Fiber laser micro-cutting of stainless steel sheets

The authors report on laser micro-cutting results for stainless steel foils with the aid of a 100 W fiber laser. This novel laser source combines a high output power in relation to conventional laser sources for micro-processing applications with an excellent beam quality (M²=1.1). Different material thicknesses were evaluated (100 μm to 300 μm). Processing was carried out with cw operation of the laser source, and with nitrogen and oxygen as assisting gases. Besides the high processing rate of oxygen assisted cutting, a better cutting performance in terms of a lower kerf width was obtained. PACS 42.82.Cr; 42.62.Cf; 81.05.Bx     

Wedge cutting of mild steel by CO2 laser and cut-quality assessment in relation to normal cutting

In some applications, laser cutting of wedge surfaces cannot be avoided in sheet metal processing and the quality of the end product defines the applicability of the laser-cutting process in such situations. In the present study, CO₂ laser cutting of the wedge surfaces as well as normal surfaces (normal to laser beam axis) is considered and the end product quality is assessed using the international standards for thermal cutting. The cut surfaces are examined by the optical microscopy and geometric features of the cut edges such as out of flatness and dross height are measured from the micrographs. A neural network is introduced to classify the striation patterns of the cut surfaces. It is found that the dross height and out of flatness are influenced significantly by the laser output power, particularly for wedge-cutting situation. Moreover, the cut quality improves at certain value of the laser power intensity.     

Fibre laser cutting of thin section mild steel: An explanation of the ‘striation free’ effect

This paper presents the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation into the phenomenon of ‘striation free cutting’, which is a feature of fibre laser/oxygen cutting of thin section mild steel. The paper concludes that the creation of very low roughness edges is related to an optimisation of the cut front geometry when the cut front is inclined at angles close to the Brewster angle for the laser-material combination.     

Research on laser welding of high-strength galvanized automobile steel sheets

The paper presented some useful results of deep-penetration laser welding of high-strength galvanized steel sheets, which had been carried out by a self-made CO₂ laser unit with maximum power output of 1.5 kW. The workpieces of high-strength galvanized automobile steels with thickness of 1.5 mm were butt-welded with argon as the shielding gas. The effects of such factors as laser power, welding speed, focal position, shielding gas and zinc vaporization on the quality of welds are investigated. With the processing parameters optimized and the proper shielding gas used in both coaxial and side-blow direction, most of the defects, such as pores, cracks and softening in HAZ, can be avoided in laser welding joints. The microstructure, the hardness distribution and the elemental distribution in the welding joints can be changed due to laser heating and recrystallization. In order to determine the mechanical properties of the welding joints, the static tensile strength was tested. Experimental results indicated that both the strength and microhardness of welding joints were higher than those of the base metal. Consequently, the welding quality is reliable for manufacturing of automobile bodies.     

The effect of moisture content in fibre laser cutting of pine wood

This paper reports a statistical analysis of the multiple-pass laser cutting of wet and dry pine wood with a Ytterbium fibre laser. As multiple factors affect the laser wood cutting process, finding the optimal combination of process parameters is necessary to achieve good quality and high process efficiency. Design of experiments (DOE) and statistical modelling were used in this study to investigate the significant process parameters and their interactions. A high brightness, 1 kW IPG single mode, continuous wave Ytterbium doped fibre laser was employed to cut wet and dry pine wood samples. The parameters investigated are laser power, traverse speed, focal plane position (f.p.p.), gas pressure, number of passes, direction of cut (normal or parallel to wood's tracheids) and the moisture content. The experimental results were compared against process responses defining the efficiency (i.e. kerf depth and energy consumption) and quality of the cut section (i.e. kerf width, heat affected zone—HAZ, edge surface roughness and perpendicularity). It has been found that the laser cutting process was mainly affected by the moisture content and the cut direction with respect to the wood's tracheids, followed by traverse speed, laser power and the number of passes. The effect of moisture content on energy consumption in the laser cutting process of both wet and dry wood is analysed. The wood cutting results with fibre laser are compared with those from a CO₂ laser.     

Statistical modeling of laser welding of DP/TRIP steel sheets

In this research work, a statistical analysis of the CO₂ laser beam welding of dual phase (DP600)/transformation induced plasticity (TRIP700) steel sheets was done using response surface methodology. The analysis considered the effect of laser power (2–2.2 kW), welding speed (40–50 mm/s) and focus position (?1 to 0 mm) on the heat input, the weld bead geometry, uniaxial tensile strength, formability limited dome height and welding operation cost. The experimental design was based on Box–Behnken design using linear and quadratic polynomial equations for predicting the mathematical models. The results indicate that the proposed models predict the responses adequately within the limits of welding parameters being used and the welding speed is the most significant parameter during the welding process.     

CXMS study of mild steel laser alloyed with CrB2

Laser alloying of surfaces has attracted a great deal of attention for technical applications. By laser alloying of materials it is possible to improve hardness as well as wear and corrosion resistance of the surface without affecting the bulk material. The surface of a mild steel (C45) substrate was laser-alloyed with chromium-boride CrB₂. The chromium-boride was added to the substrate surface by powder injection during laser surface melting with a high power continuous-wave CO₂-laser. The resulting surface layers were studied by surface Mössbauer measurements. The backscattering geometry of Conversion X-ray Mössbauer Spectroscopy (CXMS) was used to study the phase formation in the laser alloyed surface. The results for the treated surfaces are discussed for different samples.     

CO2 laser cutting of thin metal sheets with gas jet assist

A quantitative analysis of cutting thin stainless steel sheets with cw CO₂ lasers using an oxygen gas jet assist is reported. Results are interpreted theoretically using a point source model.     

Optimization of laser welding of DP/TRIP steel sheets using statistical approach

Generally, the quality of a weld joint is directly influenced by the welding input parameter settings. Selection of proper process parameters is important to obtain the desired weld bead profile and quality. In this research work, numerical and graphical optimization techniques of the CO₂ laser beam welding of dual phase (DP600)/transformation induced plasticity (TRIP700) steel sheets were carried out using response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box–Behnken design. The procedure was established to improve the weld quality, increase the productivity and minimize the total operation cost by considering the welding parameters range of laser power (2–2.2 kW), welding speed (40–50 mm/s) and focus position (?1 to 0 mm). It was found that, RSM can be considered as a powerful tool in experimental welding optimization, even when the experimenter does not have a model for the process. Strong, efficient and low cost weld joints could be achieved using the optimum welding conditions.     

CW/PW dual-beam YAG laser welding of steel/aluminum alloy sheets

The lap welding of JSC270CC steel and A6111-T4 aluminum alloys were carried out by a dual-beam YAG laser with the continuous wave (CW) and pulse wave (PW) modes. The microstructure of the welded joints were examined with SEM, EPMA while the properties were checked with microhardness tester and tensile testing machine. It was shown that the dual-beam laser welding can effectively reduce or avoid the formation of the blowholes in the welded joints. The PW laser beam penetrated the welding pool, leading to the root-shape structures with enhanced bonding strength at the weld interface. A 10 μm intermetallic compound (IMC) layer was generated at the interface. The shearing strength of lap joint was measured to be 128 MPa.     

A method to determine the parameters of laser iron and steel cutting

A simple empirical method to describe the parameters of laser iron and steel cutting, with a high quality of kerf, is given. The experiments were conducted with a 500 W cw CO₂ laser, Everlase 525, in laboratory conditions with energies in the range 150–580 W and were used as a base. They mainly agreed with the data from Refs 3 and 4.     

Technological study of laser cutting silicon steel controlled by rotating gas flow

Using traditional laser cutting technology, it is easy to produce molten slag in laser cutting silicon steel sheet. The main reason is the inevitable oxidizing reaction in the process caused by the use of oxygen as the aided gas. As a common solution, high pressure and high purity N₂ or an inert gas is therefore used instead of oxygen. Although the cut quality is improved, the cutting efficiency is reduced because of the lack of energy generated from an exothermic oxidation reaction. The technology used in this paper is to employ a newly developed cyclone slag separator. The slag separator is located under the workpiece to form rotating gas flow for controlling the direction of the flowing slag gas. Adopting the new technology reported here, oxygen is still used as the aided gas. The experiments prove that, by controlling the technical parameters reasonably tightly, glossy and dross-free cutting kerfs are obtained for reduced laser power. The gas flow acting under the workpiece is simulated using the finite element method (FEM). The operating law of the rotating gas flow is verified by ANSYS, which provides an academic basis for controlling the flowing direction of the slag gas.     

Numerical investigation of hydrodynamics behaviour of melt layer during laser cutting of steel

Understanding of the melt layer hydrodynamic behaviour during laser-cutting process under gas jet assistance is of high importance for cut quality control. In the present work, a numerical model is developed to calculate the three-dimensional behaviour of the melt flow on the kerf front, while an inert gas jet interacts with the melt film. Fluent CFD code is used to solve the governing hydrodynamic equations by finite volume method. The results show that the melt flow on the kerf front reveals a strong instability, which depends on the cutting speed and on the gas jet velocity. Global flow behaviour (gas and molten metal flows) computed using a laminar model, reveals oscillations of the gas–metal liquid interface, which is assimilated to Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. The origin of this instability is discussed in terms of instabilities in thermal dynamics and hydrodynamics. Instability in thermal dynamics is related to the localized melting, while the instability in hydrodynamics is governed by forces balance between gas and resistant surface tension.     

Development of underwater laser cutting technique for steel and zircaloy for nuclear applications

In nuclear field, underwater cutting and welding technique is required for post-irradiation examination, maintenance, decommissioning and to reduce storage space of irradiated materials like used zircaloy pressure tubes etc., of nuclear power plants. We have developed underwater cutting technique for 4.2 mm thick zircaloy pressure tubes and up to 6 mm thick steel using fibre-coupled 250 W average power pulsed Nd:YAG laser. This underwater cutting technique will be highly useful in various nuclear applications as well as in dismantling/repair of ship and pipe lines in water.     

High-power CO(2) laser with a Gauss-core resonator for high-speed cutting of thin metal sheets

A novel resonator, the Gauss-core resonator, based on a stable resonator configuration designed to yield a highly focusing beam operating in a large-volume TEM(00) mode, is presented. A 6.2 kW linearly polarized output beam with an M(2) factor of 1.7 is obtained experimentally for a high-power cw CO(2) laser. The capability of the Gauss-core resonator to process laser materials is also studied. We can cut 1-mm-thick mild (soft) steel with a maximum cutting speed of 58 m/min at 5.6 kW and 0.2-mm-thick steel 145 m/min at 2.8 kW.     

用激光加工硅钢片降低铁损残余变形的云纹干涉法测量研究

应用双镀层高温高频光栅和云纹干涉法对激光加工硅钢片降低铁损的残余变形进行了测量研究。分别对采用ＣＯ２连续激光和ＹＡＧ脉冲激光不同参数处理后硅钢片表面的残余变形进行了测量，对双镀层Ｃｒ－Ｃｒ光栅的制作方法、云纹干涉法测量残余变形的原理进行了讨论。实验结果表明，硅钢片在激光加工后，试件表面产生负性残余应变是细化磁畴，降低铁损的直接原因     

Polarimetric fibre laser sensors using Er-doped fibre

A polarimetric fibre laser sensor with narrow polarization mode beat frequency bandwidth is demonstrated using a polarization-maintaining Er-doped fibre. The slope coefficients of 124kHz°C^-1 cm^-1 and 137kHz m^-1 are obtained for temperature change and longitudinal strain measurements, respectively. A new configuration of polarimetric fibre laser sensor is also demonstrated using a conventional Er-doped fibre as a gain medium and a short length of polarization-maintaining fibre as a sensing part.