Cutting and drilling studies using high power visible lasers

Technical Report · Thu May 27 00:00:00 EDT 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10179584· OSTI ID:10179584

Kautz, D D; Dragon, E P; Werve, M E; Hargrove, R S; Warner, B E

High power and radiance laser technologies developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory such as copper-vapor and dye lasers show great promise for material processing tasks. Evaluation of models suggests significant increases in welding, cutting, and drilling capabilities, as well as applications in emerging technologies such as micromachining, surface treatment, and stereolithography. Copper lasers currently operate at 1.8 kW output at approximately three times the diffraction limit and achieve mean time between failures of more than 1,000 hours. Dye lasers have near diffraction limited beam quality at greater than 1.0 kW. Results from cutting and drilling studies in titanium and stainless steel alloys show that cuts and holes with extremely fine features can be made with dye and copper-vapor lasers. High radiance beams produce low distortion and small heat-affected zones. The authors have accomplished very high aspect ratios (> 60:1) and features with micron scale (5-50 {mu}m) sizes. The paper gives a description of the equipment; discusses cutting theory; and gives experimental results of cutting and drilling studies on Ti-6Al-4V and 304 stainless steel.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 10179584
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-111666; CONF-921256-7; ON: DE93019149; TRN: 93:019137
• Resource Relation: Conference: 1992 international conference on lasers,Houston, TX (United States),7-11 Dec 1992; Other Information: PBD: 27 May 1993
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
DYE LASERS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
METAL VAPOR LASERS
TITANIUM BASE ALLOYS
LASER DRILLING
CUTTING
STAINLESS STEEL-304
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
VANADIUM ALLOYS
COPPER
HEAT AFFECTED ZONE
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
CONTROL SYSTEMS
ON-LINE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS
EQUATIONS
THICKNESS
MICROSTRUCTURE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
360101
PREPARATION AND FABRICATION