Influence of nanofillers on the quality of CO2 laser drilling in vinylester/glass using Orthogonal Array Experiments and Grey Relational Analysis

•Effect of nanofiller on quality of laser drilling of vinylester/glass studied.•Nickel nanopowder was very effective for improving quality of laser drilling.•GRA was used to further optimize the parameter levels obtained by OA Experiments.•SEM was employed to study the damage caused to the laser drilled nanocomposite.

This paper presents the influence of nanofillers on the CO2 laser drilling of vinylester/glass based on L9 Orthogonal Array Experiments and Grey Relational Analysis. Three nanofillers such as nickel nanopowder, carbon black and Closite 15-A were studied. Multiple responses such as Damage Width, Surface Damage Width and Taper Angle were optimised using the Grey–Taguchi method for laser power, cutting speed, air pressure and nanofiller content. Heat affected zone along with char due to the complete burning of the matrix was largest and caving through the depth of the hole was observed in vinylester/glass. Nickel nanopowder effectively reduced the heat affected zone and improved the quality of the hole due to the absence of char. Closite 15-A reduced the surface damage and the char was thicker and distributed as globules. Carbon black caused greater surface damage at the entry of the hole due to the burning of the fibres and very thin char covered the fibres through the length of the hole. Regression models were developed to predict the laser drilling responses.