High power fiber laser on-the-fly drilling of thin materials

Abstract

This paper presents fiber laser on-the-fly drilling from a system manufacturer point of view, including industrial and experimental aspects. The industrial part describes requirements and system integration considerations related to the high rate drilling process. The experimental part includes detailed investigations into the effect of different processing parameters on the drilling rate and energy efficiency of the process. Investigated parameters include pulse energy, repetition rate, scanning velocity and focal spot size, among others. Experiments have been carried out using a pulsed fiber laseroperating in the low microsecond regime and a fast scanner setup. Tested materials include stainless steel and silicon with the thickness ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 mm. Results show that very high drilling rates can be reached in both materials and correct parameter optimization can have a significant positive effect on the process efficiency.This paper presents fiber laser on-the-fly drilling from a system manufacturer point of view, including industrial and experimental aspects. The industrial part describes requirements and system integration considerations related to the high rate drilling process. The experimental part includes detailed investigations into the effect of different processing parameters on the drilling rate and energy efficiency of the process. Investigated parameters include pulse energy, repetition rate, scanning velocity and focal spot size, among others. Experiments have been carried out using a pulsed fiber laseroperating in the low microsecond regime and a fast scanner setup. Tested materials include stainless steel and silicon with the thickness ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 mm. Results show that very high drilling rates can be reached in both materials and correct parameter optimization can have a significant positive effect on the process efficiency.