Experimental Study on Laser High-Speed Micro-Processing

To study the characteristics of material removal with high power ultra-short pulsed lasers, a 300 W picosecond laser was used to make microgrooves in cooper and steel. The effects of laser power, laser frequency, scanning layers, and scanning velocity on the width and depth of the grooves were analyzed. The material removal rate of picosecond laser was compared with that of a 10 W nanosecond laser. The results showed that high power high frequency ultra-short pulsed lasers have good potential in high speed micromachining. Evidence showed that ps laser machining could be more efficient than nanosecond machining. There are issues to be solved to make high power ultra-short pulsed lasers the dominating process for high speed micromachining.