tube CNC laser machine. The effects of the anatomical structures of six different solid wood materials (heartwood, sapwood, early wood, and late wood) on laser cutting and laser engraving were investigated. The macroscopic anatomical structure of the wood was examined in terms of ease of direct application in production. As a result, for all six different solid wood materials, it was found that early wood sections were easier to process than late wood sections in both laser cutting and laser engraving. The differences in laser processing performance between early and late wood were found to be statistically significant. The positive or negative effects of heart, sapwood, and heartwood anatomical sections on both laser cutting and laser engraving were not found to be statistically significant for all tree species. However, these effects were evaluated proportionally among all tree species. Overall, the heartwood and sapwood of solid wood species showed approximately the same laser cutting performance, with heart exhibiting lower laser cutting performance. On the other hand, the sapwood of solid wood species generally showed better laser engraving performance than both heart and heartwood, while heart and heartwood showed approximately the same laser engraving performance. Consequently, it was concluded that laser operators would be more accurate to separately evaluate the positive or negative effects of anatomical cross-sections of heartwood and sapwood on both laser cutting and laser engraving for each wood species, based on numerical data.
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