Abstract
There has been an increase in demand for the development of lightweight and high-strength materials for applications in the transportation industry. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is known as one of the most promising materials owing to its high strength-to-weight ratio. To apply CFRP in the automotive industry, various machining technologies have been reported because it is difficult to machine. Among these technologies, picosecond laser beam-induced machining has attracted great interest because it provides negligible heat transfer and can avoid tool wear. In this work, we conducted and compared machining of 2.15 mm-thick thermoset and 1.85 mm-thick thermoplastic CFRPs by using a green picosecond laser. The optimized experimental conditions for drilling with a diameter of 7 mm led to a small taper angle (average ~ 3.5°). The tensile strength of the laser-drilled specimens was evaluated, and the average value was 570 MPa. Our study indicates that green picosecond laser processing should be considered as a promising option for the machining of CFRP with a small taper angle.
Highlights
We report on an investigation of the ultrafast laser machining of thermoset and thermoplastic carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)
With a proper kerf width for multi-pass processing, complete cutting of thermoplastic CFRP was achieved, but thermal damages were observed. These results suggest that thermoplastic CFRP is vulnerable to heat damage despite the use of a green picosecond laser, and it is more sensitive to thermal damage
These results suggest that thermoplastic CFRP is vulnerable to heat damage despite the use of a green picosecond laser, and it is more sensitive to thermal damage than the thermoset CFRP
Summary
Unlike conventional SPR specimens, the hole drilling of CFRP is required to avoid galvanic corrosion of the rivet interface between CFRP and metal [12,13]. CFRP has superior mechanical properties, machining is very difficult by conventional mechanical machining and water jet machining, which cause serious damage with the pulling out of fibers, cracking, delamination, tool wear, inadequate surface quality, and wastewater handling [15,16]. In this respect, laser material processing has been investigated as an alternative method for CFRP machining
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