The present disclosure relates to a process for cutting and separating arbitrary shapes of thin substrates of transparent materials, particularly tailored composite fusion drawn glass sheets, and the disclosure also relates to a glass article prepared by the method. The developed laser method can be tailored for manual separation of the parts from the panel or full laser separation by thermally stressing the desired profile. The self-separation method involves the utilization of an ultra-short pulse laser that can be followed by a CO.sub.2 laser (coupled with high pressure air flow) for fully automated separation.

Processes of chamfering and/or beveling an edge of a glass substrate of arbitrary shape using lasers are described herein. Two general methods to produce chamfers on glass substrates are the first method involves cutting the edge with the desired chamfer shape utilizing an ultra-short pulse laser that is followed by mechanical polishing with a compliant polishing wheel.

The invention relates to a method for separating solid-body slices (1) from a donor substrate (2). The method comprises the following steps: providing a donor substrate (2), producing at least one modification (10) within the donor substrate (2) by means of at least one LASER beam (12), wherein the LASER beam (12) penetrates the donor substrate (2) via a planar surface (16) of the donor substrate (2), wherein the LASER beam (12) is inclined with respect to the planar surface (16) of the donor substrate (2) such that it penetrates the donor substrate at an angle of not equal to 0? or 180? relative to the longitudinal axis of the donor substrate, wherein the LASER beam (12) is focused in order to produce the modification (10) in the donor substrate (2) and the solid-body slice (1) detaches from the donor substrate (2) as a result of the modifications (10) produced or a stress-inducing layer (14) is produced or arranged on the planar surface (16) of the donor substrate (2) and mechanical stresses are produced in the donor substrate (2) by a thermal treatment of the stress-inducing layer (14), wherein the mechanical stresses produce a crack (20) for separating a solid-body layer (1), which crack propagates along the modifications (10).

A glass breaking apparatus (10) includes a belt conveyor assembly (100) configured to transfer glass in a first direction, and a breaking roller assembly (200) configured to break the glass received from the belt conveyor assembly, the breaking roller assembly including a first breaking roller (210) including a breaking pin (215) and configured to rotate around a rotation axis extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and a second breaking roller (220) arranged under the first breaking roller (210), configured to rotate in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the first breaking roller.

Methods of separating a glass web that is moving at a glass web velocity. The method includes exposing a separation path on the glass web to at least one laser beam spot that moves with a laser beam spot velocity vector that is equal to a glass web velocity vector in a conveyance direction. The method also includes creating a defect on the separation path while the separation path is under thermal stress from the laser beam spot, whereupon the glass web spontaneously separates along the separation path in response to the defect. In further examples, a glass web separation apparatus includes a first reflector that rotates such that a laser beam spot repeatedly passes along a separation path and a second reflector that rotates such that the laser beam spot moves in a conveyance direction of the glass web.

Forming holes in a material includes focusing a pulsed laser beam into a laser beam focal line oriented along the beam propagation direction and directed into the material, the laser beam focal line generating an induced absorption within the material, the induced absorption producing a defect line along the laser beam focal line within the material, and translating the material and the laser beam relative to each other, thereby forming a plurality of defect lines in the material, and etching the material in an acid solution to produce holes greater than 1 micron in diameter by enlarging the defect lines in the material. A glass article includes a stack of glass substrates with formed holes of 1-100 micron diameter extending through the stack.

Methods and apparatus for cutting a glass sheet along a cutting line into a desired shape. A laser source is configured to apply a laser beam to a beam location on the cutting line of the glass sheet. A source of cooling fluid is configured to apply a cooling fluid to a cooling band on the glass sheet to reduce a temperature of the glass sheet along the cooling path while elevating the temperature of the glass sheet at the beam location with the laser beam. The source of cooling fluid is configured to apply the cooling path as a cooling ring to circumscribe the beam location on the cutting line with the cooling band circumferentially spaced from the beam location while the cooling path and the beam location move simultaneously together in order to propagate a fracture in the glass sheet along the cutting line.

A method of cutting a laminate glass article is disclosed. The method comprises heating at least a portion of a laminate glass article to a reheat temperature. The laminate glass article has a core layer and a first cladding layer and is in stress characterized by a thermally-induced differential stress between the core layer and first cladding layer. The laminate glass article having been set at a setting temperature and the reheat temperature is lower than the setting temperature. The heating of the laminate glass article reduces the thermally-induced differential stress between the core layer and first cladding layer. The method may further comprise scoring the laminate glass article in the heated portion to create a score in the laminate glass article along a cutting line and bending the laminate glass article at the score to cut the glass.

A glass blank is cut out from a glass plate by forming a crack starting portion inside the glass plate by moving a first laser beam relative to the glass plate such that a focal position of the laser beam is located in an inner portion of the glass plate in its thickness direction and the focal position forms a circle when viewed from a surface of the glass plate, then causing cracks to develop from the crack starting portion toward main surfaces of the glass plate, and splitting the glass plate to separate, from the glass plate, a glass blank that includes a separation surface having an arithmetic average surface roughness Ra smaller than 0.01 ?m and a roundness not larger than 15 ?m. Thereafter, main surfaces of the glass blank are ground or polished.

This application relates to a method and system for cutting a brittle body. In one aspect, the method includes preparing a brittle body having a rotary shaft. The method may also include forming a scribing line by irradiating laser on the brittle body along a preset route by using a laser irradiation unit. The method may further include cutting the brittle body by bringing a vibration unit that vibrates at a preset frequency in contact with a first region of the brittle body, which is spaced apart from the scribing line.