High-brightness laser cutting & drilling of aerospace materials

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:539320

Brown, R T; Frye, R W ^[1]

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1. United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, CT (United States)

Present-day Nd:YAG lasers are inadequate for carrying out precision drilling and cutting operations in advanced aerospace materials such as high-nickel alloy metals and graphite epoxy composites. The high-brightness beams from next-generation solid-state lasers promise to overcome many of the deficiencies of present-day lasers, enabling improved small-hole drilling and improved low-heat-affected-zone cutting. This paper reviews examples of processing tests carried out with high-brightness 1.06 micron beams and 0.53 micron beams from advanced Nd:YAG lasers. Low-recast drilling of small holes (4 - 10 mil) in high-nickel alloy steel and high-edge-quality cutting of graphite epoxy composites and other advanced composites are presented. The effect of wavelength, pulse format, beam intensity and other process parameters are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 539320
• Report Number(s): CONF-961073--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AEROSPACE INDUSTRY
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
CUTTING
EPOXIDES
GRAPHITE
LASER BEAM MACHINING
LASER DRILLING
NEODYMIUM LASERS
NICKEL STEELS