Investigation in utilizing paraboloid concentrators for thermal perforation of metals

Paraboloid solar concentrators are used to investigate the feasibility of using concentrated solar energy to perforate metals. An electroplated paraboloid was used as the test rig, and experiments were conducted on the variation of temperature at the absorber location (focal point). Given the size of the aperture of the paraboloid, a concentration factor of around 3000 was achieved and temperature in excess of 840 °C was reported. Such temperatures are enough to melt most nonferrous alloys, and given the size of the absorber area (focal point size) the power developed are comparable to continuous-pulse laser machining are expected.