Abstract
Laser microprocessing is a very attractive option for a growing number of industrial applications due to its intrinsic characteristics, such as high flexibility and process control and also capabilities for noncontact processing of a wide range of materials. However, there are some constrains that limit the applications of this technology, i.e., taper angles on sidewalls, edge quality, geometrical accuracy, and achievable aspect ratios of produced structures. To address these process limitations, a new method for two-side laser processing is proposed in this research. The method is described with a special focus on key enabling technologies for achieving high accuracy and repeatability in two-side laser drilling. The pilot implementation of the proposed processing configuration and technologies is discussed together with an in situ, on-machine inspection procedure to verify the achievable positional and geometrical accuracy. It is demonstrated that alignment accuracy better than 10 μm is achievable using this pilot two-side laser processing platform. In addition, the morphology of holes with circular and square cross sections produced with one-side laser drilling and the proposed method was compared in regard to achievable aspect ratios and holes' dimensional and geometrical accuracy and thus to make conclusions about its capabilities.
Highlights
There is an increasing demand for producing components incorporating micro-scale structures, especially in biomedical, optical, aerospace and automotive industries [1]
Considering the material removal rate (MRR), the process reliability and capital investment required for cost-effective manufacture, together with components’ technical requirements and batch sizes, a suitable process or processes can be selected among existing options
It is clear from the values of U3 and U4 that the edge definition of the reference hole entrance is worse than its exit due to the laser drilling side effects
Summary
There is an increasing demand for producing components incorporating micro-scale structures, especially in biomedical, optical, aerospace and automotive industries [1]. Key functional features of such components have sizes ranging from 1 to 100 μm, tolerances and surface roughness better than 5 μm and Ra 500 nm, respectively [2]. In response to this growing demand, manufacturing processes are developed to address issues related to the scalability of available technologies while achieving the required level of predictability, reproducibility, productivity and cost effectiveness in producing complex geometries in a variety of materials [3]. Especially for difficult-to-cut materials, hybrid machining solutions have been developed that combine the capabilities of two or more machining processes and to benefit from their complementarity in achieving acceptable manufacturing performance [2, 5, 6]
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